Review: Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLSzx0gkQuA

Rating: ★★☆☆☆

Released: 26th March 2026

Available: Netflix

"Something living, something dead, something stolen, something red".

The latest Netlifx phenomenon hit screens last month and left viewers across the globe divided. Created by Haley Z. Boston, the brain behind New Cherry Flavor and produced by Stranger Things creators, the Duffer brothers - Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen follows five consecutive days with engaged couple Rachel Harkin (Camila Monroe) and Nicky Cunningham (Adam Dimarco) spending the days leading up to the wedding at Nickys’, frankly unnerving, family home. While marketed as a horror series, I’d personally consider this more of an atmospheric thriller, spending its eight episode run telling a cautionary tale of the unpleasant and generally disconcerting dynamics of love, family and trust. The show highlights themes of uncertainty and permeates an ever-present sense of impending doom as we watch a pessimistic Rachel battle against her own anxieties, ultimately forced into navigating the cosmic laws of a generational curse. Either marry your soulmate, or die. It begs the question, what makes a soul mate? Is it fate or just unwavering belief?

I’ll admit I was completely hooked from the first five minutes, we’re introduced to the story with a prequel scene to its ultimate finale, a blood soaked hallway, promising a gory demise of some descript. We’re met with immediate intrigue, I found utterly immersed in this dystopian-esq reality, instantly noticing that every scene, every conversation is fuelled with rich subtext. Oddly though, the strongest episode of this series is actually its first, mirroring the atmospherics and anxiety inducing themes of Netflix’ ‘I’m Thinking of Ending Things’ but slowly teeters away as the episodes go on. The show takes us to the family home in a deserted wilderness, guiding us through the unconventional dynamic between Nickys’ functionally dysfunctional family and the contrasts between the couples’ roles in the relationship. Nicky the family-man, the optimist, the happy go lucky boyfriend, and Rachel, the incessantly paranoid, panic stricken pessimist. Interestingly, his family couldn’t be more different to the traits presented through Nicky, each member riddled with mystery and mania as they greet their soon to be in-law with a less than warm welcome. Thus ensues the next ten hours of slow burning questions, tensions and bait and switches. One thing to praise about this series is that for a horror, it rarely relies on blood, guts and gore to drive the story, and rather the overarching sense of, well, that something bad is about to happen. Sadly, the further I delved into the show, the more I gradually lost interest, almost giving up entirely as we reached the mid-point and big ‘twist’ of the series.

It spends the first episodes building a narrative of Nickys’ family as a cult-like commune, engulfing viewers inside Rachels’ head as she begins to fear for her life after a series of overheard conversations, unexplainable events and what comes across as textbook gaslighting. When the real plot is revealed amid its mid-season twist, I was left feeling relatively deflated. Honestly, any theory I had thought up in my head would’ve probably translated better than what it actually was - a family curse, explained by an immortal (and frankly, unnecessary) transylvanian curse keeper. The curse itself entails that once a proposal is accepted, if one marries another who isn’t their soul mate, they will die within the day. A kind of stupid twist considering the show had previously grounded itself heavily in a twisted slice of life concept. Rachel is left with a question most of us have faced in life, ‘do I really love this person, or am I just convincing myself I do?’. Sadly for her, her answer will determine whether or not she’ll survive her wedding day.

In the latter half of the series, Rachel enlists her soon to be brother in law and his wife as accomplices in her attempt to outmaneuver the curse, conveniently omitting any real mention of it to her fiancé, a decision that inevitably comes back to bite her. Rachel is an unusual protagonist for this genre: self-aware, hyper-vigilant, and outspoken about the forces closing in on her. She isn’t a passive participant in the family’s dynamic, but an active disruption - less a guest, and more a variable. Her fiance on the other hand, a manchild for lack of a better term. Nicky is someone who turns out to be a liar in pursuit of his own desires, harbouring suppressed resentments and exhibits a very assured persona, hiding the vulnerable shell of himself who clearly only intends to marry as a ‘rite of passage’ into adulthood, rather than a testament of his unwavering love. With that being said, despite his ultimate decision to stop the wedding in motion, unknowingly sealing fate, and causing an explosive argument that reveals his true colours, Nicky isn’t a villain, he’s just a man. The villain of this show is a nameless, faceless entity that’s been haunting Rachel her entire life.

With many criticisms of the show being directly linked to pacing, lighting/stylisation choices and notably, Monroes acting abilities, I find myself struggling to disagree with most. The pacing is slow and unimpactful, leaving me wondering if this would've been better suited to a feature film. The show as a whole is beautiful, from cinematography to set design, I cannot fault how perfectly curated this universe is, however, the lighting is painfully overdone (or should I say underdone?) and irritating, darkness is a valuable tool for building suspense, but becomes extremely derivative when it gets to the point of a show being unwatchable. Despite agreeing with most discrepancies, I cannot fault Monroes performance as Rachel, at times I’d have to say her performance was actually the only element of this show that helped me get through it. She portrays this character with depth, context and extreme relatability, leaving me genuinely invested in and rooting for her.

The story rears its head in the final episode and we’re finally granted the chilling payoff promised in episode one, after a long winded saga of ominous hints disguised in darkness. A savage bloodbath lets loose, leaving almost the entire Cunningham family dead, and Rachel, an immortal being doomed to spend an undetermined eternity as the face of the curse, tasked with warning descendants to come. The story reaches its anticlimactic ending with countless loose threads, unanswered questions and mass exhaustion after an utterly dragged out plot. And while it may be unbearably slow paced at times, it is consistent, begging the same question throughout, what makes a soulmate? Is it a tangible pull to someone, a cosmic union of destiny, or are soul mates just whoever you can convince yourself is?

Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen is available to stream on Netflix right now.

Article By Bella Proudfoot