Of course, no one can say that the outcome of the series isn’t built right into the title, however, it’s difficult not to root/have higher hopes for Rachel Harkin (Camila Morrone), the lead character/protagonist of Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen. Not to mention that Rachel is perhaps a new kind of final girl thanks to a unique and, yes, highly unusual curse that has plagued her family’s bloodline for many generations.
Unfortunately, Rachel isn’t aware of the curse, which stipulates that you must marry your soulmate by sundown on your wedding day or else, as Inigo Montoya would say, prepare to die. This, naturally, would have been information more useful to her before her fiancé, Nicky Cunningham (Adam DiMarco), proposed to her. Worse still, he did it despite knowing that Rachel didn’t ever want to get married, something she told him early on in their relationship. But the viewer won’t know that until later, along with a lot of other things.
What theyare made immediately privy to right from the eerie opening scene of the first episode, “Never Get on One Knee,” is that Rachel does walk down the aisle toward Nicky, joining him at the altar with a smile on her face, even if it’s not an entirely “sure” one. From there, director Weronika Tofilska (known for her work on Love Lies Bleeding and Baby Reindeer) cuts to a barrage of scenes flashing back to the moments that led them here. And then, back at the altar, just as he’s about to put the ring on her finger, a marked sense of unease comes over her before Tofilska offers another cut to a bloodbath inside the Cunningham house as a dog roams the halls. The viewer won’t yet know for sure if this is merely an avoidable premonition on Rachel’s part or an inevitability.
It’s then that the series’ writer and showrunner, Haley Z. Boston, chooses to structure the chilling tale so that it goes back to the start. Also known as: “Five Days Until ‘I Do’.” And, marking the start of many pointed musical selections (not least of which is Paul Anka’s “You Are My Destiny”), the sound of Johnny Cash’s rendition of “It Ain’t Me Babe” can be heard playing on the radio of the station wagon that Rachel is driving down the highway. With Nicky in the front seat. And yes, maybe there’s something symbolic or “telling” about Rachel being in the driver’s seat, as if Boston wants to subtly suggest that, even though it often looks as if everything is out of Rachel’s control (further manifested when she literally loses control of the car because she dozes off), she has more agency than the viewer (and even she) might believe.
The reason for Rachel and Nicky’s “little road trip” (an activity, as it turns out, that initially brought them together) is that they’re on their way to his parents’ cabin in the woods…already a phrase that doesn’t bode well. Nor does it that the cabin is in Upstate New York, often more unsettling than it is “picturesque.” A characteristic that is emblematic of the David Lynch style, except that he prefers the Pacific Northwest or West for his tales set in idyllic, nature-oriented environments belied by a dark, sinister underbelly. Indeed, Lynch is particularly all over the first episode, from the diner scene where Rachel manages to perfectly (therefore, miraculously) draw the logo of Coldies Frozen Custard Shop despite having never heard of the place before Nicky brought it up (along with mentioning that the owner, Larry Poole, was a serial killer) to the unexpected man peering over the bathroom stall at a public rest stop to get a look at Rachel.
Like two of Lynch’s signatures, Twin Peaks and Mulholland Drive, Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen is ominous, unsettling and manages to sustain a consistent feeling of doom and anxiety within the viewer (on a related note: there’s a hint of The Shining as well, including the pattern of Rachel and Nicky’s bedspread that looks reminiscent of the carpeting at the Overlook Hotel). Which is part of why it’s being likened to doing for marriage what Rosemary’s Baby did for pregnancy and motherhood. In fact, Boston wanted to deliberately create a parallel between these two works of psychological horror since, per Creative Screenwriting, “The house was inspired by [Roman] Polanski’s Rosemary’s Baby. There were corridors and coves so the viewer never gets a sense of the exact floorplan or where they were going. Characters could see inside and outside, and sometimes miss each other. The camera was as anxious as Rachel.” That’s for sure. And, in turn, makes the viewer feel equally as (if not more) anxious.
There are also many times when the camera is wielded for the sake of a warped POV shot meant to represent Death’s leering perspective as he (it?) lies in wait to collect on his bounty, as it were. But, like any serial killer, Death also ostensibly gets off on biding his time. Watching and waiting. That’s half the fun, n’est-ce pas?
Such horror “maneuverings” and tension-building are part of what has secured Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen such glowing reviews. And while the praise is merited, there are certain elements about it that remind one of the fact that it is Boston’s first go at showrunning, with many subplots and other assorted “Easter eggs” left as what feel like loose ends. This includes a detail such as Rachel asking Nicky to close the lid over her inside a chest at the foot of the bed in the first episode. No explanation given, nor does it ever come up again at any point in the series. The viewer is apparently just supposed to know that it’s a kind of “coping mechanism” for her. Another detail in such a vein is the appearance of the creepy “custard man” a.k.a. Larry Poole (Julian Richings) himself at Coldies. Shown on the VHS tape (but never to show up again elsewhere) that Rachel is made to watch by her father, Jay (Josh Hamilton), illuminating the events that led up to her mother Alexandra’s (Victoria Pedretti) gruesome death in episode four, “The Witness.” And yes, it’s a tape that also explains just how real the curse on the Harkin family bloodline is.
Other times, there’s too much explanation to wash away any previously held viewer notions that it might actually be the Cunningham family that’s up to something sinister (which, for a while, one still hopes is the case as part of some unexpected, greater twist). But Boston would likely chalk all of this up to the need for red herrings in the series. The importance of throwing viewers off a scent even when they’re sure they have “the answer.” The real answer to it all, however, pertains to Boston speaking on the nature of the curse: “It was important to me that the curse was a representation of doubt. When Rachel ultimately finds out about the curse, she begins to question her relationship and finds out that the way to survive is to believe that the person is your soulmate. You could be told, ‘You have to believe this person is your soulmate,’ and maybe that seems simple, but belief is not something you can fake.” As Tinkerbell well knows.
And this is why Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen is the first marriage allegory of its kind. Yes, in the same way as Rosemary’s Baby was for pregnancy and motherhood. For no one has ever quite punctuated the dread and disquietude that comes with making a decision like this. As if one is supposed to know “for sure” that the person they’re marrying really is their soulmate. Which is why believing in it is the crux of making it last. Or rather, making it last without one or both people in the marriage becoming miserable… So maybe that’s why Morrone and Leonardo DiCaprio ended things before they could “tie the knot”—and not because she had just turned twenty-five.
