Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen

Rachel (Camila Morrone) is days away from marrying the love of her life, Nicky (The White Lotus’s Adam DiMarco), at his family’s lavish cabin in the woods. However, she can’t shake the feeling that something is about to go horribly wrong. Not only does Nicky’s family appear to be harbouring sinister secrets, but a story about a murderous bogeyman that haunts the surrounding woods has everyone on edge. Helmed by showrunner Haley Z Boston (Stranger Things and Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities), the aptly titled psychological thriller Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen is a pulpy horror mystery with genuine chills.

Boston creates an uneasy atmosphere long before the couple enter the cabin. There’s a baby in an abandoned car, a decomposing fox, and a Peeping Tom in the bathroom of a roadside bar. This mounting dread only escalates once Rachel meets Nicky’s family and the taxidermy dogs that lifelessly guard a large family portrait that has a blank space for her. Adding to Rachel’s suspicions is the family’s peculiar behaviour. There’s the obligatory creepy child (Sawyer Fraser), his quietly menacing father (Jeff Wilbusch), and Nicky’s sociopathic younger sister (Gus Birney). Jennifer Jason Leigh plays the family matriarch, who whispers ominous, cryptic statements to Rachel when they first meet.

There are shades of Get Out rooted in the familial horror of the first few episodes, and Boston makes excellent use of this premise to create suspense that’s palpable. Sequences of Rachel peering at something at the end of a darkened hallway are unnerving to sit through while flashes of disturbing imagery function as effective jump scares. However, there are some moments where the horror is slightly overcooked. Scenes involving fisheye POV shots of a stalker breathing so heavily that it’s amazing nobody heard them, alongside a scenery-chewing performance and exaggerated visual effects in a later episode, are distractingly overstylised compared to the slower, more grounded tension that came before.

With recent outings like Together and Keeper, Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen fits comfortably into the growing subgenre of relationship horror. Although the show takes its time getting to the point, with the main reveal occurring around the midway mark, this engrossing atmosphere and gripping plot are more than enough to keep viewers hooked as the mystery unfolds.

Andrew Murray

Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen is released on Netflix on 26^th March 2026.

Watch the trailer for Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen here: