Review by C.J. Bunce
It’s rare we see a horror series that is in the running for best TV series of the year. That series is a new Netflix limited series called Something Very Bad is Going to Happen, a show that presents new twists on horror and the supernatural inside a bride’s worst-case scenario of a bad wedding day. The 2019 movie Ready or Not starred Samara Weaving as a new bride in an atmospheric, Gothic story that doubled as a dark comedy and cautionary tale, a fun, recommended flick about a wedding, about marriage, and marrying into a new family–the dark side of families and the skeletons in the closet (a sequel is in theaters now). Add that movie to The Skeleton Key, also recommended, and those are the closest you’ll find to the unusual, exciting, and clever ways showrunner Haley Z. Boston and her writers misdirect viewers, all tracking the week leading up to what could have been a normal wedding. Boston, who wrote del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities, understands the tropes and throws them all at the perfectly cast Camila Morrone, the troubled bride of this dark tale.
Viewers will be watching this eight-episode limited series for years to come–it’s in the same league of keepers from the past decade that include Archive 81, The Queen’s Gambit, and The Offer.
Bride horror. What was only a short time ago considered a rare horror sub-genre saw another entry in 2022 with The Invitation (reviewed here), followed this year by Maggie Gyllenhaal’s update of The Bride of Frankenstein in The Bride, in theaters now. Other entries that might be considered bride horror, often crossovers with Gothic horror and Gothic romance, include Guillermo del Toro’s Crimson Peak, The Woman in White, and maybe even Jane Eyre. Nearly as old as horror novels and movies, going back to Frankenstein and Dracula and early folk horror and fairy tales, these stories are about coming of age innocence and unwanted transformation, fear of the future and the unknown, forced traditions, and ultimately revenge.
Morrone, who was the surprise standout of Daisy Jones & the Six and co-stars in this year’s second season of The Night Manager, conveys all of the feelings–and more–of any woman just days away from her wedding. But unlike in Ready or Not, it’s not the groom’s family hiding all the secrets. No, Morrone’s heroine, Rachel Harkin, brings her own legacy to this creepy thriller, and each episode pivots wide from where you think the horror story is actually heading. Just when you think you know what’s next, each new writer/director combination will stop you in your tracks. Who are friends? Who are foes? Does anyone make it out alive? Will they actually get married?
The groom’s family is creepy, beginning with Silence of the Lambs and Monk co-star Ted Levine as the groom’s taxidermist father and Jennifer Jason Leigh (Single White Female, Fargo) as the groom’s ethereal mother–who harbors her own secret. The groom himself, Nicky, played by Adam DiMarco (The Order, Charmed) is as sweet as honey–at first blush. Then there’s squeaky, incessant sister Portia (Shining Vale’s Gus Birney), glaring sister-in-law Nell (Toxic Town’s Karla Crome), and Nell’s husband Jules (The Calling’s Jeff Welbusch), whose past may be even darker than anyone’s. Keep an eye open for Victoria Pedretti (Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood, The Haunting of Hill House) as a cursed family member from the past, and Zlatko Buric, who is having a banner year, recently co-starring in Marvel’s Wonder Man.
Camila Morrone is every bit the victim bride, and she withstands jumps and starts of all types and from every direction, including from a creepy guy looking over the bathroom stall. That layered performance she brought to Daisy Jones & the Six shows even more nuance as she meets the groom’s family, confronts her own father, and tries to figure out what the hell is happening in this remote town–as she’s well aware something bad is indeed going to happen. Limited series usually mean no chance at a sequel. But this show leaves plenty of opportunity for a second season. Take note: you’ll want to skip this one of you want to avoid taxidermy animals, which seem to be everywhere in the groom’s family home.
It’s already on our short list for the best TV series of 2026. This will be a series to binge again each Halloween. Full of gore, chills, and thrills, and enough clever ideas and doses of humor to balance it all out, don’t miss all eight episodes of Something Very Bad is Going to Happen, now streaming on Netflix.
