Duffer Brothers’ series has rich mythology and striking visuals, even if it doesn’t always stick the landing
On paper, Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen has everything it needs: a couple about to get married, a sinister cabin in the woods, a family of in-laws full of red flags, and a slow burning dread you feel, second-guessing every scene. In practice, it’s a show that spends most of its runtime building a house of cards and then blowing it over itself.
Photo: Deadline
Rachel, who is played by Camila Morrone, and Nicky, played by Adam DiMarco, are traveling to a remote cabin with their wedding around the corner. From the first leg of the journey, the show is practically begging you to feel uneasy – an abandoned baby on the roadside, a dead fox in a gas station bathroom, a creepy tale about Coldies custard being a serial killer chain. These are not subtle hints, they are red herrings.
It’s the show’s most consistent trick: layer on the dread, then quietly sweep it under the rug. Alongside the distractions, Rachel driving in the opening scenes and paying for breakfast is enough to convey the weird tension in their relationship.
Photo: ComingSoon
Nicky’s family does the show no favours in the subtlety department either. His mother forces her wedding dress onto Rachel, his sister Portia fills the air with horror stories. His brother, Jules, orbits Rachel with an uncomfortable intensity, while his son hangs her wedding dress on a scarecrow in the woods. It’s a masterclass in making a family seem genuinely threatening.
So when the show pivots to explain all of this, for instance by showing that the mom is dying and was using the wedding to cover for her own quiet farewell, it is almost as if we are left to watch a completely different show than the one we started with. And somehow, Rachel forgives everyone.
To be fair to the writers, this is clearly intentional misdirection. The Duffer Brothers are playing with expectation, staking scenes that feel like Get Out setups to pull the tablecloth out from under you. However, there’s a fine line between subverting expectations and simply abandoning your own threads; and the show crosses it more than once.
Photo: Decider
The real story is a generational curse tied to Rachel’s unknown family lineage and is actually the most compelling part of the series. The mythology is intricate: a proposal accepted must result in marriage before sundown and if the chosen partner isn’t a true soulmate, the bride dies. Refuse the proposal, and the man’s entire bloodline is condemned.
The mother, played by Haunting of Hill House star Victoria Pedretti, is excellent casting, to say the least, with the actress perfectly mirroring Rachel’s appearance.
The tale is a dark romantic premise, particularly in the way Rachel’s past and Jules’ childhood trauma converge at the same cabin, decades apart.
Photo: SlashFilm
Jules is one of the show’s most compelling threads, largely because his connection to Rachel is rooted in childhood trauma rather than romance. As a child, he was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time, wandering into the same cabin where Rachel’s parents were to spend their honeymoon. What he saw, however, was Rachel’s mother dying as a result of the family curse, while her father, frantic and desperate, cut her open in a last attempt to save Rachel – the baby.
To a terrified child, it didn’t read as tragedy, but as violence. Jules misinterpreted the scene entirely, turning Rachel’s father into a monstrous figure in his mind, “the sorry man,” named for the repeated apologies he heard during the ordeal. The misunderstanding lingers into adulthood and deeply shapes Jules’ dynamic with Rachel.
Their chemistry is electric – arguably more so than what he shares with his own wife. Yet Jules never fully gives in to it. Part of the hesitation feels psychological: he’s drawn to Rachel, but she is also inseparable from one of the most disturbing moments of his life. The fact that he literally watched her come into the world adds an unsettling layer of intimacy, which the show leans into when he admits he feels more connected to her than even his own brother does.
For a while, the narrative flirts with the idea that Jules and Rachel are soulmates, building a sense of inevitability around their bond. But the finale undercuts that entirely. Jules and Nell are the only ones left standing, untouched, ultimately framing their relationship as the true soulmate connection. This leaves Jules and Rachel’s bond feeling like a deliberate misdirection rather than destiny.
Speaking of Nell, her relationship with Rachel adds another layer of confusion. They two share a kiss, creating undynamic tension, given that Nell is both Jules’ current partner and Nicky’s ex. It’s a bold love triangle that the show introduces yet does not know what to do with.
Photo: Mashable
However, Rachel’s most grippering arc is not romance but desperation. She and Nell visit a records station and pull up generations of family marriages, and what they find is grim: name after name, wed and dead on the same day. It’s one of the show’s most quietly chilling sequences, and it sends Rachel spiraling into survival mode.
She begins assembling a potion, cutting off her own toe, collecting hair and body parts from family members, even obtaining something rather intimate from Nicky himself, all in a bid to guarantee her odds. It’s unhinged, committed, and honestly kind of brilliant as a character beat. However, she doesn’t drink it because she convinces herself that Nicky is her soulmate and that love is enough. It isn’t.
Photo: ScreenRant
Nicky, as it turns out, is one of the most frustrating characters in the show. Not because he’s villainous but because he’s simply spineless. He doesn’t believe in the curse or register the weight of what Rachel is carrying. Further, in his most damaging moment, he walks away from the altar, deciding mid-ceremony that he and Rachel don’t actually need to be married to be together – a revelation that arrives at possibly the worst moment to have it.
By the time Nicky finally understands the gravity of what’s happening, Rachel has made up her mind and says no. Just like that, Nicky’s bloodline begins to collapse, with noses and eyes bleeding out, one family member after another.
Photo: Glamour
The finale, for all its loose ends, does deliver. The show’s visual language remains striking throughout: dead animals, unsettling family portraits, a cold colour palette that makes even daylight feel hostile. And the final image of Rachel, who at the end is forced to wed Nell in the last moments before sundown, becomes resurrected and now carries the weight of her lineage.
Taking the place of the 200-year-old man overseeing the curse, Rachel warns Jules and Nell’s son to choose wisely, foreshadowing her presence at his wedding in the future. The ending nails it with real weight.
Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen is a show that is most interesting when you’re talking about it afterward, picking apart what it was building towards, debating what was intentional and what was lost in the edit. The concept is rich and the cinematography is stunning, when it clicks, it grips you. The execution is also uneven enough that you’ll spend a good portion of your watch wondering if the show knows where it’s going.
Photo: Glamour
While viewers may have expected a family cult over a supernatural discovery, it’s safe to say that the emphasis on “till death do us part” is felt throughout. Whether all the pieces go together or not, the story is one that you spend your day thinking about.
