If we know something bad is going to happen, why do we feel so damn excited about it?
In her new horror series Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen (out now), creator and showrunner Haley Z. Boston takes viewers down the aisle of a spine-tingling and — ultimately — doomed wedding. Don’t worry, that’s not a spoiler — it’s all in the title. Watch the suspenseful teaser trailer above now.
“I love horror. It’s natural to me, [it’s how] I process my own emotions and feelings and my own understanding of the world,” Boston shares. “I think horror allows you to explore taboo feelings and take all of these fears and give them some bite.”
The show, which is executive produced by the Duffer Brothers, isn’t about jump scares. Rather, as Boston puts it, the tone is “unsettling, getting-under-your-skin dread,” mixed with character-driven storytelling. “I love to explore characters. I think sometimes that’s lacking in the horror genre,” she says. “My natural approach is from a place of character and dialogue and humor and then infusing that with unsettling horror … I’m like, ‘I want to be unsettled. I want to be freaked out.’ ”
So, grab your something borrowed and something blue — here’s everything you need to know about the ill-fated nuptials, plus exclusive first-look photos.
Spanning a week, the series follows Rachel and Nicky in the lead-up to their wedding. Boston pulled inspiration from her own parents, who have a decades-long, loving marriage.
“When I was a kid, my mom said to me, ‘You just need to make sure you don’t marry the wrong person,’ ” Boston tells Tudum. “The show is about the fear of marrying the wrong person.” Something Very Bad grapples with the idea of soulmates and Boston’s own perplexity around finding the “right” person. “I’ve been to weddings where people say in their vows, ‘I never once had a doubt,’ ” Boston explains. “I hear that, and I’m like, ‘That’s crazy. What do you mean?’ ”
In the Something Very Bad writers room, Boston found herself discussing those very themes. “I had a team of writers, and I [got] their perspective on marriage and commitment,” she shares. “I had a married couple in the writers room, and it was very interesting to hear their stories.”
As Rachel and Nicky gear up to say “I do,” they’ll face their own nerve-wracking questions about commitment — all while grappling with a deliciously fresh horror twist.
“The overall tone lives in this unsettling, ‘getting under your skin,’ dread territory rather than jump scares,” says Boston.
For Boston, the tone and visuals of Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen fall somewhere between Carrie and Rosemary’s Baby.
“There’s humor and absurdity, but there’s also a lot of paranoia and tension and a singular POV,” says Boston. “I was also influenced by The Celebration, which is one of my favorite movies because of the character drama — which is an important piece of this series as well. The horror genre can sometimes [be lacking in] the character aspect, but my natural approach is from a place of character, dialogue, and humor, and infusing that with an unsettling horror. That balance is something I really hope to achieve with Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen.”
You can find out more about the cast here.
Boston, who serves as showrunner and executive producer, will bring her own brand of horror cred to the series. She previously wrote for Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities and Brand New Cherry Flavor, both on Netflix. Her directorial debut, Beach Logs Kill, premiered at SXSW this year in the Narrative Shorts Competition.
Boston was busy working on another television project when she came up with the idea for Something Very Bad. She cracked the ending first and then, over the course of a year, emailed herself scenes as they popped into her head. The pilot script, which took her a week to write, introduces audiences to Nicky and Rachel as they embark on the start of their wedding week.
“I was 27 when I started writing the pilot,” she says. “I love horror, it comes very naturally to me. Horror is the way that I process my emotions and feelings and my own understanding of the world.”
Boston continues, “I really saw these characters as [if] they were going on a road trip. It was like I was there listening to what they were talking about, and I was on the journey with them.”
Shooting the pilot proved surreal for Boston, who found herself sitting in the back of the car as Morrone and DiMarco shot their scenes. “It was kind of like, ‘I can’t believe I’m actually on the road trip with these characters I made up,’ ” she recounts.
The Duffer Brothers (Stranger Things), Hilary Leavitt (Stranger Things), and Andrea Sperling (Transparent, A Murder at the End of the World) serve as executive producers of the series. Emmy nominee Weronika Tofilska (Baby Reindeer) will direct four episodes and executive produce. Axelle Carolyn (The Haunting of Bly Manor) and Lisa Brühlmann (Killing Eve, Servant) have joined as directors.
Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen was filmed in Toronto.
Yes! Check out our gallery below of Camila Morrone as Rachel, Adam DiMarco as Nicky, Jennifer Jason Leigh as Victoria, and more.
You’re formally invited to tune in now because all eight episodes of the series are available on Netflix.
