PR in the Philippines

(SeaPRwire) –   When the Duffer Brothers created the final season of Stranger Things, all fan conversation centered on how the story would conclude. Which characters would survive, which would perish, and what fate awaited the Upside Down? While the ending was clear-cut, a notable portion of the fanbase still found it underwhelming.

Just a few months on, the Duffer brothers have returned as executive producers for Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen, a series that takes a completely different approach: its ending is spelled out right in the title. Even though it gives away its own tragic conclusion upfront, the show still manages to deliver the jaw-dropping thrills Stranger Things fans look for, paired with an unapologetically mature twist.

The official synopsis for Something Very Bad is Going to Happen states it will do for marriage what Carrie did for womanhood and Rosemary’s Baby did for motherhood. While that sort of claim usually amounts to empty hype, this series actually lives up to the promise. It plays on the visceral fear of binding yourself to another person — and their entire family — for life, then layers in a supernatural twist that drenches the supposed perfect day in gory, buckets-of-blood chaos.

The show centers on Rachel (played by Camila Morrone), a young woman with a quirky sense of humor and a painful past. She travels with her fiancé Nicky (Adam DiMarco) through snow-covered rural areas to his family’s holiday cabin, where they intend to hold a small, family-only wedding. As is the case with most weddings, though, the final guest list ends up being far longer than planned.

But once Rachel reaches the cabin and is introduced to Nicky’s relatives, it quickly becomes obvious that nothing is what it appears to be. There’s no need to worry that the plot is unoriginal, though: it’s far more similar to I’m Thinking of Ending Things than a lazy “Get Out for white women” knockoff, and it drops plenty of misleading clues for viewers to parse along the way.

Nicky’s family is a perfectly assembled group of charmingly off-putting relatives. Matriarch Victoria Cunningham (Jennifer Jason Leigh) is a textbook upper-middle-class family head, married to Boris (Ted Levine), a dedicated physician, and the pair share three children. Jeff Wilbusch portrays oldest son Jules; while the actor’s native accent slips through noticeably at points, his character is pivotal to the story. His wife Nell (Karla Crome), the only other person who has married into the Cunningham clan, becomes Rachel’s most trusted confidante.

The real scene-stealer, though, is Portia, the airheaded younger sister played by Gus Birney. Birney’s nasal tone and Paris Hilton-style platinum blonde hair make her the ideal stand-in for the story’s actual big bad: the wedding industrial complex. Portia is fixated on pulling off a flawless rehearsal dinner, a bachelorette party full of coordinated outfits, and a perfectly smooth ceremony. She’s equal parts unsettling and overly cheery, embodying everything Rachel can’t stand — and the dislike is entirely reciprocal.

Anyone who has ever tied themselves to the wrong partner, or fears making that mistake, will get that classic “don’t go inside” horror movie tension through the entire first four episodes. Once the series hits its midpoint, though, the dynamic changes entirely. All of a sudden, the stress of meeting adult life milestones and dealing with intrusive in-laws is no longer the main issue — that honor falls to something far more sinister. Put simply, something very bad is on the horizon.

This series is by no means a light, easy watch, but by the time the final wedding ceremony rolls around, I was more invested in whether this couple would say “I do” at the altar than I was across 10 entire seasons of Love is Blind. Even after the big reveal of whether they go through with it, there are still plenty more unexpected turns left. If this is the kind of content the Duffer brothers are putting out in their post-Stranger Things era, I’m fully on board for whatever they make next.

Something Very Bad to Happen is available to stream on Netflix now.