“You just f——— stabbed me. He f——— stabbed me!”
“Didn’t you stab him first?”
There’s a scene in the stylishly haunting and wickedly creepy Netflix series “Something Very Bad is Going to Happen” in which Ted Levine skins a deceased creature. Ted Levine. Buffalo Bill in “The Silence of the Lambs.” Wielding a skinning knife. Although we never actually saw Buffalo Bill skin a victim, it still plays as a twisted—and ingenious—callback. With the gifted Haley Z. Boston (“Brand New Cherry Flavor”) as showrunner, “Stranger Things“‘ own Duffer Brothers producing, and Veronica Tofilska (“Baby Reindeer”) directing four of the eight episodes, “Something Very Bad…” is dripping with a sense of dread. The production design, lighting, music, and cinematography all contribute greatly to the tension draped over the story. No matter what the time of day, it always feels as if we’re waking up from a nightmare in that foreboding, civil twilight just before dawn.
Camila Morrone, who impressed in “Daisy Jones & the Six” and Season 2 of “The Night Manager,” takes center stage here and does career-best work. Morrone’s Rachel Harkin has a bit of a punk-rock persona with her smattering of hand and arm tattoos, and her penchant for lighting up a joint whenever and wherever it suits her — but her quick wit and fast banter are something of a shield, protecting her from the intense trauma of her youth. After the obligatory in medias res opening, we pick up the story as Rachel and her fiancé, Nicky Cunningham, are driving to Nicky’s wealthy family’s compound, tucked away deep in the wintry woods. (Adam DiMarco deftly plays Nicky, who is not all that far removed from the character of Albie that DiMarco portrayed in the Sicily-set season of “The White Lotus”—an affable and educated fellow who lacks street smarts and might not have as strong a moral compass as he’d like you to believe.)
Rachel seems to have an uncanny ability to read people and situations. Not only is she on the verge of getting her doctorate in behavioral psychology from the University of Illinois (Go Illini!), but she’s also an empath who might even have some kind of eidetic gift, as evidenced by her drawing a perfectly accurate rendition of a custard stand mascot from Nicky’s youth, even though she’s never seen it. (We will later visit that custard stand, which features a lone employee who’s as creepy as the barkeep in “The Shining.”) When Rachel and Nicky arrive at the Cunningham mansion, Rachel’s Spidey Sense starts tingling, and with good reason. This clan is so off the rails, they’d feel at home in a “Ready or Not” movie. It’s clear Rachel should get in her car and drive straight back to Champaign-Urbana, but if she does that, we don’t have a series—so off we go on bat-bleep crazy wedding week filled with one disturbing occurrence after another, augmented by countdown-clock graphics, e.g., “THREE DAYS UNTIL ‘I DO.’ ” (One pivotal episode makes terrific use of home video camera footage from 1997 to fill in some horrific details regarding Rachel’s lineage.)
Let’s meet the Cunninghams! Jennifer Jason Leigh skulks about the compound in ghostly fashion as family matriarch Victoria, who wants the Nicky-Rachel nuptials to be perfect, for reasons we will leave unexplained. The aforementioned Levine is Victoria’s surly husband, Boris, who always sounds as if he’s about ready to strangle someone. Jeff Wilbusch is Nicky’s black sheep brother, Jules; Karla Crome is Jules’ wife, Nell, and Sawyer Fraser is their young son Jude, who is straight out of the Unsettling Kid in a Horror Story playbook. In a key supporting role, Zlatko Burić is a scene-stealing force as a mysterious man who asks Rachel, “Are you sure he’s the one?”
That’s the key question in “Something Very Bad is Going to Happen.” If Nicky is Rachel’s soulmate, they’ll most likely live happily ever after. If he’s NOT, well, consider that title.
Paul Anka’s “You Are My Destiny” serves as a kind of unofficial theme song, and we’re treated to other well-timed needle drops, including “It’s Impossible” by Perry Como and “Deadly Valentine” by Charlotte Gainsborough. Camerawork is innovative, as when a certain character’s viewpoint echoes the “devils’ perspective” technique in Gregory Hoblit’s masterful supernatural thriller “Fallen.” Just about anyone who has experienced the build-up to a wedding ceremony knows that the final week can be exhilarating and hopelessly romantic—but also filled with anxiety, misgivings, and extended family drama. “Something Very Bad…” shines a blood-spattered spotlight on these rituals with precise and insightful cruelty. Morrone plays a smart and resourceful badass who truly loves her guy despite all the warning signals—but knows that every decision she makes, up to and beyond her wedding vows, could come back to bite her.
