'Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen' is the Duffer Brothers' first project since 'Stranger Things.' It's also ‘wildly insane.’
'Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen' is the Duffer Brothers' first project since 'Stranger Things.' It's also ‘wildly insane.’
Neia BalaoWed, March 25, 2026 at 5:45 PM UTC
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What happens when your wedding is derailed by a series of horrifying occurrences? Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen, the new Netflix horror series helmed by Haley Z. Boston, explores this unsettling reality.
Starring Camila Morrone and Adam DiMarco, the series, which is executive produced by Stranger Things creators Ross and Matt Duffer through their production company, Upside Down Pictures, chronicles the days leading up to the private wedding ceremony between Rachel and her fiancé Nicky. Though Rachel shouldbe beaming with excitement as she gears up for her happily ever after, she is instead filled with paranoia, dread and superstition as strange things continue to happen around her.
“We wanted you as the audience to feel the paranoia and the fear that Rachel is feeling,” Boston, who cited Carrie and Rosemary’s Baby as inspirations for the show, told Entertainment Weekly. “Even when she's not in the scene, we were always thinking about constructing the show in terms of her discomfort. It really represents how it feels to walk into a house for the first time and meet your significant other's family. There's all this lore that you are not aware of, and you're suddenly stepping into it.”
When does Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen premiere on Netflix?
Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen debuts on Netflix on Thursday, March 26, at 3 a.m. ET. All eight episodes will drop at once.
Who’s in Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen?
While Morrone and DiMarco lead the horror-drama series, the cast of Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen also includes:
Jennifer Jason Leigh as Victoria Cunningham
Ted Levine as Boris Cunningham
Jeff Wilbusch as Jules Cunningham
Gus Birney as Portia Cunningham
Karla Crome as Nell
Sawyer Fraser as Jude
Zlatko Burić as a mysterious figure
A ‘looming’ thought inspired Boston to write the script
Morrone in "Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen." (Netflix)
In part, Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen was inspired by something Boston’s mother once told her.
“When I was a kid, my mom said to me, ‘You can do whatever you want in your life, just make sure you don't marry the wrong person.’ That's a lot of pressure to put on a child,” she told Entertainment Weekly. “So I sort of grew up with this thing looming over me where I knew that it was possible to have lifelong partnership and the fear of marrying the wrong person was such a presence.”
That mounting pressure of finding a partner and getting married is ultimately what spawned the idea for the horror series.
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“So as I was approaching the age of 30 and everyone's getting married, it just felt so natural to me that you would explore the fear of commitment and the fear of marrying the wrong person through a horror lens,” Boston said.
Duffer Brothers called Boston’s writing ‘twisted, terrifying, funny’
Jennifer Jason Leigh and Ted Levine in "Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen." (Netflix)
The Duffer Brothers are involved in the project as executive producers, with Boston helming the series as creator and showrunner. That being said, the Stranger Things creators have spoken highly of Boston’s vision for Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen.
“We were knocked flat when we first read Haley’s script,” the Duffer Brothers shared in a statement obtained by A.V. Club in 2024. “She is a major new talent with a singular voice — her writing is twisted, terrifying, funny, and just… very Haley. We feel so lucky to be producing her first show, and we can’t wait to share her vision with the rest of the world.”
When it comes to the show’s title, Boston said she wanted to tease the fact that something horrifying is, in fact, going to happen in it. Figuring out what that “very bad” thing is won’t be as easy though.
“It would be false advertising if not,” Boston told Entertainment Weekly. “Something bad happens in every show, right? We need the conflict, but the special thing about this show, and what I think the title offers, is we’re gonna keep you guessing on what the very bad thing is.”
DiMarco said the script was ‘unlike anything I’ve ever read’
DiMarco and Morrone in "Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen." (Netflix)
Morrone, whose previous acting credits include Daisy Jones & The Six and The Night Manager, was immediately drawn to Boston’s script. Given that she’d never delved into horror before, Morrone told TheWrap that this project “opened up a love of horror for me.” She also described the series as “a comedy in a lot of ways.”
“When I first got the email it said Duffer Brothers, Weronika [Tofilska], Haley Z. Boston — Haley is such a fresh, new, incredible voice in writing, she’s going to go very, very far. She’s so talented, and everyone will see when they see her writing,” Morrone said. “I saw the combination of those powerhouses and I read the pilot and I just kind of fell in love with Rachel. I thought she was kind of introverted and awkward and not necessarily comfortable in her skin and a bit paranoid, and I thought that’s a really interesting and different character than anything I’d ever played.”
DiMarco, a Canadian actor who landed his breakthrough role on Season 2 of The White Lotus, shared a similar sentiment, telling TheWrap the script was “unlike anything I’ve ever read.”
“For me, it always starts with the script,” he said. “It’s just wildly insane, unpredictable. It keeps shape-shifting what it is, it keeps you on your toes, which I think you need when doing horror in TV, because how do you sustain it over eight episodes? The creativity and Haley’s vision is what really sold me.”
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
