Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen creator unpacks Netflix horror’s blood-soaked ending

The finale of Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen delivers on that promise: something very bad happens. The eighth episode description says as much.

For the avoidance of doubt, we will be getting into the very spoiler-heavy territory of Nicky and Rachel’s gory wedding here, in an exclusive Metro interview with creator Hayley Z Boston. So if you’re still counting down to the big day and haven’t got to the finale, pause!

We already saw a flash-forward glimpse of the nuptials at the very start of the show. Everything had looked hunky-dory until – bang! – Rachel started having visions of rivers of blood through the corridors of the so-called cabin.

‘The show was always going to start with something shocking. I think that’s a way to get audiences on board,’ said Boston. ‘The title does a lot for this show. I’m telling you up front that you can expect something horrifying.’

The very bad thing started to happen after Nicky (Adam DiMarco) decided, at the altar (men!), that maybe he and Rachel (Camila Morrone) didn’t really need to get married after all.

Even if a curse that might spread to his whole bloodline was riding on it. 

And spread it did. Once the sun had set, the partygoers started outpouring, not with love and good feeling, but with their own lifeblood. 

Filled with remorse, Nicky decided he would drag Rachel down the aisle after all, even as she questioned why she should have to sacrifice herself for his entire family. They wed, but too late, and Rachel’s own nose/eye started to haemorrhage.

The soulmate concoction

At the start of the finale, Rachel considered drinking a potion that could guarantee Nicky was her soulmate – and so wasn’t at risk of death – before the wedding. But the bride decided to put faith in her relationship and didn’t touch it.

Boston told us she had reservations about ‘mixing magic’ between the soulmate concoction and the curse mythology, which is why Rachel decided not to drink from the funky-looking flute, and therefore set everyone on a path for the big, bloody party.

‘The show, I think, is quite emotionally grounded,’ said the showrunner. ‘Although the ending goes into this crazy supernatural place, I didn’t want too much of the show prior to that to feel that way, so that you continue to buy in.’

Rachel’s very bad altar nosebleed

This is the image that creator Boston told Metro first came to her as the idea for the show: ‘a woman spontaneously bleeding to death at the altar’. She then started to devise plot points from there, in a series of emails to herself. 

‘I was 27 and watching a bunch of friends get married, take that leap into the next stage of life and confronted with my own fear of commitment,’ Boston said. ‘A lot of that comes from the fact that my parents have this great marriage and my mum said to me when I was a kid, “Make sure you marry the right person”.

‘That put a lot of pressure on me, so I was thinking a lot about what makes people right for each other and this image came to me of a woman spontaneously bleeding to death at the altar. That is where it started and it went from there.’

What helped get there was mapping out Rachel’s emotional journey and how the curse fit in, with Boston citing films such as Carrie, Rosemary’s Baby and The Killing of a Sacred Deer as inspirations. 

‘Those movies follow women going through these big life changes and use the genre to externalise what they’re going through internally, which was exciting to me, and how I wanted to approach this story,’ Boston said. 

The wedding party bleeds to death

In earlier visions of the show, SVBIGTH was going to revolve around the wedding of Nicky’s sister Portia (Gus Birney) and also amplify the altar-bleeding to a global problem; Boston compared it to the supernatural HBO show The Leftovers.

‘I just knew that it was going to end with a bunch of people spontaneously bleeding to death,’ she told us. That was the version of the show sold to Netflix. 

‘I was thinking about the mythology and the fact that I need to explain why people are bleeding to death, then it morphed more into what it is.’

With a devilish grin, Boston added: ‘I never thought the bleeding to death would be too much, and I’m glad that they let me do it.’

Rachel comes back to life after the curse

With a white wedding dress that is truly ruined, Rachel awakens from her death. The curse has taken Zlatko Burić’s nameless character instead.

After a quick search for her lighter and outfit change, Rachel drives away from the bloody mess. Her engagement ring is chucked out the window and she seems much better off.

It’s an ending the romantically sceptical will no doubt enjoy. But what does Boston hope viewers take from the finale?

‘If I’m telling this story about soulmates, then I obviously have a perspective on it,’ she said. ‘For me, what makes two people right for each other is that they see each other.’ Hence the survival of straight-talking Jules (Jeff Wilbusch) and Nell (Karla Crome).

Rachel’s ultimate decision to choose herself is a ‘morally questionable’ one, which Boston said the writers’ room debated, because how could viewers still be on her side afterwards?

‘She’s condemning all these people to death and the argument was, well, she doesn’t owe them anything,’ explained Boston. ‘Why should she sacrifice herself for these people?’

‘I hope that you’re still rooting for Rachel at the end, but I’m also open to people deciding she made the wrong decision and debating that.’

With an ending that lampoons romance like this one does, Boston would like it to spark some introspection among couples tuning in.

‘You watch the show with your partner, and maybe you get into a conversation that illuminates some things in your relationship that you didn’t see before. That’s my hope.’

Referring back to her own hypothesis on what makes a relationship work, which is woven into the show, she added: ‘Maybe you get into a conversation about if you agree that that’s what makes people right for each other.’

Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen is available to stream on Netflix.

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