Bad Things follows Ruthie (Gayle Rankin), and her three friends as they spend a weekend at Ruthie’s late grandmother’s hotel. But just as the four friends start to enjoy themselves, the hotel begins to put the group’s relationships to the test.
★✰✰✰✰
Many will often say the horror genre’s main job is to scare people. These scares do not have to come in the form of a bang in the dark, or a sinister hand appearing from under a bed; they can come from subtle, slowly-building tension, resulting in a prolonged unsettling atmosphere rather than a sudden moment of terror. Horror’s scope for scaring people is as varied as each viewer’s own fears, so there are plenty of directions a film of the genre can take.
However, as Fran (Annabelle Dexter-Jones) walks down a corridor in one of the film’s main set pieces, Bad Things loses all sense of how to produce any semblance of fear in its audience. Despite director Stewart Thorndike’s skill behind the camera, the sequence in the corridor lacks the power it should, held back by issues that plague the film for its entire runtime.
Bad Things sees the four main characters become increasingly paranoid, with tensions rising and loyalties tested as happenings at the hotel become increasingly strange. But not only are these relationships poorly realised, they also feel fake and unnatural. It is unclear how deep these characters’ bonds are, and there is no sense that they have known each other longer than five minutes. The central relationships, the ecosystem that the plot relies on, have no weight or history behind them, stripping Bad Things of the closeness necessary to sustain its horror and leaving the film feeling directionless.
This is not helped by the unfortunately lacking performances. The four leads do not match the tone the film is searching for, instead going from zero to one hundred in a flash. They become angry and rash far too quickly, which only adds to the disingenuity behind their connections. They shout over each other, resulting in frenzied scenes that feel confusing rather than meaningful; motivations are unclear, with the film opting to barrel forwards into manic action rather than pause and explain.
Bad Thing‘s puzzling music choices, that actively work against the tone of any given scene, don’t improve the situation. Moments of tension are hindered by music with annoying rhythmic beats, causing a huge distraction and rip the audience away from the moment. The over-reliance on futuristic synths sounds like something out of Flash Gordon (1980), with campy scores denying tension and replacing it with an atmosphere that, whilst in line with the film’s retro 1980s vision, do not help with the lack of excitement being built.
Bad Things is not helped by a confusing screenplay that fails to capitalise on the isolated setting or the inherent drama that it provides. The script is unable to build compelling set pieces, or crucially sustain the tension it does manage to muster, and information is revealed with a resounding thud that lacks excitement or consequence. Scenes are stitched together without much narrative tissue holding them together, and themes are shoved down the viewer’s throat whilst also feeling vague and inconclusive. Characters inexplicably teleport from one place to another when the script needs them to, which could serve to frame the hotel setting as discombobulated and confusing, something that should be used to tighten its grip on the characters—but it doesn’t.
There are still glimmers of hope in Thorndike’s steady direction and occasionally dynamic, off-kilter camera angles that, whilst not in-your-face, do ramp up the drama at key moments. Thorndike keeps his camera at a distance from proceedings without staying too far away, keeping the viewer above and away from the action. This captures the snowy loneliness of the hotel setting whilst allowing viewers to see the actors’ frantic, full-body movement, elevating particularly explosive moments.
The Verdict
Bad Things wants to have its cake and eat it, veering between scenes of hyper-violence and slow-moving walks down hallways and denying its audience any chance of catharsis. Characters are plainly unlikable and obnoxious, trapped in a film incapable of living up to its lofty horror inspirations, with no context given to encourage the audience to feel any sympathy for them. Bad Things does not fail on every level, with fluid camerawork capturing some fun moments of mayhem. But those who like their horror to have more substance and creativity should probably just revisit the far better Overlook Hotel instead.
Words By James Evenden
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