Bad Things Isn’t The Shining Slasher It Wants to Be

The much-buzzed about horror movie Bad Things hits Shudder and AMC+ on Friday, August 18. The fact that it takes place in a haunted hotel piqued my interest, but these reviewer blurbs grabbed it even more:

“Perfectly eerie and driven by feminine rage. Rankin is exceptional.”

~Coleman Spilde, The Daily Beast

“A refreshing twist on slashers. Thorndike’s queer take on ‘The Shining’ is a great amount of fun…with a killer cast.”

~Samantha Bergeson, Indiewire

“Wonderful and unexpected. Captures the powerhouse that is Gayle Rankin, the sheer complexity she brings to this character is enthralling.”

~Rebecca Cherry, Film Carnage

After watching it, however, I wonder if we saw the same film.

Sure. It had a couple of eerie moments. I wouldn’t call any of them perfect. Gayle Rankin, and the rest of the cast, deliver great performances, though. There’s even a compelling cameo from Molly Ringwald!

Before we unpack what did and didn’t work in the movie, let’s first look at what it’s about.

Bad Things Synopsis

Here’s the description from Shudder:

When a group of friends escape the city to spend the weekend in an abandoned hotel, a pervading eerie energy begins to illuminate the cracks in their little family unit. Ruthie Nodd (Gayle Rankin) inherits the hotel from her grandmother and with bad childhood memories threatening to burst to the surface, Ruthie wants to sell the hotel and never return. But her partner Cal (Hari Nef) drags her there in the hopes of returning it to its former glory. They are joined by their amiable friend Maddie (Rad Pereira) and mysterious grifter Fran (Annabelle Dexter-Jones), whose unhinged seduction threatens to drive a wedge between the couple. As the friends dance, cook, flirt, and fight up and down the halls of the hotel, they begin to find themselves indelibly entwined in the hotel’s seductive embrace and start doing bad things to each other.

Bad Things and The Shining

Bad Things heavily borrows on iconic imagery, scenes, and characters from The Shining. For instance, a pair of creepy “twins” haunts the Comley Suites. Except, in this case, they’re grown women, not little girls, and their death story is a little convoluted.

The duo were models staying at the hotel during a shoot. They went out for a jog and got into a fight. One crawled away and got lost in the woods. But she was dead when they found her, same with her jogging partner, so how does anyone know what exactly happened? And why do they haunt the premises if they died outside and away from the hotel?

To be fair, they are seen outside too. They’re also seen during the daytime, not just at night, which is a refreshing change of pace. No matter when they’re seen, they’re meant to be threatening and ominous. But their deaths don’t hit as hard as the twins in The Shining. Maybe because we know exactly what happened to them: their delusional father axed them to death.

There are also a couple of Shining-esque scenes where a white substance oozes from windows and down the walls. Is it milk or semen? I think it’s meant to be the latter, but the visual hits nowhere near as hard as The Shining‘s bloody elevator scene.

Then there’s the hotel in The Shining, which is a character unto itself with a lot of depth, quirks, and mystery. The hotel in Bad Things strives to be as haunted and creepy but isn’t as charming or atmospheric as the Overlook in The Shining. Instead, it winds up feeling a bit forced and desperate in its attempt to mold itself in a similar haunted image.

A Failed Attempt to Become a Slasher

The worst part is when the movie switches gears from a haunted hotel story to something else when we’re whammied with a wannabe slasher component two-thirds of the way in.

Until Bad Things, I never realized The Shining also exhibits slasher characteristics towards the end. Except, as subtle as it is, we know it’s building up to that, so it’s not a surprise when it happens.

Bad Things wants to deliver the same punch. However, it gives us no warning to expect such a shift is coming— or that we were ever headed in that direction in the first place.

Rating

Bad Things bit off more than it could chew storyline-wise. However, I can’t fault the acting, directory, or cinematography. All of that was very well done. But the disjointed plot and tedious pace lost me in the end. That’s why I gave it two and a half skulls.

Bad Things Trailer

For More Info

Visit shudder.com and amcplus.com.

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What other haunted hotel movies do you like?