Bad Things

The actors in this movie made you believe in their characters. Their actions, reactions, and incidental chatter sounded like people really talk.

Unfortunately that's the only nice thing I can say about this movie. The setting and setup is great... if Stephen King hadn't thought of it half a century ago. The direction is uneven, sprinkling a few interesting scenes into an hour-and-a-half of ennui. And the writing.... Four characters that I cared nothing about, trying to survive, or not, whatever. This movie-other than the actors-came across like the product of a high school English assignment from an ineffective teacher: "Write a new ending for 'The Shining.' And remember, if less is more, then nothing must be everything!"

Bad Things might just be the worse film I've seen all year, 2023. I don't think the makers of this film have the basic knowledge of how to make any film and certainly not a horror film.

The central characters' friendship and intersecting romantic relationships, which are meant to be the film's grounding center, are described as having flimsy connections and dead air. The performances lacking chemistry and genuine feeling, leaving the film lacking emotional investment. The acting performances were abysmal.

It looks like they were striving for something along the lines of The Shining since it draws a lot of its inspiration from the Kubrick film. But they failed miserably.

Bad Things (2023) is a movie that was recently added to Shudder. The storyline follows a group of friends who are being supportive to a friend who recently inherited a hotel and hopes to either run it or sell it with her mom. It quickly becomes apparent that something isn't right and they believe it's someone not something causing their concern. Is the hotel haunted, is someone messing with them, or is it both?

This movie is written and directed by Stewart Thorndike (Lyle) and stars Gayle Rankin (Men), Hari Nef (Barbie), Annabelle Dexter-Jones (Ravage), Rad Pereira (Betty), Jared Abrahamson (Fear the Walking Dead) and Molly Ringwald (Sixteen Candles).

This had some unique elements and reminded me of a poor man's The Shining...like if it took place in the Poconos. The acting was actually pretty solid. There's some mental state subplots that were interesting. The characters are pretty unique too. Unfortunately, there was little to no horror elements until the very ending...then the last 15 minutes was impressive. The twists at the end actually surprised me that it was worthwhile with such a poor setup. There's some cool kills at the very, very end...but other than that this is fairly stale. I would score this a 4.5-5/10 and recommend seeing it once only for horror enthusiasts.

Watching this movie is like watching a car fire across the street. The only reason you keep watching is to see how bad it really is. You might hope it could become "so bad it's good", but no... it's just bad, but shows signs of possibly having had potential and that only makes it worse. I watched all the way to the end, unfortunately.

It feels like another film maker could have made a decent version of this film. There's some promising moments. (e.g. A super interesting "haunted" scene with a bunch of customers who probably aren't real.) However, the moments that are interesting only add to the disappointment of how bad the film ends up being, as a whole.

There are interesting characters here, none of whom are likeable because they are so terrible to each other, but that could have used somehow. Instead It's all just squandered opportunities.

I would have rated it a 1 except that a couple of the performers do a decent job. So, I'll give them points even though they can't save the script. (In the end I just felt embarrassed for them, having to have been in such a bad movie.) I'm sure the people playing the main character's trans/lesbian love interests could do well in other films. I'll actually look them up. I'd bet they are in better movies where their performances aren't wasted by bad writing/direction.

Better directing and writing could have resulted in a good movie, but in the end, this film just sucks. Its momentary glimmers of potential and its brief scenes generating interest, only makes its ultimate emptiness and disappointment more frustrating.

I give it 2 stars because it wasn't boring, precisely. It simply made no sense and wasn't scary in the least...that is, unless you count how frighteningly ugly and stupid the characters were. These people are friends?? I don't believe it. I was completely unable to suspend my disbelief and was acutely aware of the films shortcomings every moment.

Incredibly unlikeable characters (despite minimal development), a meandering and pointless plot that fleshed out exactly nothing, and an utter lack of logical support leave the film a nonsensical mishmash.

I'd seen the directors first offering, Lyle. A better film, though not good, it and Bad Things leaves me wondering if Thorndike is deliberately and actively trying to depict lesbians as unhinged, abusive, and dull-witted wastes-of-breath? And to ruin film?