Writer/director Stewart Thorndike made her feature debut with the 2014 psychological horror film Lyle, which showed what happened when “a mother’s grief over the death of her toddler leads to horror.” It was said that Thorndike was “developing two more female-driven psychological horror films” that would stand alongside Lyle to form a trilogy “about the power of motherhood”. Now the second chapter in that trilogy is making its way out into the world. Thorndike’s new film Bad Things will be released through the Shudder and AMC+ streaming services on August 18th, and a trailer can be seen in the embed above!
Bad Things has the following synopsis: 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 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 drags her there in the hopes of returning it to its former glory. They are joined by their amiable friend Maddie and mysterious grifter Fran, 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.
The film stars Gayle Rankin (Glow) as Ruthie, Annabelle Dexter-Jones (Under the Silver Lake) as Fran, Hari Nef (Barbie) as Cal, and Rad Pereira (The Creator) as Maddie. Molly Ringwald (Sixteen Candles) is also in the cast.
Thorndike provided the following statement: “Bad Things is the second film in a trilogy about the power of motherhood. It’s an unrequited ghost love story between a mother and a daughter. It isn’t polite. I wanted to obliterate the societal norms of what a mother and daughter are – not subtle, loving, passive, healers – but epic and frightening and active. It’s a celebration of this first primal relationship and how blurry and complex that can be. Especially an unrequited one. The story is set in The Comley Hotel, a place where women do bad things. Instead of seeing bad things being done to women, we see women doing bad things. I wanted to create a space for this to be explored. A space apart from the male dominated world. The hotel is distinctly feminine – all mauve and brass and increasingly blood red and milky – and is haunted by ghosts of women who came under its spell. Where are all the female Travis Bickles and Jack Torrances? Bad Things answers that with Ruthie Nodd. If The Shining unleashed a self entitled monster of patriarchy, Bad Things responds with rage. Let rage reign.“
I haven’t seen Lyle, but Bad Things looks interesting to me. I will definitely be checking it out on Shudder. And since I primarily associate the date of August 18th with one of my favorite movies, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, I was very glad to see a quick glimpse of a chainsaw in the Bad Things trailer.
What did you think of the Bad Things trailer? Will you be watching this movie on Shudder or AMC+? Let us know by leaving a comment below.