‘Something Very Bad Is Going To Happen’ Interview with Haley Z. Boston

When Haley Z. Boston sat down to write Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen, she wasn’t working from a detailed outline. Instead, the creator followed her instincts, allowing the story’s twists, mythology and emotional revelations to emerge as she went. That unconventional approach would eventually help shape one of Netflix‘s most talked-about horror series — a bloody, supernatural wedding nightmare that doubles as a surprisingly intimate examination of love, doubt and the choices that define a relationship.

For Boston, the series was as much an exploration of her own questions about soulmates and commitment as it was a genre exercise. Those personal themes found their way into every aspect of the production, from the writers’ room discussions that informed Rachel (Camila Morrone) and Nicky’s (Adam DiMarco) journey to the scripts themselves, where Boston highlighted references to blood in bold red text and wasn’t afraid to break traditional screenwriting rules to communicate tone.

Below, Boston talks to Deadline about her unique writing process, the thematic heart of the series and why the show’s shocking finale ultimately functions as a breakup story.

DEADLINE: I’ve heard that you structure your scripts in an interesting way. If there’s anything blood related you mark the text red? There’s a lot of blood in the show, so I bet there’s a lot of that. Talk a bit more about your script structure process. 

HALEY Z. BOSTON: For this specific show, when I was writing the pilot … I don’t outline. Everything comes as it comes, which, admittedly, is a really frustrating way to work. I’m writing a movie right now, and I’m like, “I wish I could follow the rules.” It’s just a nightmare looking at a blank page and being like, “Well, we have no plan.” [Laughs]. For the show, I had a basic idea of where it was going, but honestly, I was on a road trip with this. For example, planning that first episode, we stop at a rest stop and find a baby and then what happens next? But I did the blood thing in the pilot. Whenever there was blood or I put the word blood or bleed or whatever it was, I put it in red and bold and I did that because I knew how important blood would be later on in the series, and I wanted the reader to connect to that and understand that there was something important about that.

Also, I made a title page for all the title drops. It was really big and in your face. And at the time I was writing the scripts, it always came at the end of every episode. Once I got into the edit, I realized I wanted to put it in a special place for each episode.

DEADLINE: It sounds like you ignored all the screenwriting rules. Were you nervous when you submitted your script with all those flourishes? 

BOSTON: No. It’s just what felt right to me. I do a lot of talking to the audience in the script, which is just my way of getting the tone across, making it clear what the audience should be feeling. Because especially if I’m not directing, it’s something that I think is helpful for the director and the actors to understand the tone of the whole scene. There was a writer in my room and when she read episode two, she was like, “You’re so annoying that you do these little things, but because of the way you do it, it’s charming.” And she was jokingly mad about that. But I don’t know. It just felt natural to me, and I think it helps the read – and no one’s mad about that. 

DEADLINE: It sounds incredibly helpful to your actors too. 

BOSTON: Yeah. Cami (Camila Morrone) made fun of me because sometimes I put in parentheticals what the line is really saying, like, what she’s really trying to communicate is the opposite of what the line says. And Cami made a joke to me where she was like, “Can you do that for all my lines?” Just write in parentheses, “No, the line is this.” 

DEADLINE: There’s a lot of concepts about anxiety, family secrets, lies and hard truths in relationships. What were the themes that you absolutely wanted to get through to the audience through a character? 

BOSTON: I felt like there’s a lot that we’re dealing with, but so much of the show for me was figuring out my own relationship problems and what makes two people right for each other. And when I was starting the process of writing the show, I was like, “I have a perspective on that and that’s what’s important,” but I wanted to make sure I wasn’t making a global rule as if I know the answer. So, it had to be very specific to the characters, and the question was is a soulmate fated or is it something you choose? I didn’t want to go down the route of it being fated because A) that’s narratively less interesting and it means no one has a choice and B) I didn’t want to say that I have the answer from the universe. It was important to me that my perspective was that your soulmate is someone who sees you. Once I landed there, then it was like, OK, that’s also going to be Rachel’s desire. That’s what she needs. That’s what she believes.

It was important to me that Rachel made that choice at the end too, because once we figured out that Nicky’s going to say no at the altar, it took away her agency. Then in the next act of the episode, we had to come to a point where now Rachel makes another final decision and that has to be what everything is resting on, which is the idea of what makes two people soulmates. 

The other theme is about the concept of doubt, that’s what the curse represents. I think that’s such a big thing in relationships, and I felt in my naive way that you should never doubt a relationship. I hear people at the altar being like, “I never once had a doubt.“ And in my mind, I was like, the goal is to never have a doubt. But then it’s like, really? How can you do that? How can you not question? So, I wanted to also talk about the idea that it’s normal to question a relationship and have doubt.

DEADLINE: In the end it’s Nicky’s reluctance that dooms them. But then Rachel has the opportunity to continue with the marriage after he calms down, however, she decides to walk away. This results in her ultimately becoming the next ghostly presider over weddings. That turn is so dense. How did you build this out in the writers’ room or on the page? 

BOSTON: I knew I wanted the show to end with a bloodbath, and once I figured out the mythology, which was effectively like Rachel has these three choices, she leaves and doesn’t get married and the curse spreads to Nicky’s bloodline. She says yes, she believes he’s her soulmate, and she lives. She says yes, and she doesn’t believe he’s her soulmate, and she dies. It was taking those three options and trying to… the only one that gives us a bloodbath is her not marrying Nicky [laughs], but I wanted Rachel to be triumphant. Also, she realizes–what the other thematic thing was that I wanted to say earlier–that there’s no certainty ever in any decision that you make, this one included. You have to take a leap of faith and that’s what she does. I wanted that to feel satisfying and for people to feel like she’s choosing love. But one of the writers in the room was like, “What if Nicky’s the one who says no?” And clearly everyone was excited about that, and then we had to figure out how to make that work. [Laughs]. 

Also, I’ve said this before that I relate to Nicky. I’m a Nicky apologist. In some ways he’s based on me in terms of the way that I value marriage and my parents’ relationship. And another writer in the room was like, “Well, Haley, what would make you not believe in marriage anymore?” And I was like, “Well, if I found out that my parents’ marriage is not what I thought.” So that then took shape in his storyline. Really, writing this show was like being in therapy with a bunch of people being like, “Haley, tell us what’s wrong with you. And then we’ll figure out how to make a show about it.” 

DEADLINE: Being a Nicky apologist, that’s brave. 

BOSTON: Look, it was really hard. It was hard to figure out that once Nicky says no, how do we give Rachel that final word? It was so important that they get into this big fight. Then I was worried that people would see her as the antagonist there or wouldn’t be on her side because her saying no causes all these people to die. During the writing process, I worried about that. Then in the edit, I worried that people were going to hate Nicky too early or not see his side. I didn’t want to completely vilify him. I wanted people to understand that if Rachel wasn’t cursed, he is making the right decision, he’s doing what she ultimately wanted. They both have these arcs that accidentally pass each other. I do think there’s good in what he was doing as well, but I’m glad that people really relate to Rachel and are rooting for her.

DEADLINE: Speaking of rooting for, I loved Jules. I love that it’s revealed that Jules and Nell are actual soulmates despite their impending divorce, but at the beginning I thought Jules and Rachel might get together. To be fair, so did the rest of the internet. Was that a conversation in the room? 

BOSTON: I think that was a late decision in the writers’ room where we were talking about who should die and we went back and forth, and it just felt so bad to kill Jules. Everything he was doing was in service of protecting Rachel and then protecting his son. He has a real arc. He does from being stunted to facing his trauma head on and ridding himself of his childhood trauma. But it felt like once that was all mapped out, the idea of what if he lives came into the conversation?  It felt right because the thing that we’re saying about soulmates being someone who sees you, it felt like that was Jules and Nell’s relationship. Maybe they were harsh with each other, but there was true honesty between them. They truly understood each other and that’s what worked in the thesis of the show. And I love that people are loving them and into them as a couple. 

As for Jules and Rachel as a couple… when I pitched the show to Netflix, we referred to Nicky, Rachel, Jules and Nell as a love quad because Nicky used to date Nell and Rachel has a little flirtation with both of them. But then it just became a thing of, we don’t have enough time to tell that story [laughs]. And it felt again, I didn’t want Rachel to be someone that you would turn on or not root for. And so, it became like, well, if she goes there, she entertains either of these people in a real way, I was worried that we would lose her and the audience would be like, “What’s she doing?” But it was certainly something we talked about. 

DEADLINE: What did you want to convey through the ending? 

BOSTON: I wanted to tell a complete story with this. I think the relationship anxiety is done. We’ve told that story and I wanted Rachel to leave. She spends this whole time being so afraid of death and then she ultimately ends up getting a second chance. It’s a breakup story. She realizes Nicky isn’t the right person for her and she chooses to leave. And in a way, the death of all those people in the family is like a metaphor for going through a breakup and those people aren’t in your life anymore. That’s why actually–and no one has asked me this–but that’s why when she leaves the house, there’s no blood in the snow, there’s no trace of any people. Not that you’re supposed to read that none of that actually happened, but that there’s this idea of a rebirth and that the representation of leaving as a new person is how it feels to end a relationship. It’s a complete story.