Paranoia and mistrust are always great bedfellows with hotels. There is something about the supposed ‘home away from homes’ that lends themselves to the undoing of a mind. The most famous instance is that of Jack Torrance during his stay at The Overlook in The Shining. Whereas that film focused on the slow decline of one man, Stewart Thorndike’s new film, Bad Things, ups the ante. Ruthie (Gayle Rankin), her partner Cal (Hari Nef), and their friends Maddie (Rad Pereira) and Fran (Annabella Dexter Jones), travel to a hotel that Ruthie has inherited. As Ruthie wrestles with whether to list or love the property, the group quickly begin to lose their grasp on reality and bloody chaos ensues.
Even before the hotel takes its hold on Ruthie and her companions, it is obvious that this core group are not as well as their facade suggests. Ruthie and Cal may be presenting a united front, but a previous dalliance between Ruthie and Fran continues to cause friction. There is a vicious hostility towards Fran that is so potent that it is confusing how she managed to get an invite to the trip away. The strained triangle between these three facilitates much of the opening tensions. These emotions feed into the narrative structure and morph into something far deadlier. Bad Things relies heavily on the emotional weight of its characters’ psyches to push the narrative forward.
The loose story structure is compounded by some interesting focus points of the camera. On more than one occasion, characters leave the frame but the camera remains in place. Thorndike lets the camera linger on the vacant spaces, just long enough to trick the mind into expecting some big jump scare. Though these jumps never materialise, Thorndike has still generated enough unease to keep the audience on edge. Liminal spaces – hallways and such – form most of Bad Things’ visual setting; the fairly mundane and familiar vista is somehow made uncomfortable to watch. The mood feeds into the piece beautifully, orchestrating an ideal platform for the second half of Bad Things to play out. Paranoia reaches fever pitch and as the group fractures, there is a palpable frisson of tension.
With its reliance on mood to convey its message, Bad Things is a subdued, but engaging film that draws the viewer in with creative camerawork.
Bad Things was reviewed at TriBeCa Film Festival 2023.
Bad Things
Summary
The lingering visuals in Bad Things conjure imaginary nightmares, whilst the story of paranoia run wild is extremely effective when told in such an isolated location.
