So…Are We All Afraid of Commitment Now?

This story contains extensive spoilers about The Drama and Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen, including their endings.

It's a really strange sensation to watch The Drama when you're planning your own wedding.

In the movie, Zendaya and Robert Pattinson play Emma Harwood and Charlie Thompson, a couple in the midst of prepping for their own nuptials. While doing a (way-too-late) tasting at their venue to finalize the menu just a few days before the wedding, a conversation with their friends turns into a party game of sorts: What is the worst thing you've ever done? Charlie can't think of anything all that significant. Emma's is a doozy.

Here's where spoilers kick in: When she was a teenager, she planned, but didn't execute, a school shooting. It's a horrifying revelation that acts as a comment on the pervasiveness of gun violence in American society. But more than that, it's a jumping-off point to explore the anxieties associated with commitment. The anti-rom-com, written and directed by Kristoffer Borgli, asks, if you found out your partner contemplated something genuinely monstrous, would you still tie the knot?

Now let's make this clear: I myself am remarkably chill about my upcoming event. Movies and TV shows are trying to make me less so.

In addition to The Drama, this spring has seen the arrival of the Netflix limited horror series Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen. The show follows Rachel Harkin (Camila Morrone), who travels with her fiancé, Nicky Cunningham (Adam DiMarco), to his brood's remote vacation house for what she thinks will be their intimate wedding. Immediately, she is struck by a strong sense of foreboding. At first, she suspects her partner's weird family is going to murder her in some satanic ritual, but her plight ends up being a lot more existential. She is cursed, and if the man she marries is not her one, true soulmate, she will die on her wedding day. If they don't walk down the aisle, the curse will spread to his bloodline. That means she's forced to question whether the guy she loves is truly the only person for her because both of their lives are at stake.

Tonally, The Drama and Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen are vastly different. The Drama is ultimately a relationship saga that's almost too real. Meanwhile, the longer you watch Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen, the more it leans into its supernatural flourishes before its Grand Guignol ending, where faces start oozing rivers of red liquid. But both, at their core, are about how choosing to say "I do" can be a recipe for disaster.

These days, marriage is looking less and less appealing. A recent report in The New York Times found that the U.S. marriage rate hit a 140-year low in 2019. It has risen a little since then, but not in a truly significant way. At the same time, the marriage industrial complex is still going strong—especially in the age of oversharing on social media, when bridal showers and bachelorette parties are more curated (and friendship-testing) than ever, and fashionable brides are desperate to get their ceremonies into Vogue. The Drama and Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen speak to those twin trends: As more people ask, "Why even get married?" the business of getting married can feel overwhelming.

Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen leans into this by centering the episodes on different traditions, such as the bachelorette party or the ceremony. Rachel only wants to deal with the whole curse thing, while her nattering to-be-sister-in-law Portia (Gus Birney) demands she have fun with the girls. Similarly, in The Drama, Charlie and Emma are overwhelmed by an instructor (Celia Rowlson-Hall) coaching them on their wedding dance, who takes everything way too seriously. Also, the very conversation that yields Emma's confession starts because Emma and Charlie think they walk by their wedding DJ doing heroin on the street and wonder whether it’s a momentary lapse in judgment or the kind of thing that could ruin their celebration. After Charlie learns what Emma nearly did, they still go around meeting with their vendors, like the cheery photographer (Zoë Winters) who can't understand why they suddenly look so uncomfortable around each other. In each piece of entertainment, the show must go on. After all, there's time and money invested in making sure everything is just right.

Through these sequences, we see how the pomp and circumstance of marriage is the enemy of honest discussion. That's especially evident in Something Very Bad's rehearsal dinner episode, where Rachel placates her nerves by repeating the cute story of how she and Nicky met until she learns that something about her telling doesn't add up. Charlie spirals in The Drama without truly listening to what Emma has to say or realizing the pain these memories have brought up for her. He makes her drama all about him.

The ultimate question in both cases, as it is in any wedding, is whether these two people are meant to be together. And this, again, is where they diverge. At the outset of the finale of Something Very Bad, Rachel decides she's committed to believing she and Nicky are soulmates, but after her heartfelt vows, he is the one who has trouble sealing the deal. He thinks the best solution is to call the whole thing off. Given the curse, that is not an option, and she realizes he never truly believed her very justified fears. In the end, through a magic twist of fate, she gets to leave him behind, and thank goodness for that. She just has to serve as witness to every Cunningham marriage, as the human manifestation of the curse they now have.

The Drama, on the other hand, ends with Charlie and Emma together. They get married, but the reception is a hot mess with an angry, drunken bridesmaid (Alana Haim, genius in the role) and an admission of infidelity on Charlie's part. But after blood has been spilled and her dress has been ruined, they both land at the same diner, where they tentatively start over. Maybe they are choosing to ignore each other's flaws. Or maybe they are just recognizing that nobody's perfect.

I think I weirdly find The Drama's version of romance more comforting. Yes, Something Very Bad has a you-go-girl ending where Rachel drives off, grinning, smoking, and looking like a badass. But she's also condemned to a life of bearing witness to other people's misery.

It's The Drama that has a bizarre optimism for its central pair. Sure, they may be deeply messed up, but they are now married, and they are going to try to make it work. They always thought they'd conclude their night at the diner. Now they are doing just that, a little worse for wear, but together nonetheless.

At this point, I think I know my partner pretty well. We've been together for over 10 years. He's my best friend. But you can never truly know another person. There will be thoughts that will always be mysterious. Moods that you can't interpret. You just have to hope that you can meet at your version of a diner, willing to forgive.