Bad Things is a 2023 horror drama about Ruthie, an inherited hotel, and a friendship group whose old resentments become inseparable from the building’s unsettling atmosphere. Stewart Thorndike’s film has a strong ensemble and a clear interest in female and non-binary rage, but the available Loud and Clear Reviews assessment finds that its movement between character drama and horror is disjointed. That tension is the key to deciding whether the film is for you: approach it as an atmosphere-first, thematically charged character piece rather than a tightly engineered scare machine.
Bad Things at a glance
| Item | Details |
|---|---|
| Film | Bad Things (2023) |
| Writer and director | Stewart Thorndike |
| Principal cast | Gayle Rankin, Hari Nef, Annabelle Dexter-Jones, Rad Pereira, Jared Abrahamson and Molly Ringwald |
| Central roles | Rankin as Ruthie, Nef as Cal, Pereira as Maddie and Dexter-Jones as Fran |
| Genre and rating | Horror; TV-MA on AMC+ |
| Listed runtime | 1 hour 27 minutes on AMC+; IFC Center’s 2023 event listing says 85 minutes |
| Critical listing | Emma Vine, Loud and Clear Reviews, 2.5/5, listed by Rotten Tomatoes on March 2, 2026 |
| Rotten Tomatoes snapshot | 53% Tomatometer from 40 reviews, page accessed October 13, 2026 |
| Physical release | US Shudder Blu-ray reported with a January 27, 2026 release date and multiple extras |
The Tomatometer figure is a changing aggregator snapshot, not an audience score or a scientific measure of quality. The 2.5/5 rating belongs specifically to Vine’s listed review and should not be presented as a consensus verdict.
What is Bad Things about?
Ruthie inherits her grandmother’s hotel and returns to it with her partner Cal and friends Maddie and Fran. The trip begins with a practical premise—taking possession of a family property—but the hotel quickly becomes a pressure chamber for relationships that were already unstable. The building’s eerie presence and the group’s unresolved history feed each other, so the film’s danger is both environmental and interpersonal.
That setup gives Thorndike two stories to develop at once. One is a haunted-house-style story in which a remote hotel seems to hold memories, threats or forces that the visitors cannot comfortably explain. The other is an intimate drama about ownership, partnership, friendship and the emotional consequences of returning to a place tied to family. The film’s critical divide follows that same split: viewers who value mood and psychological friction may find the combination provocative, while viewers expecting a clean escalation of horror set pieces may experience it as unfocused.
#1 Best Overall
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Thorndike’s stated purpose: rage, identity and motherhood
Thorndike described the project in Shudder’s April 20, 2023 announcement as an attempt to create “a world of women and non-binary people who shake off polite conditionings and finally roar.” He asked, “Where are all the female Travis Bickles and Jack Torrances?” and said that Bad Things answers with Ruthie Nodd. He also called the film “a dark celebration of motherhood and all its splendid viscera.”
Those comments are useful interpretive guidance, not a guarantee that every viewer will experience the film as a fully developed political argument. They explain why the hotel’s social tensions matter as much as its supernatural implications. The characters are not simply targets waiting for a monster; they are people negotiating expectations about care, obedience, intimacy and who is allowed to express anger. The phrase “polite conditionings” points toward a horror rooted in suppressed behavior: what happens when people stop performing composure, and what that release costs them and everyone nearby.
The motherhood theme also places the film closer to bodily and domestic horror than to a purely mechanical haunted-house exercise. Thorndike’s wording suggests that reproduction, family inheritance and the physical realities associated with motherhood are meant to be sources of both power and discomfort. Because the available review summary criticizes the film’s direction, viewers should expect an ambitious thematic design whose elements may not always lock together with conventional narrative efficiency.
The cast and the film’s relationship dynamics
Gayle Rankin leads the ensemble as Ruthie, the heir whose connection to the hotel gives the group a reason to return. Hari Nef plays Cal, Ruthie’s partner, while Rad Pereira plays Maddie and Annabelle Dexter-Jones plays Fran. Jared Abrahamson and Molly Ringwald are also named in the distributor’s principal cast announcement.
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The premise makes the four-person core more important than a simple list of victims and survivors. Ruthie’s inheritance changes the balance between her and Cal: the hotel is her family property, but the decision to return affects their shared life. Maddie and Fran arrive with their own histories with the couple, and the confined setting removes the easy exits that normally allow friends to postpone difficult conversations. In practical terms, every disagreement can carry two meanings—an immediate argument and evidence of a longer pattern.
Rank #2
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That structure creates opportunities for performance-driven horror. A glance, a refusal to answer, or a disagreement about what happened in the hotel can function as character information and as a clue about the threat. It also creates a risk: if the emotional conflicts are not given clear progression, the film can feel as though it is circling the same tension rather than intensifying it. The 2.5/5 assessment from Loud and Clear Reviews is best understood in that context. Rotten Tomatoes’ summary says the cast and characters are intriguing, but that the drama-horror combination produces a disjointed story without direction.
Why the horror/drama blend is the central issue
Bad Things does not present its horror as an isolated attraction that begins after the relationship drama. The hotel’s atmosphere and the group’s tensions are designed to contaminate one another. That can be effective when ambiguity makes every social rupture feel ominous. It can be frustrating when the film appears to change rules or emphasis without providing a strong enough through-line.
What the dramatic side contributes
- Character stakes: The inherited property is tied to Ruthie’s family, so leaving is not emotionally equivalent to abandoning a random location.
- Interpersonal pressure: Cal, Maddie and Fran are not strangers assembled for a survival exercise; their existing relationships make every choice consequential.
- Thematic weight: Thorndike’s interest in gendered expectations and motherhood gives the conflict a social and bodily dimension beyond “people in a spooky hotel.”
What the horror side demands
- Escalation: Atmospheric unease eventually needs a pattern of consequences, whether those consequences are supernatural, psychological or deliberately ambiguous.
- Spatial clarity: A hotel should feel like a legible but threatening place, with rooms, corridors and boundaries that help the audience understand how danger moves.
- Payoff: The film’s ideas about rage and inheritance need an ending that connects them rather than leaving them as parallel motifs.
The critical complaint recorded by Rotten Tomatoes is that the film does not always meet those structural demands. That is a criticism of execution, not proof that the premise is misguided. Some viewers will accept a fractured shape as an expression of the characters’ destabilization; others will want the horror mechanics and emotional arc to point in the same direction more consistently.
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What the 2.5/5 review actually says
Rotten Tomatoes lists Emma Vine’s Loud and Clear Reviews entry dated March 2, 2026, with a rating of 2.5/5. Its short summary describes a talented cast and intriguing characters, then argues that the attempt to combine drama and horror results in a disjointed story that lacks direction.
That wording should be kept precise. It is an individual critic’s evaluation, not an objective description that every viewer must accept. It also does not say that the performances fail, that the premise is uninteresting, or that the film contains no effective horror. Instead, the review’s emphasis is structural: the parts may be appealing on their own, but the transition between them does not produce a fully coherent whole.
Rank #3
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For a reader deciding whether to watch, the useful question is not “Is the film good or bad?” but “Will this particular trade-off bother me?” If you need a tightly plotted supernatural narrative with clearly signposted rules, the review’s warning is significant. If you enjoy films that let atmosphere, identity and interpersonal conflict remain partially unresolved, the same qualities may be reasons to try it.
Reception in context
As accessed October 13, 2026, Rotten Tomatoes displayed a 53% Tomatometer from 40 reviews. That number describes the proportion of counted reviews classified as positive by the aggregator’s system at that moment. It can change as additional reviews are added or classifications are updated, and it does not represent an audience poll.
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Is Bad Things worth watching?
The most honest answer is conditional. Bad Things is worth watching if you are interested in a contained horror drama that treats the haunted location as an extension of family and friendship conflict. It is a less obvious choice if your priority is a conventional scare structure, rapid plot movement or a neatly explained mythology.
Choose it if you want
- A short, ensemble-led horror film centered on women and non-binary characters.
- A hotel setting where inheritance and personal history matter as much as physical danger.
- Thematic horror about anger, social expectations and motherhood.
- A film that may leave you debating whether its fractured structure is purposeful or underdeveloped.
Approach cautiously if you need
- A single, dominant genre identity from the opening scene to the ending.
- Consistent forward momentum and clearly explained supernatural rules.
- A review experience based primarily on scares rather than relationships and mood.
Because the film is listed as TV-MA, viewers should also check the content guidance on the service or edition they use. The rating communicates an adult classification, but the available sources do not provide a complete scene-by-scene content advisory.
Rank #4
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Where can you watch Bad Things?
AMC+ currently has a title page for the film, listing it as a 2023, TV-MA horror movie with a runtime of 1 hour 27 minutes. Catalogs vary by country and can change, so confirm that the title is playable in your territory before subscribing or beginning a trial.
Shudder announced the film after its world premiere at the 2023 Tribeca Film Festival. The announcement described a planned streaming release in the United States, United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand, with AMC+ carrying it where available in the United States, Canada and Australia/New Zealand. Those were the release territories announced in 2023; they should not be treated as a guarantee of present-day availability.
Runtime listings also differ. IFC Center’s 2023 screening page gives 85 minutes, while AMC+ lists 1 hour 27 minutes. The discrepancy may reflect listing conventions, credits or a version difference, but the sources do not establish the cause. Use the runtime displayed by the platform or event you are actually using.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.The Shudder Blu-ray option
A US Shudder Blu-ray edition is documented with a reported January 27, 2026 release date. Blu-ray.com’s entry describes a director and producer commentary, new interviews, archival cast interviews, a video essay, image galleries and a booklet.
The disc is the more attractive route for viewers who want context around Thorndike’s intentions or who collect physical editions of independent horror. Its extras could also help clarify how the filmmakers approached the relationship between character drama and genre. However, retailer stock, prices and regional compatibility are volatile. Confirm that a listing is the US edition, that your player supports its region, and that the seller still has the advertised contents before purchasing. No current stock or price is established here.
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How to read the film’s hotel setting
The hotel is more than a backdrop because the inheritance gives Ruthie a claim that is simultaneously financial, familial and symbolic. Returning to it turns private history into shared space. Cal, Maddie and Fran must negotiate Ruthie’s connection to the building, while Ruthie must decide whether ownership gives her authority or merely responsibility.
Hotels also naturally blur public and private life. Bedrooms promise privacy, hallways expose movement, and common areas force people to perform civility. That architecture fits Thorndike’s stated interest in polite conditioning: the characters can retreat, but they cannot fully escape being observed or interpreted by one another. When the atmosphere becomes eerie, ordinary boundaries—who belongs in a room, who has the right to leave, whose memory is trusted—can become sources of dread.
This reading does not require the hotel to be explained as a conventional haunted property. The film’s premise allows the building’s threat to operate literally, psychologically or in a deliberately unstable combination. The important point is that the location turns emotional history into something the characters must physically inhabit.
What makes the film distinctive—and what may hold it back
| Strength or risk | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Focused ensemble | The core cast gives the film a small social system in which every alliance can change the stakes. |
| Unusual thematic ambition | Thorndike links horror to gendered restraint, rage and motherhood rather than treating the setting as a neutral maze. |
| Atmosphere over explanation | Ambiguity can make the hotel and relationships feel unstable, but it may frustrate viewers who want explicit rules. |
| Genre switching | Drama can deepen the horror when the two modes reinforce each other; abrupt shifts can create the directionlessness noted in the 2.5/5 review. |
| Short runtime | The listed 85 to 87 minutes keeps the premise compact, but it also limits the time available to develop several characters and resolve multiple themes. |
Final assessment
Bad Things is a deliberately charged premise built around an inherited hotel, a strained group of friends and a director interested in what happens when people reject enforced politeness. Stewart Thorndike’s cast and thematic aims give the film a strong identity. The principal critical reservation is equally clear: according to Emma Vine’s 2.5/5 review as summarized by Rotten Tomatoes, the drama and horror do not always combine into a directed, cohesive story.
That makes the film a selective recommendation rather than a universal one. Viewers drawn to feminist and non-binary-centered horror, tense ensemble dynamics and unresolved atmosphere may find enough in the hotel’s emotional pressure to justify the trip. Viewers seeking a precise supernatural plot should treat the review’s warning about disjointedness as decisive. Either way, Bad Things is best approached as an experiment in female rage and inherited space, not as a standard haunted-house formula.
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