Very Bad Things (1998)

Very Bad Things is the kind of jet-black comedy-thriller that dares you to keep laughing even as your moral compass spins off its axis, and that audacity is exactly its appeal. Peter Berg shoots the Vegas-to-suburbia descent with a sweaty, escalating panic, turning one catastrophic decision into a tightening vice of paranoia and bad improvisation. Christian Slater is deliciously unhinged as the friend who treats crisis like a leadership opportunity, while Cameron Diaz brings a surprisingly ferocious edge that keeps the film from feeling like a one-note boys’ club takedown. It’s not for the squeamish or anyone allergic to mean-spirited satire—the gore and cruelty are real—but if you want a nasty, nervy time capsule of late-’90s excess that plays like a cautionary fable told with a grin, it’s hard to forget.

Very Bad Things is trying to be a jet-black comedy thriller about a bachelor party spiraling into damage control, where every bad decision creates an even worse one. The problem is the movie often confuses “shocking” with “funny,” leaning hard into nasty, cynical violence and humiliation that can feel more punishing than entertaining. If you don’t enjoy gore, mean-spirited characters, and a tone that offers little relief or likability, this will probably feel like two hours of watching people dig their own grave—literally. That said, if you’re specifically in the mood for a grim, escalating nightmare with committed performances and a “how much worse can it get?” engine, it does deliver that bleak momentum.