Bad Things

Directed by Anthony Thornton-Hopwood

2025

Buffalo 8

What would happen if artificial intelligence was able to jump from person to person as if it were a virus? That’s the key question in this horror comedy from writer/director Anthony Thornton-Hopwood. A group of Duke of Edinburgh students head out into the hills (much of the film was shot on the Malvern Hills) only to find themselves under attack by AI-infected killers.

Thornton-Hopwood is certainly not afraid to wear his influences on his sleeve here, with Edgar Wright’s Cornetto Trilogy looming large. The director gives a direct nod to Shaun of the Dead with the promotion of the film, even though the film’s themes of technology feel closer to The World’s End.

The broad humour is certainly here, and much of the opening third involves the students bickering between themselves. Thornton uses a handy shortcut in these establishing scenes, as many of the characters will meet gruesome ends, he places them into neat Breakfast Club-esque archetypes, with the popular class clown, the mean girls, the nerd and the alternative girl all struggling to work together.

These archetypes are a quick way to draw the audience into the film, but at times they limit how much we connect with the characters. Amey DeSouza is excellent as Amy, who quickly steps into the lead role, backed up by Harry Ball as Tony, who ends up with the most character development, switching from a jock-ish clown into a very likeable character. The rest of the cast, while very good, aren’t given enough to do within the script to leave an impression after their inevitable, gory deaths.

And it’s the death sequences that kick the film into another gear. Thornton-Hopwood understands how to work around budget limitations, keeping things off-camera where possible to give the effects on screen the maximum impact. Once the characters start meeting their ends, the film picks up pace significantly and impresses all the way until its climatic sequence.

The cast have a knack for very physical performances, both DeSouza and Ball put their all into the final scenes as do the antagonistic Tegan Askey and Oliver Asante. There’s also a standout scene starring Mollie Fowler, shot from above the car, which sees her character smashed through every window.

It's just that pacing during the opening parts. Thornton-Hopwood opts for a cold open to explain the threat, which means the pace slows significantly as we’re introduced to the main cast. A little bit of work on the script could have possibly integrated the exposition, and propelled the film on a little bit more.

★★★

3 / 5

Matthew Tilt

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You can watch the full film on Amazon Prime UK here http://bit.ly/46rHIif