Bad Things 2023

Ruthie Gayle Rankin has recently inherited her grandmother’s abandoned hotel and returns with her girlfriend Cal Hari Nef, their friend Maddie Rad Pereira, and Fran Annabelle Dexter-Jones to spend a few days there, hoping to mend a strained relationship with Cal and maybe try running the place. The old halls feel unsettled, and Ruthie moves hesitantly through the space, balancing the pull of family history with a desire to start anew. She keeps watching hotel-management videos on her phone, among them those featuring Ms. Auerbach Molly Ringwald, a figure who seems to echo guidance and warning at the same time as the place creaks with memory.

When the groundskeeper, Brian Jared Abrahamson, arrives, he speaks with a blunt honesty about Ruthie’s estranged mother, who had been staying at the hotel but has now cut ties and left town. Ruthie reveals to Cal that her mother set up a meeting with a potential buyer for the property, a development that clearly unsettles Cal and stirs old anxieties about Ruthie’s past and present choices.

Privately, Maddie voices a growing weariness about Ruthie’s choices, wondering why Cal stays with her after Ruthie’s infidelity. Ruthie’s tension rises as Fran’s presence becomes increasingly intrusive; Ruthie has kept a secret affair with Fran, and the memory of that relationship still haunts her. The next morning, Fran experiences disturbing visions of former guests, and she becomes increasingly agitated. In her distress, Fran pleads for everyone to leave, but the others dismiss her as seeking Ruthie’s attention and they leave her at the train station, cutting her off from the group.

Back at the hotel, Ruthie begins to hear an echo in the videos, sensing that Ms. Auerbach is talking to her. Cal and Maddie notice Ruthie’s mental strain growing, especially when Ruthie insists that Fran has returned and is a murderer. The tension escalates as Brian unexpectedly returns and is attacked by a chainsaw-wielding figure in another wing of the building. Maddie is assaulted by the same figure, whom she believes is Ruthie herself, and fear drives the trio to lock Ruthie outside after they can’t secure a safe ride away from the hotel.

Ruthie stages a break-in, and inside she encounters a scene that shocks her: the buyers are there to discuss terms, and Ms. Auerbach is present as a consultant. Encouraged by Auerbach, Ruthie refuses the deal, and the group leaves. In the wake of the confrontation, Ruthie tries to locate Cal but instead discovers Brian’s body. Maddie and Cal, convinced Ruthie is the killer, overpower her and lock her in a room.

Inside the hotel, Ruthie is confronted by white liquid pouring from the ceiling and is awoken the next morning by Fran, who has returned to rescue her. Cal, believing Fran still to be a threat, attacks her, and Ruthie, desperate and emboldened, pushes Fran out of a window, sending her to a fatal fall into the empty pool. Maddie wakes and investigates a forbidden hotel room, where she finds the body of Ruthie’s mother, revealed to be Ms. Auerbach Molly Ringwald. Maddie rushes to warn Cal, who finally sees the truth when he notices Ruthie’s mother’s phone in Ruthie’s possession.

Maddie and Cal flee the hotel grounds, but Ruthie pursues them with a chainsaw, killing them in a strip mall parking lot as bystanders pass by without reacting. Ruthie returns to the hotel and finds her mother with Brian in one of the rooms. Her mother shuts the door on her, leaving Ruthie to roam the silent halls alone.