Very Bad Things



Very Bad Things is a 1998 Black Comedy directed by Peter Berg. It stars Jon Favreau, Cameron Diaz, Christian Slater, Jeremy Piven, Daniel Stern, Leland Orser, and Kobe Tai.

Kyle Fisher (Favreau), days away from his wedding, welcomes his bachelor party weekend as a chance to break free from his Bridezilla fiancée Laura (Diaz). Along with his best friend Charles (Orser), his friends Michael (Piven), and Boyd (Slater), and Michael's brother Adam (Stern), they celebrate in a Las Vegas hotel room complete with drinking, drugs, and a stripper (Tai).

However, trouble begins when Michael accidentally kills the stripper in the hotel bathroom. When a security guard finds her body, he threatens to call the police but is killed by Boyd. Boyd takes charge of the group and devises a plan to dispose of the bodies by burying them in the desert. Everyone grudgingly goes through with the plan, but soon guilt and nerves begin to destroy the group.

Very Bad Things contains examples of:

 * Binge Montage: the bachelor party.
 * Bridezilla: Laura. She is willing to commit murder to ensure that nothing spoils her dream wedding.
 * Crime After Crime: Boyd murders the security guard to cover up the death of the stripper. As the movie progresses, other characters get murdered to prevent them from spilling the beans about the earlier deaths.
 * Deus Angst Machina: The whole damn movie, starting with the bachelor party in Vegas.
 * Disposable Sex Worker
 * Downer Ending:
 * Hookers and Blow: This combo is what causes the death that kick starts the plot.
 * Murder Is the Best Solution: Very Bad Things is "This Trope: The Movie".
 * Never One Murder: Forms the plot of the movie. The first death was an accident. The protagonist's attempts to cover it up lead them into a string of murders.
 * Out with a Bang: The death of the stripper while having sex is what kicks off the plot.
 * Plethora of Mistakes: The plot starts with a bachelor party on that's dirtier than their wives/fiances want. Then, while high on cocaine, the hooker they hired is killed when her head is impaled during sex. Hiding the body ends up making things worse and that's when Murder Is the Best Solution comes up... Again and again...
 * Rock Bottom: Very Bad Things is practically an endless string of consecutive rock bottoms.
 * Spiritual Successor: The Hangover is basically a less dark remake of this film.
 * Viva Las Vegas