We Need To Do Something Cast & Character Guide

Based on the Max Booth III novella of the same name, We Need To Do Something follows a simple story matched by a simple ensemble of cast and characters. Taking place for the most part in an impressively spacious bathroom, this claustrophobic horror movie opens with a family taking shelter from an apocalyptic thunderstorm, a supernatural weather event that will force the family to stay trapped together indoors with no end or exit in sight.

With all the familiar tropes and tonal cues of the confinement horror genre, We Need To Do Something is very much a horror film of the pandemic era. The dysfunctional nature of this family in particular, especially in regards to the teenage daughter’s feelings of familial disconnect and the passive aggressive hostility boiling between the mother and father, adds a psychological dimension to movie, complicating the fear of what’s lurking outside with a tense, palpable rage coiled within the family. In a Lovecraftian sense, the movie derives its horror from the unseen, relying on the power of suggestion to provoke and torture the imaginations of both the main characters and the audience.

Confined to such tight quarters with only a few intermittent changes in setting via flashbacks, We Need To Do Something focuses on only a handful of characters whose emotions and reactions almost solely drive and sustain the plot. Credit goes to the four main leads in particular — mother, father, daughter, and son — for carrying the story. With that in mind, here’s a guide to the full cast and characters of We Need To Do Something and where you’ve seen them before.

Sierra McCormick As Melissa

The lead protagonist, Melissa is a fairly (stereo)typical teenager — angsty and annoyed with her family — played by Sierra McCormick. Expressing herself with reddish pink hair and pink eyeshadow, Melissa is a sort of troubled teen of the Billie Eilish variety, with her nightmare of having to spend time with her family fulfilled by the cosmic weather event that, as the story proceeds, is revealed to be linked to Melissa’s girlfriend Amy. Actress McCormick began performing at a young age, playing in a number of various TV show roles from Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader to Curb Your Enthusiasm. Her role in 2014’s Some Kind of Hate earned her a nomination for the Fright Meter Award.

Pat Healy As Robert

Chicago-born actor Pat Healy plays Robert, the lead family’s unstable patriarch. Rather than acting as a source of security and comfort for his family, Robert charges his family’s confinement with an unnerving energy, further complicating the already-tense scenario with his volatile temper and seething resentment towards his wife. Healy has starred in many TV shows and feature films, and he’s perhaps best known for his work in The Innkeepers (2011), Cheap Thrills (2013), and The Post (2017).

Vinessa Shaw As Diane

The family’s matriarch, Diane, is played by Vinessa Shaw, who is no stranger to the horror film genre. While struggling to reassure and comfort her son, Diane is forced to contend with her husband’s passive aggressive insults and feverish abusive with nowhere to escape. The mounting conflict between the two ends in a violent confrontation involving husband, wife, and daughter. Best known for her role as the love interest Allison in Hocus Pocus (1993), Shaw has also starred in Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut (1999), The Hills Have Eyes (2006), and 3:10 to Yuma (2007).

John James Cronin As Bobby

Played by John James Cronin, Bobby is the youngest and most innocent of the four, the scared son of Robert and Diane. Terrified alongside Melissa at the fraught dynamic between their parents, Bobby finds solace in the reassuring comfort of his mother — though his fate becomes the reason for his parents’ breaking point. As a child actor, Cronin made his feature film debut playing the comic relief role of Otto in the romantic comedy Second Act (2018), co-starring Jennifer Lopez, Leah Remini, and Milo Ventimiglia.

Lisette Alexis As Amy

Played by Lisette Alexis, Amy is Melissa’s classmate and girlfriend, as revealed through flashbacks and Melissa’s desperate attempts to connect with Amy after the storm begins. A quiet, brooding girl with a supernatural darkness lurking within her, Amy is centrally connected to the world-ending storm, which is potentially linked to a hex Amy performed in spite of a male classmate. We Need To Do Something is actress Alexis’ first time acting in a feature film.

We Need To Do Something Supporting Cast

Ozzy Osborne as Good Boy – A talking demon dog that appears after the thunderstorm traps the family in the bathroom, suggesting of something more sinister than simple bad weather underlying the storm. Ozzy is a famous musician, most notably as the lead singer of the heavy metal rock band Black Sabbath.

Logan Kearney as Joe – The male classmate of Melissa and Amy, Joe is a creepy stalkerish fellow who gets caught videotaping an intimate moment between the girls, inspiring Amy to perform her hex ritual against Joe. Kearney is known for his stunt work in Ghost Note (2017).

Dan John Miller as The Voice at the Door – Similar to Ozzy’s talking demon dog, a demonic voice outside the family’s bathroom door further sets the sinister, Satanic tone of We Need To Do Something, suggesting of a frightening creature lurking around the premises that may or may not kill the family on sight. Miller is a musician who has played in multiple bands, including Goober & the Peas, Two Star Tabernacle, and his current gothic-country band Blanche.

About The Author