Until Dawn

Some of the more beloved video games of the past decade have been horror games. From survival horror like Outlast and Resident Evil: Biohazard, to games like The Quarry and Until Dawn — where it’s up to the player to decide who lives and dies based off their decisions — horror is just as reliable a genre in video game form as it in modern cinema. With video game adaptations largely ruling Hollywood in the wake of The Super Mario Bros Movie, The Last of Us HBO series and A Minecraft Movie, it makes sense that one of the most popular games of the 2010’s would receive its own film adaptation. After having spent the past several years of his career away from horror with the two Shazam! films, filmmaker David F. Sandberg returns to his genre roots with a sporadically entertaining horror film. Despite the unique narrative hook that does its best to pay respects to the format of the source material, this new film adaptation isn’t strong enough to avoid the whiff of a clear missed opportunity.

Courtesy Sony

After reuniting with her friends following the one-year anniversary of her sister’s disappearance, Clover (Ella Rubin, The Idea of You) takes a trip to follow her sister’s last-known whereabouts. Along with her friends, Max (Michael Cimino), Megan (Ji-young Yoo), Nina (Odessa A’zion, the 2022 Hellraiser reboot) and Nina’s new boyfriend Abel (Belmont Cameli), the group heads out to Glore Valley, a mysterious ghost town where Clover’s sister Melanie (Maia Mitchell) was last seen. After being told of a nearby cabin from the mysterious Dr. Hill (Peter Stormare), they discover the home is sectioned off from the torrential down-pouring of rain that surrounds the area, almost like a strange halo around the property. Once they’re settled, the gang is quickly attacked by a masked killer who disposes of them with ease. However, once the last person is dead, the night resets, forcing the crew to relieve the night over and over again with a different killer or threat each night. The only way for them to stop the time loop is to survive until dawn.

As a game adaptation, Until Dawn has its share of clever Easter eggs and nods to the source material that will satisfy fans, but the whiff of missed opportunity plagues the film. In his first genre film in nearly a decade, director David F. Sandberg utilizes the neat premise to dabble in several subgenres of horror. With the creative time loop hook, Sandberg is able to infuse elements of body horror, possession, slasher films, and even found footage in what is essentially Sandberg’s grab bag of horror tropes and subgenres. The results often lean closer to a Cabin in the Woods riff than an honest-to-god adaptation of the hit video game. Sandberg’s film plays more like a “greatest hits of horror” collection than a film that takes the genre into any interesting new directions.

As a serviceable genre film, Sandberg utilizes a welcoming sense of practicality in his staging and effects work. If nothing else, Until Dawn boasts a great deal of elaborate make-up and in-camera tricks that give to some gnarly on-screen kills. Simple setups and skilled blending of old-fashioned filmmaking and digital compositing elevates the many gore gags. Sandberg and team pull off body explosions, mutilations and a particular skull-crushing that must be seen to be believed.

Courtesy Sony

The script, credited to Blair Butler and Gary Dauberman, unfortunately fails to give these characters a spark, making the stop-and-go pacing all the more frustrating. Running at just over 100 minutes, Until Dawn suffers greatly from stagnant pacing that halts any momentum built up by the filmmakers. To Sandberg and the screenwriter’s credit, the film rarely feels episodic and does an admirable job of mixing up the villains and bloody survival without feeling stale.

While the video game had actors such as Hayden Panettiere, Rami Malek and Brenda Song, those characters were confidently written, allowing the player to quickly understand the dynamics and relationships of the group, even with varying characteristics due to the interactive choose-your-own-adventure style of storytelling. Stars Ella Rubin and Belmont Cameli make the largest impressions of the cast, but like the other characters, they are stuck delivering stiff, uninspired dialogue. Other characters fail to differentiate between each other which makes the extended runtime feel longer than it actually is.

Courtesy Sony

Until Dawn is an adequate enough horror romp, but to fans or anyone familiar with the game, there is an undeniable element of missed opportunity here. Director David F. Sandberg lends his skilled craft to a fun premise with plenty of potential, but is sadly undermined by a flat script and uneven pacing. Until Dawn is not a bad time, but it is a disappointing one.

Until Dawn is now playing in theaters.