Until Dawn (dir. David F. Sandberg)

by Jack Martin | Apr 27, 2025

Certificate: 15

Running Time: 103 mins

UK Distributor: Sony Pictures

UK Release Date: 25 April 2025

WHO’S IN UNTIL DAWN?

Ella Rubin, Michael Cimino, Odessa A’zion, Ji-young Yoo, Belmont Cameli, Maia Mitchell, Peter Stormare

WHO’S BEHIND THE CAMERA?

David F. Sandberg (director, producer), Gary Dauberman (writer, producer), Blair Butler (writer), Roy Lee, Lotta Losten, Mia Maniscalco, Asad Qizilbash and Carter Swan (producers), Benjamin Wallfisch (composer), Maxime Alexandre (cinematographer), Michel Aller (editor)

WHAT’S IT ABOUT?

A group of young people find themselves trapped in a deadly time-loop…

WHAT ARE MY THOUGHTS ON UNTIL DAWN?

Adapting a video game like Until Dawn is the very definition of a catch-22, because it’s impossible to turn into a film without removing the very thing that makes it distinct. The hit PlayStation title operates with a unique choose-your-own-adventure style of interactive gameplay, where participants alter the horror-based narrative based on snap decisions they make for their characters, something that could never be truly replicated on film. Beyond that, if one were to simply adapt the story itself without the interactive elements, you’d be making an exceptionally bland and conventional horror movie that’d be no different to any of the others. Like the nature of the game itself, you’re damned if you do and you’re damned if you don’t.

It’s therefore all the more impressive that not only has director David F. Sandberg, along with writers Gary Dauberman and Blair Butler, found a way to bring the game to life, but do so in a way that honours the shifty narrative without being a direct adaptation. But while there’s a fair bit to admire about their take on Until Dawn, there are also plenty of times when it becomes clear that the idea is stronger than the execution.

The film begins with a very familiar horror movie set-up: a group of young friends – consisting of Clover (Ella Rubin), Max (Michael Cimino), Nina (Odessa A’zion), Megan (Ji-young Yoo) and Abe (Belmont Cameli) – are travelling together through a remote woodland area in search of clues regarding the whereabouts of Clover’s older sister Melanie (Maia Mitchell), who mysteriously disappeared a year prior. They soon come across an abandoned visitors’ centre where, as soon as the sun sets, they’re immediately stalked and brutally killed by a figure in a clown mask. That’s when the strange sundial in the front room flips upside down, bringing the friends back to life as the night starts over again, only the threat is different and the methods are less obvious than before, forcing them to continuously confront deadly adversaries and survive until, well, dawn.

There’s a fair bit of creativity in the ways that Dauberman and Butler stage all these do-overs in their script, for they are all essentially their own self-contained love letters to various forms of the horror genre. It starts off with the traits of a typical slasher; then it moves onto supernatural possession; followed by body horror; then creature features; and even found-footage, all of which follow those specific subgenre templates with all the trimmings one expects from them. Sandberg, obviously well-versed in horror after directing Lights Out and Annabelle: Creation (and putting up with Zachary Levi’s BS on both Shazam! movies), does well to ensure that each section looks and feels exactly like the subgenre it’s referencing while still making it seem as though it all takes place in the same universe, fluctuating between dark and light tones with surprising consistency – there are times when it gets darkly funny, particularly when people start randomly exploding, but always with that unnerving edge – and incorporating some impressive gore effects which the film thankfully refrains from cutting away from in order to obtain that lucrative PG-13/12A rating.

It’s a clever concept, and for a movie adaptation of Until Dawn it’s a smart direction to go in that does its own thing whilst respecting the complex interactivity of the source material. However, the filmmakers aren’t entirely able to take advantage of their ideas, as they constantly fall victim to several tropes and storytelling fumbles that plague a lot of the films in the various subgenres being paid homage to. The first act of the film is particularly rough to get through, for it relies on clunky exposition dialogue to set up its various characters, none of whom are particularly interesting nor do they share solid chemistry with one another, and there are heavily telegraphed jump-scares which are clearly just there to remind the audience that they’re watching a horror film, and serve no purpose to the story.

Things do pick up once they find themselves in this ever-changing horror environment, but even then, it never becomes scary enough to give the viewer that much-needed sense of unease, for the fact that they all just come back to life once they’re brutally slaughtered removes the personal stakes for these characters, who again don’t really get more engaging than when we first met them. An onslaught of darkly-lit rooms, ill-advised character decisions, plot points which either go nowhere or make no sense, and even more ineffective jump-scares further drag the movie down, to a point where not even Peter Stormare (the only actor to reprise his role from the game) can fully save it.

Overall, while it is kind of a narrative mess, and far from the top tier of video game adaptations, Until Dawn is better than it had any right to be. It could so easily have been some below-par horror that the studio just slapped the familiar title onto to lure people into seeing it, but these filmmakers really put a lot of heart and effort into retooling the unique selling point of the source material into something that doesn’t just work as a movie, but also shows the world just how much they love all these different pockets of horror that have entertained audiences for decades.

In that regard, this is a surprisingly respectful film that you don’t necessarily need to have played the video game in order to enjoy, though given how messy the final product is, you might get a bit more enjoyment from playing it anyway.

SO, TO SUM UP…

Until Dawn does a surprisingly decent job of adapting the interactive video game by taking the concept into its own direction that pays loving homage to several horror subgenres while still respecting the lore of the game, but numerous narrative consistencies and a real lack of scary material makes it an average execution of some rather inventive ideas.