What’s It About

One year after her sister Melanie mysteriously disappeared, Clover and her friends head into the remote valley where she vanished in search of answers. Exploring an abandoned visitor center, they find themselves stalked by a masked killer and horrifically murdered one by one…only to wake up and find themselves back at the beginning of the same evening. Trapped in the valley, they’re forced to relive the nightmare again and again – only each time the killer threat is different, each more terrifying than the last. Hope dwindling, the group soon realizes they have a limited number of deaths left, and the only way to escape is to survive until dawn.

MOVIESinMO REVIEW

I approached “Until Dawn” with great expectations. I was curious to see how they would turn its original “survive the night” idea into a movie. Sadly, what began as a chilling horror devolved into a boring and gory mess with an unsatisfying ending. The movie takes place in fictional Glore Valley, Pennsylvania, but was filmed in Hungary. The film starts out with a young woman, Melanie Paul (Maia Mitchell), crawling out of a hole in a remote forest. She is soon after killed by a masked assailant with a machete. The mask closely resembles Michael Myers from the “Halloween” movies. A year later, five friends in their early 20s head to Glore Valley to search for Melanie, who was last seen at a local gas station/convenience store. This sounds like a good premise, but the movie fails to deliver. It’s like a poorly made cake that falls apart because it is too dense—lots of style but no real substance. The storyline takes a great deal from “Happy Death Day” and “Palm Springs.” There are creepy escape rooms and silly psychological experiments as well. There’s a mastermind antagonist, a masked murderer, a magical hourglass (no kidding), and a haunted town. None of these things come together, though. The main character is Clover (Ella Rubin), who desperately needs to find her lost sister, Melanie. She takes her friends Max, Megan, Nina, and Abe along. Following a bizarre weather phenomenon, they become trapped in a deserted mining town in a bizarre mansion that appears to be stuck in the past. As they are picked off one by one by various threats—killers in clown masks, ghosts, and even Wendigos—they find themselves waking up at the beginning again, their bodies gradually transforming. The idea is that they have to survive until morning to reverse this curse, which is tied to an unusual Dr. Alan Hill (Peter Stormare). The time loop idea might have been effective if it was tense, but what it does is kill any tension of peril. Since we know no one stays dead, every reset negates the suspense the narrative had developed. The film has one major problem: the characters insist that they cannot remember anything, including their own past deaths, but always seem to remember the “rule” that they have to survive until dawn. This is frustratingly perplexing. There is also an unnecessary sequence where Abe shows the group gross-out videos on his phone, something which serves only to raise questions: “If his phone can display videos, why can’t they use it to check the time?” The movie never does say. For fans of the video game, the movie is especially disappointing. The two things which are the same in both are: One of the villains from the game is in the film (same actor), an hourglass is used to tell time, and there is a mental hospital and mine accident plot. Everything else is different. The group interactions that were strong in the game and the important choices are nowhere to be found in the movie. Gone is the smart turn from the game’s conclusion, which would have translated well to the screen. Instead, the makers chose to use an alternate and less compelling narrative. The cast must be commended for performing as well as they could with the script. Ella Rubin is Clover and conveys plenty of feeling, while Michael Cimino is Max, the ex who wishes to rekindle their romance. Odessa A’zion, Belmont Cameli, and Ji-young Yoo round out the cast, and Peter Stormare brings his signature intensity as Dr. Hill. The actors are fine, but there is not a lot of character development, and it’s hard to get emotionally invested in them. I do have to say the kill scenes and special effects are done well and are genuinely gruesome. If you want blood and innovative kills, the movie is here for you. Good effects do not rescue a bad plot, though. The further the film goes, the more it focuses on bodies exploding in an instant way instead of simple murders. This kind of effect shocks at first but, after some time, gets exhausting and repetitive. The mixed-up timeline messes up the whole experience. By the time it’s over, the explanation for all the strange occurrences doesn’t even matter. Like with most awful horror movies, it makes one speculate if a sequel could be in the works—but I don’t think too many people will be demanding it. Director David F. Sandberg, working from a script by Blair Butler and Gary Dauberman, had the chance to make video game movies work but instead used tired slasher film ideas. “Until Dawn” shows what occurs when you take away the interactive aspects of a game story and don’t substitute in some good storytelling. The outcome is a horror film that is afraid to be genuinely frightening, too earnest to be fun, and too lacking to make you care. For horror fans and gamers, this film is a huge letdown. It attempts to explore profound concepts of fear but lacks the narrative framework to support them. There is simply too much going on without giving you a satisfying payoff. If you like the game, avoid this movie—it will just let you down. As a movie itself, it’s also not better than some of the recent horror movies. But if you just need to see some violence and blood and don’t care about the plot being attached to anything, then perhaps something here can be entertaining. My suggestion? If you’re interested in learning about the “Until Dawn” story, play the video game itself. It has all that the film doesn’t have—meaningful choices, real tension, character growth, and a good ending. As for the film adaptation, it should’ve stayed in development hell and never been allowed to see the light of day.

OUR RATING – A GAME ADOPTED 4

MEDIA

• Genre – Horror
• Street date
• Digital – April 22, 2025
• 4K/DVD – July 8, 2025
• Video – 1080p
• Screen size – 2.39:1
• Sound – English Dolby Atmos
• Subtitles – English, French, Spanish

Extras

• Audio commentary with Director David F. Sandberg & Producer Lotta Losten
• Deleted & Extended Scenes
• Adapting a Nightmare – Join David F. Sandberg (Dir / Prod) and Gary Dauberman (Writer / Prod) as they explore the inspirations behind the film, the fun of genre-switching and how they expanded the universe of the game.
• Death-Defying Cast – Dying over and over never felt so good – meet the fearless, game-for-anything cast as they attempt to survive Until Dawn.
• Practical Terrors – From wendigos to exploding bodies, Director David F. Sandberg knows the value of practical effects – and how those prosthetics, props, and blood elicit a more authentic reaction from the cast.