After finally seeing Until Dawn in theaters I have some thoughts about how the game came to life on the big screen.
Being a longtime fan of Until Dawn and most of the games created by Supermassive Games, I was curious to see what an Until Dawn film adaptation would look like. I had always been told by other gamers that a film adaptation of any of these games would be impossible because the choice-based plot creates too many possibilities for a coherent film adaptation to work. Director David F. Sandberg must have agreed with this idea on some level because the Until Dawn film is truly an adaptation in name only.
Until Dawn
Directed by: David F. Sandberg
Starring: Ella Rubin, Michael Cimino, Odessa A’zion, Ji-young Yoo, Belmont Cameli, Maia Mitchell, Peter Stormare
Release Date: April 25, 2025
Until Dawn follows a group of friends as they’re in the end stages of a road trip that is retracing the last known steps of Clover’s missing sister Melanie. The trail seems to end in the isolated town of Gore Valley. But once the sun goes down, the group finds themselves trapped in a deadly time loop, one where they seem cursed to die over and over again with no means of escape. And if they don’t figure it out by the end of the thirteenth night…they may never leave at all.
Let me say now that if you go into Until Dawn expecting a faithful adaptation of the video game you are going to be sorely disappointed. Except for the presence of one character and a few Easter eggs scattered through the film, there is no real connection to the video game. You will enjoy the film much more if you think of it as an homage to Until Dawn, as opposed to a true adaptation.
In the sense of an homage, Until Dawn works fairly well as a horror film. The time loop is a creative way to take the choice-based nature of the story and work it into the film without making the story boring. With each reset of the loop, the audience is left to wonder what remaining choices the group can make without getting brutally killed and each time the answer is very different.
That being said, the film does stumble quite a bit, especially at the start of the final act. I understand to a certain degree that it’s not feasible to depict all thirteen nights in the loop, the film would be far too long. However, the way the story went about reaching the final night felt like a cheap way to skip over a big chunk of plot with minimal effort. Part of the disappointment came from the revelation that some of the best scares seen in the trailers were compressed into a five minute (at best) compilation of jump scares. It technically got the job done, but it completely broke the mood for me.
I also have a problem with some of the kill methods used in the story. I understand this is all based on the Until Dawn game and a bit of supernatural spookiness is at work, but one of the ways the characters died makes no sense whatsoever. Even for a horror film, this particular method, possibly the goriest in the story, made me cock my head and go “Huh?” I’m reasonably certain the only reason this danger was created was to create an on-screen reason as to why the group couldn’t barricade themselves inside a room for the entire night and thus bypass the time loop.
One thing Until Dawn did nail was the jump scares. The original video game is well known for its jump scares and the film is no exception. Just when you think it’s safe to take a breath, look out there’s a monster! The last act in particular is full of a number of terrifying scares that had me thoroughly scared to death. I also appreciated how the film paid homage to a number of the game’s mechanics, including how one monster in particular hunts via sound.
In conclusion, despite its stumbles, there’s a lot to enjoy in Until Dawn. As long as you go in knowing that this is an homage to the video game, and not really a direct adaptation, you’ll have a pretty good time. Truthfully, I wouldn’t mind seeing more adaptations of Supermassive’s games in the future, as Until Dawn proves it can be done.
