REVIEW: Until Dawn

Here’s my Until Dawn review which is directed by directed by David F. Sandberg, and written by Gary Dauberman and Blair Butler. It stars Ella Rubin, Michael Cimino, Odessa A’zion, Ji-young Yoo, Belmont Cameli, and Peter Stormare.

The Playstation title Until Dawn finally gets the recognition it deserves but is a live-action adaptation worthy of horror fans and gamers attention or is it destined to die and get stuck in this infinite horrible time loop forever?

Until Dawn (the game) was released in 2015 and is an interactive drama survival horror game developed by Supermassive Games and published by Sony Computer Entertainment. Here’s what the game’s wiki page describes the game:

“Players assume control of eight young adults who have to survive on Blackwood Mountain when their lives are threatened. The game features a butterfly effect system in which players must make choices that may change the story. All playable characters can survive or die, depending on the choices made. Players explore the environment from a third-person perspective and find clues that may help solve the mystery.”

The movie adaptation of Until Dawn follows a group of young adults who are on the trail of a Clover’s missing sister who previously disappeared and ended up in this remote location that seems to have locked them up in a horrific time loop. After that evil looking sand timer resets the clock, they end up reliving the same night ala the classic film “Groundhog Day” but rather than dealing with existential crises, they really have to fight for their lives with all sorts of weird stuff from in this abomination of a town.

The film follows the traditional tropes and feels sometimes like it’s just following a checkbox of things that needs to be done to follow the horror genre yet it also does some fresh things and I loved the clever use of the time-loop formula to get the story across. What’s also surprising (and this is a bit of a spoiler) is that ALL of the characters manage to make it out alive, something horror films don’t do but I guess the fact that we’ve seen all characters die gruesome deaths throughout the film’s 1 hour and 43 minute run time so that filled the quota already.

There’s so much nightmare fuel in the film and I really did enjoy the scares and thrills that came along with it including that game’s main villains the Wendigos, a Psycho Killer, a witch and even a giant.

The film is not without its flaws but it’s still an enjoyable film especially if you have zero idea on the source material.

Props to vet Peter Stormare who was the only recognizable member in the cast and one that carries the heavier bits of the film. The dude can literally intimidate and scare which was also the reason he was a perfect choice for Lucifer in the live action Constantine film. I also know that his character has some ties to the game so we’ll let that door open for the forseeable future for when they do a sequel.

While it’s bogged down a little by the younger cast, Until Dawn still has some great moments and great scares and surprisingly also has some unexpectedly funny moments like that scene with the water that causes human explosion. That was crazy, gory and funny.

One thing about the film though is that it had so much fun with the ways of killing the characters that they completely forgot to pace the film properly so when it came to the third act, they were rushing to move things around to make things move faster. Had they taken the time to explain some of the critical lore, the film’s payoff could have been ten times better. Although as it stands what we got was decent.

Until Dawn is now playing in cinemas and distributed by Columbia Pictures Philippines! Follow me on X and Instagram