By George & Josh Bate
As one video game adaptation takes over the global box office, another comes along – one with far more blood, guts, exploding bodies, and creepy creatures.
Until Dawn arrives from Sony Pictures and reimagines the 2015 video game with a fresh, new narrative. The story, with an all new cast of characters unique from the source material, centers on Clover (Ella Rubin), who travels with her friends to the location of the last known sighting of her missing sister. What starts out as a journey to bring Clover closure over the loss of her sister becomes more of a nightmare, as the group’s search leads them to an abandoned visitor center in the middle of the woods. There, they are viciously attacked and killed by a monstrous masked assailant, only to then awaken earlier the same night and doomed to live it all over again. Now trapped in a Groundhog Day-style time loop, the group have a limited number of “lives,” and must unravel the truth of the creatures hunting them and survive until dawn to be freed.
If that premise sounds different from the game, that’s because it is – the film adaptation builds upon the original premise from the game and adds its own twists to set it apart (more on that later). Some elements remain the same, though, as Peter Stormare reprises his role as the mysterious Dr. Hill, adding a familiar touch to the story that connects it back to the game and expands the lore of the world.
Until Dawn gets off to a strong start as it introduces a group of naive young adults honing in on a remote setting. The atmosphere, from the eerie emptiness of the roads to the darkness of the woods, means that the audience is pulled into the story right away. The stormy weather adds to this unnerving atmosphere, and also makes the characters feel more isolated and in greater danger. However, what hinders the first act and, more broadly, the entirety of the film is the surface level nature of the group of heroes. The atmosphere around them may be engaging, but the characters themselves are far from it; only Clover has any sort of arc as the story progresses, and the rest remain remarkably stuck in their way amidst a situation that would surely be life changing. There are many missed opportunities to show some growth for the characters, such as Abel (Belmont Cameli), who is introduced as a self-centered person willing to sacrifice anyone to save himself. For the rest of the film, the audience would be forgiven if they expected to see him redeem himself in some way, moving away from the selfishness that dominated his character at the beginning. That never happens, unfortunately, and serves as a prime example that the heroes are not only stuck in a time loop, they’re also stuck with the barebones of characterization.
For some, weaknesses in the character department may not be the most important aspect of this film. As a horror slasher at its core, the thrills and screams are what many viewers will be paying to see. In this regard, Until Dawn has mixed results; it can be described as a mashup between Friday the 13th and Happy Death Day, yet never meets the heights of either. The point of uniqueness from those inspirations is that the stakes are supposed to feel higher, which would, in turn, make the scares even more frightening. After every death, the characters become more and more like a Wendigo, thus adding an incentive for them to survive the night and break free from this loop. It’s an intriguing concept to explore, although it is executed messily. The threat of turning into a monster is there, but the heroes are barely changing form even after several deaths, which makes the real consequences feel farther away. There are even a few moments in which the characters opt to commit suicide so they can restart, which they do without any real consequences because the “changing” into the wendigo is happening at such a slow pace. Most of the time, a character post-death just has a new bruise or loses a few teeth, but nothing drastic, which takes away from the danger of it all, making the horror in this film subpar at best.
Relatedly, the time loop aspect to the story is also a selling point for the film, differentiating it from titles that came before. In theory, it’s a good idea, as it makes sense that the film adaptation tried to add something to the story that the game didn’t have. That source material, although excellent, is essentially just a slasher, and, although unique within the context of a video game, is much more mundane and run of the mill in the context of a feature film. In many ways, it’s a similar stumble to another PlayStation adaptation, Uncharted, which was unique as a game as it allowed players to go on what was essentially an Indiana Jones adventure. But what is unique for video games isn’t always so in other mediums, and given that audiences have seen Indiana Jones escapades many times over the years, an adaptation of Uncharted as a film suffered as a result.
Again, with the same logic, Until Dawn feels much less original than what it is based upon, and although the inclusion of the time loop is admirable, it ultimately adds little to the story and only makes the plot messier and less engaging. The rules established don’t really work, nor does the execution – a bizarre sequence shows the group hiding in a bathroom for a brief five minute scene, and it’s later said that they came extremely close to surviving the night by staying place, which, again, lessens the horror as it makes defeating the evil seem absurdly easy.
Also negatively impacts the scares is a frustrating inconsistency in tone. Characters crack MCU-style jokes only seconds after watching their friends die, for example, which leaves the viewer unsure if they are supposed to chuckle or or scream in fright. Entire scenes in the film seem tonally muddled – are we meant to laugh or shudder? Unclear. In the end, this clash means that the audience likely does neither. The acting feels forced and none of the heroes have any chemistry with one another, despite the fact that its established early on that they’ve known each other since kindergarten.
VERDICT: 5/10
With Until Dawn, director David F. Sandberg takes a fantastic horror video game and turns it into a dull and lethargic movie, equipped with some messy lore, forced acting and character work, and a confused tone. A strong start to the film effectively builds tension, and the Friday the 13th meets Happy Death Day premise opens the door to plenty of exciting horror movie happenings. Unfortunately, things never quite together, with uninteresting characters steering a story with perplexing explanations and deflating low stakes. To honor the release of the film, Sony set up a “Survive Until Dawn” marathon in which viewers were tasked with watching the film on repeat consecutively in order to win a cash prize of $5,000. After watching Until Dawn once, we can say that getting through one showing was quite the test of endurance (and patience), so one can only imagine the struggle from five consecutive viewings in this contest.