In the 2015 survival horror video game from Playstation, players took control of eight teens trapped on a remote mountain, hunted by an unseen terror. A robust butterfly effect system tracked player choices, reshaping character relationships and determining who lived or died in a story with hundreds of potential endings. It even had a starry cast with Hayden Panettiere and Rami Malek voicing the digital counterparts that adopted their visages. Between chapters, the sinister psychiatrist Dr Alan Hill (voiced by Peter Stormare, more anon) interrogated and evaluated a player’s decisions. It was clever, self-aware and turned the horror movie into an immersive experience where tension was built on more than just jump scares. As the game unearthed its secrets, players were positioned into moral quandaries and forced to make split-second decisions. Reverse engineering that experience to the screen requires ingenuity and an emotional hook. Imagine different versions of the film playing in each auditorium or at the very least, intelligent characters that thought through their every move. The promising premise of choose-your-own-adventure gaming has been flattened into a predictable loop of gory déjà vu. While the video game was honoured at the BAFTA Games Awards in 2016 for its originality, the film may have to settle for a Golden Raspberry.
In this iteration of the console classic, a grief-stricken teen named Clover (Ella Rubin) goads her friends into Glore Valley in search of her sister Melanie, who inexplicably disappeared a year prior. The obligatory prologue fills us in on Melanie’s fate, removing all sense of mystery from the get-go. The gang finds themselves at the abandoned visitor centre where Melanie went missing, and there’s soon gore galore in Glore Valley. The standard slasher plays out with final girl Clover dashing through fog-filled woods — that is, until she’s killed too. Following the night of bloodshed, the murdered quintet wakes up unscathed to find themselves facing the night all over again, albeit with a different terror. The same fates befall these lambs for the slaughter, and once again the night resets. Caught in a grisly time loop, it’s Final Destination meets Groundhog Day as the inept teens try to survive the night and a cast of ghoulies that includes a Wendigo, a witch, and a disgruntled miner. Connecting the screen version to its digital predecessor is the return of Dr Alan Hill (Peter Stormare in the flesh.)
Written by Gary Dauberman and Blair Butler, the screenplay flits from one genre to another — a slasher one night, a possession the next — creating a kind of macabre sampler platter that prioritises splatter and spectacle over substance. David F. Sandberg, the Swede behind Annabelle: Creation and the Shazam films, directs the by-the-books bump in the night, trotting out all the old horror tropes — his face is among the wall of the missing in the visitors centre. Without the agency that defined the game, viewers are left shackled to a cast of cardboard cutouts so broadly drawn and dimwitted, it’s hard to care whether they live, die, or loop on forever. The worst offence of all is the betrayal of the audience’s intelligence.
Long-time fans of the game expecting to find a plethora of hidden clues, cryptic totems, and a genuine mystery to solve are instead told what to fear and when. The scares are telegraphed here with all the subtlety of a foghorn. By the time the story leaps inexplicably to night thirteen, the promise of escalating terror has become a dull death march, with found footage phone videos catching the characters (and us) up on what was missed. There’s talent behind the camera to be sure. The creature designs, prosthetics and make-up, production design, and lighting are all top-tier, but that artistry gets lost in the noise. For all its gore and gloss, Until Dawn never justifies its diversion from the source material. Had Groundhog Day not previously been mashed with horror via the likes of Happy Death Day and Vincenzo Natali’s Haunter, perhaps this may have felt like a fresher spin. The most chilling moment of the night might be the mid-credits tease suggesting franchise potential. Button mashers beware.
CHAD KENNERK
Cast: Ella Rubin, Michael Cimino, Odessa A’zion, Ji-young Yoo, Belmont Cameli, Maia Mitchell, and Peter Stormare.
Dir David F. Sandberg, Pro Gary Dauberman, Roy Lee, Lotta Losten, Mia Maniscalco, Asad Qizilbash, David F. Sandberg, Carter Swan, Screenplay Blair Butler, Gary Dauberman, Ph Maxime Alexandre, Pro Des Jennifer Spence, Ed Michel Aller, Music Benjamin Wallfisch, Costumes Julia Patkos, Sound Kami Asgar.
PlayStation Productions/Coin Operated/Filmhouse Hungary/Mångata Production/Vertigo Entertainment-Screen Gems/Sony Pictures Releasing
103 mins. 2025. USA/Hungary. US/UK Rel: 25 April 2025. Cert. 15.
