Another entry from PlayStation Studios as Sony aims to adapt their library. Until Dawn was released in 2015 by Supermassive on PlayStation 4, where eight friends with troubling pasts reunite during a winter storm; however, the hook was that Until Dawn fell under the Telltale game genre, where whatever decision the player makes affects the whole story, including who makes it to the end.
When the film was announced, the first thing that crossed my mind was “How do you adapt a game whose premise is based on player choice? How do you capture the sense of that individual player craving their own experience?”
That was the first challenge that film presented for me, ultimately. Until Dawn never gets away from that challenge as the film tries to carve its own story while also honoring its roots within the game, which creates a tug-of-war type of feeling.
Until Dawn follows a group of friends — the survivors as they would be in the video game — trapped in an almost purgatory-like location, each night facing a wider range of horrors and being brought back the following day. That is, unless they survive until dawn.
This sense of film trying to carve its own story really comes apparent as here our groups of friends come back to life for the following night. It’s oddly almost like a revive item that you would get, which brings your video game character back.
This change from Sandberg works because he uses this idea of purgatory horror very well.
A great example of this purgatory horror is after the first night with our masked killer, who stabs Max (Michael Cimino) in the eye. It’s great special effects work if you’re a gorehead. Once the clock resets, we see everyone react to the purgatory they find themselves in. We see the bruising on Max’s eye from where the knife went through. It’s simple but effective because the audience puts themselves in Max’s shoes. You were just brutally murdered, and now you have to go through it all over again. This sense of wicked fate always gets under my skin.
Watching everyone have that reaction of “I died and you died” is chilling, taking something as normal as death, then making it seem almost like a game.
Another way Sandberg achieves this anxiety-inducing atmosphere is by how, each night, the whole environment changes. At first, we just have the house, then it’s the witch house, a water tank, and then a whole mining town, which adds to this sense of stuck-ness. Everything is changing around these characters except the fate they are destined to endure: to die over and over again unless they make it to dawn.
Do appreciate that Sandberg is trying to do something different because if he did try to do a straight-to-straight adaptation, it couldn’t really work because, once again, the game was built on the idea of the storyline the individual player creates.
As already mentioned, the gore and special effects are stellar. There is one moment that’s quite explosive and will catch audiences off guard, and might put you off drinking water. The Wendigos, a giant cannibalistic creature and a direct link to the game, look fantastic. The design strongly resembles the sense that Wendigos started from hunger and, as a result, started feeding on themselves. Honestly, we should get more Wendigo-based horror films; only one comes to mind–Antlers (2021).
After viewing, Until Dawn felt like it probably started as a completely different film, a classic haunted house in the woods, but then a Sony executive thought, “This looks similar to that Until Dawn game…wait, we own that!”
That love-hate relationship is seen in the inclusion of the Wendigos, a key aspect of the game, and the possession of Megan (Ji-young Yoo). This is where I found the film being unsure of itself and deciding if it fully wanted to commit to its source material. The lack of commitment is driven further near the end, with a tease for a sequel that comes across as “this was what you really wanted.”
The characters of Clover (Ella Rubin), Megan (Ji-young Yoo), Max (Michael Cimino), Nina (Odessa A’zion), and Abe (Belmont Cameli) are very one-dimensional. The cast isn’t entirely to blame, though, and they seem to do the best they can with the material at hand, clearly having been told this is a role where you stay in your lane. That can be guessed right from the start, with Max staring at Clover in the car. From that, we can sense he’s going to be the ex-boyfriend who is still secretly in love with her.
Right from the start, Clover is too afraid to take any steps, Max is still obsessed with Clover (which gets a bit stalkerish), and Nina’s no-bull attitude fronts as a lack of genuine connection. Abe is the snake of the group who would throw any of them under the bus, and Megan is a psychic, but when anyone can tell you “yeah, this house is creepy,” psychic powers lose their charm. Her powers no longer feel as special as the film wants you to believe.
Peter Stormare returns as Dr. Hill from the game, giving a standout performance. What’s great about his performance is that he adds a level of slime, which you get right from the start when he meets Clover at the petrol station. He makes a crude comment about her sister being beautiful. He’s creepy and cringeworthy, and after Clover dies on the second night, he stands over her like something out of the Arkham games, which feels out of place but works nevertheless.
A special mention should go to Tibor Szuaervien as the psycho masked killer from the game. He doesn’t get any dialogue, but it’s a great physical performance. A specific moment is when Max, Nina, and Abe all take him on and just start throwing things at him, and he turns around in an almost sarcastic way, as if it’s a Groundhog Day situation for him as well.
At times, Until Dawn really highlights the challenging nature of video game adaptations, specifically one where decisions and effects are so crucial; however, if you want to see a film that uses its concept of being stuck in a purgatory-like setting, then it delivers.
Review Courtesy of Matthew Allan
Feature Image Credit to Sony Pictures via IMDb