David F. Sandberg is the director.
Gary Dauberman and Blair Butler wrote this.
Ella Rubin, Michael Cimino, Ji-young Yoo, and Peter Stormare are in the movie.
Until Dawn, an interactive drama from 2015, was a turning point in horror video games. It was a cinematic, choice-driven slasher that used the “Butterfly Effect” to let players decide who lived and who died. Ten years later, horror veteran David F. Sandberg (Lights Out, Annabelle: Creation) promised that the live-action movie version would bring that fear to the big screen.
The end result is a movie that works as a standalone piece of gory horror, but it doesn’t capture the unique, meta spirit of the source material. Instead, it uses a frustratingly familiar gimmick: the time loop.
A New Cabin, A Familiar Trick
The movie doesn’t follow the famous plot of the Blackwood Mountain ski lodge. Instead, it follows a new group of friends led by Clover (Ella Rubin) as they look for her missing sister. They are stuck at a remote visitors center in Glore Valley, a new place that was added to the franchise’s world.
The movie’s main mechanical idea is what sets it apart the most. The Butterfly Effect is no longer there. Instead, Clover and her friends are stuck in a horrible loop where they die in creative and gruesome ways only to wake up a few minutes later and have to do it all over again until they can find a way to break the cycle. This makes people think of movies like Groundhog Day, Happy Death Day, and The Cabin in the Woods right away, which makes the adaptation feel like it copied other movies instead of coming up with something new.
Good Direction, Missed Chance
Sandberg’s direction is still good. The movie is well-staged, with lots of gore and jump scares that use real-life effects. This makes it a scary experience for people who just want “carnage candy.” The action is smooth, and the production design, which moves away from the snowy mountain setting that fans love, makes the setting feel cramped.
The return of the captivating Peter Stormare as the mysterious Dr. Hill is the only thing that really connects the movie to the game. His presence, along with a late-film reveal that makes the movie a clear prequel to the events of the original game (with hints at characters like Josh), gives fans a payoff that builds the universe.
A Lackluster Adaptation
The movie’s biggest problem is that it tries to tell a new story while getting rid of the parts of the game that made it great. The characters are not well-developed; they are more like archetypes for the loop than real, flawed young adults. Many critics said that the movie lost the game’s “goofiness” and playful self-awareness. Without the meta-commentary, the movie turns into a boring slasher-meets-time-travel story.
The movie gives up narrative tension by replacing the game’s “your choices matter” mantra with a fixed “die and repeat” structure. In the original game, players had to always be afraid of their choices because of permanent deaths. In the movie, the characters can be careless, which lowers the stakes.
David F. Sandberg’s eye for horror makes Until Dawn a good, stylish horror movie. But as an adaptation, it’s a disappointing puzzle. It takes a unique story and breaks it down into its most basic parts, leaving fans with a prequel that feels less like a tribute and more like a missed chance. It makes for a fun, bloody night at the movies, but it’s not likely to stay with people like the scary Blackwood Mountain reunion did.