Until Dawn is a video game-inspired horror offering from Swedish filmmaker David F. Sandberg, most known in horror circles for Annabelle: Creation. It follows Clover (Ella Rubin) as she brings her ex-boyfriend and friends along to investigate the remote valley where her sister disappeared a year prior. After being directed towards a particular remote town by a strange gas station attendant, the group seeks shelter from the rain at an abandoned visitors' center. Once there, they are continuously assaulted by various horrors, and as they die each night, they wake up the next morning to do it all again. They quickly realize that their time is finite, and if they want to break this horrific time loop, they will have to survive Until Dawn.
This is a film that is packed with gory and wacky fun. When the stakes of death are low, you can tell Sandberg really had fun with all of the avenues he could explore here. The frights are done very well, with each one actually building on the next and getting progressively more horrifying. The creatures look great, the effects are mostly practical, and it's very clear. Practical effects just bring that collaborative feel to the world. You can tell the actors are reacting to real monsters. It became fun as a viewer to start guessing what creative way the characters would die next.
There is something that really does feel interactive about this film. It feels almost like playing a game or reading a choose-your-own-adventure novel. This movie effectively keeps the viewer engaged, largely due to curiosity and the overall fear of the unknown. There really is no limit to what awful thing could be happening next.
However, there are some drawbacks to this premise. The characters really get lost in all of the moving parts here. Clover is our main character, and that is made clear. But her ex Max (Michael Cimino), the other couple Nina (Odessa A’zion) and Abe (Belmont Cameli), and Megan (Ji-young Yoo) feel like they get left behind at the gas station here. When the focus is so solely on the next crazy creature and kill that is going to come, the characters start to feel more like props rather than tangible people we should care about.
Not to mention, seeing them die five or six times by the end of the movie desensitizes everyone on watching them meet a grisly fate. The performances were a bit rough around the edges at times, particularly in the higher emotional moments. Of course, the Achilles heel of a time loop movie is always repetition, and while Until Dawn does keep things fresh enough to be exciting, it does get a little redundant by the conclusion.
I wish the style had varied a little more by the day. A violent, bright slasher one day could lead to a sultry, seedy mystery the next, rather than different creatures hunting them in the same area with the same results. Some meat was left on the bone of what they could do with this world and its endless possibilities. I feel like anytime you make a video game-inspired film, you are opening yourself up to that fanbase and its critiques. A strong and vocal contingent of fans is upset about how far the film strays from the guidelines of its video game predecessor. As someone who has played a limited amount of the game, I can definitely understand this point, but I think the creative choices helped the story flow into a script that could be adapted for the big screen.
All in all, this is a fun and wacky addition to the time loop and horror genres. It's a filmmaker really trying to have a good time with a fascinating concept of a horror sandbox that can change every night. While it may not follow the plot of the video game down to every detail, it's still worth checking out and immersing yourself in this terrifying loop of endless horror. You can catch Until Dawn in theaters everywhere.