Until Dawn (2025) - Missed Opportunities

Supermassive's Until Dawn video game is agreed to be one of the most horror games on the market. Stuck in development hell for many years, a film adaptation was much anticipated. Unfortunately, the more that was revealed, the more cautious fans became. The film, directed by David F. Sandberg, was not going to follow the game's plot at all; it wasn't even going to keep the game's draw of 'The Butterfly Effect.'

Nonetheless, the premise of reliving a night over and over until you survive isn't a bad one. I became intrigued.

When Clover (Ella Rubin) and friends investigate her sister Melanie (Maia Mitchell)'s disappearance, they are led to a cabin for the night. There, they are swiftly attacked and killed - only to find themselves back at the beginning of the night.

Unfortunately, despite a premise that allows for creative storytelling with very little limits, the film doesn't live up to its opportunities.

Eventhough something new attacks the group every night, all of our protagonists are implied to be turning into the same creature, at the same pace. Wouldn't it be much more interesting if different characters were afflicted differently? If they then could use aspects of their new transformations to survive the night? If they turned fully, and the other characters had to deal with fighting one of their friends?

Similarly, one night sees a friend turn on another and kill them. Of course, they come back the next day, but what's strange is that there are no repercussions or hard feelings after this. Again, wouldn't it be more interesting if in-fighting started to develop in the group? If a friend became a foe who they still wanted to survive the night, but still had to fight?

There are an infinite number of possibilities the film could go with, and yet it refuses to do anything interesting with its premise. The most interesting and creative part of the film is a found footage montage that glimpses a better film. In fact, many watchers agree the film should have been told in this manner.

In fact, it decides to shoe horn isolated elements of the original game to give itself much too much lore, so that we end up in an exposition dump. In game, the exposition is handled by in-game clues; it's up to the player to put the history together. Alongside this, Until Dawn the game's depiction of its main antagonists, Wendigos, has been generally praised. Though controversial to include in horror because of colonial revisionism, Supermassive's take has been seen favourably as respecting the source material whilst delivering on the scares. In contrast, the film's choice to portray Wendigos is exactly why they're so controversial to begin with; they're lacking substance, purpose and twist the original folktale.

All of this leaves the final twist, with Peter Stormare returning as Dr Hill rather lackluster, though the idea itself is interesting and Stormare as entertaining as ever in the creepily gleeful Dr.

Overall, Until Dawn first missed the opportunity to bring a beloved video game to life accurately, then seemingly failed at doing anything interesting with its premise. The film itself could pass as mediocre, but it could have been something great.