Sony’s Horror Game Movie Yields Mixed Results
Until Dawn is the latest in a long line of video game adaptations trying to capture lightning in a bottle, and while it gets closer than most, it still falls frustratingly short of greatness. Directed by David F. Sandberg (Lights Out, Annabelle: Creation) and written by Gary Dauberman and Blair Butler, this stand-alone story set within the Until Dawn universe has all the ingredients for a chilling, inventive horror film. Unfortunately, much like its doomed cast of characters, it stumbles into familiar traps along the way.
The horror movie follows Clover (Ella Rubin), a troubled young woman still reeling a year after her sister’s mysterious disappearance. Determined to find answers, Clover convinces a group of friends, played by Michael Cimino, Odessa A’zion, Ji-young Yoo, and Belmont Cameli, to accompany her back to the remote valley where her sister vanished. Their search leads them to an abandoned visitor center, where they encounter a masked killer who begins picking them off one by one. However, the twist comes fast: after dying, the characters mysteriously wake up at the beginning of the same night, trapped in a gruesome time loop they cannot escape.
From the outset, Sandberg’s direction shines. His horror expertise is evident in how he uses silence and darkness as weapons, crafting sequences filled with uneasy tension. In a genre often reliant on cheap scares, Sandberg shows admirable restraint. Some of the film’s jump scares are genuinely effective, born out of masterful atmosphere rather than predictable timing. He also relies heavily on practical effects in his kills. This is hard-R horror drenched in blood, and the movie pulls a lot of shock value with how violent some of the deaths are and how little of it relies on CGI.
Another highlight is how Until Dawn quickly evolves beyond its initial slasher setup. What starts as a straightforward masked-killer-in-the-woods story soon folds in elements of the time loop genre, body horror, supernatural possession, and even creature horror. Sandberg and his writers clearly had an ambitious vision to explore multiple horror subgenres within one narrative. It’s a bold move, and at times, an exhilarating one.
However, this ambition is also where Until Dawn begins to falter. There are so many ideas thrown at the screen that few are given room to breathe. An early discovery of dozens of missing person posters hints at an intriguing larger mystery. While there’s an answer for what’s going on, it’s still unclear why these posters needed to be there within the film’s lore other than to creep out the audience. A subplot involving characters transforming into something inhuman brims with potential, yet the film barely taps into the dread such a scenario could evoke. Similarly, a possession sequence where a character is forced to commit a horrifying act feels bizarrely out of place, is never referenced again, and has no basis within the video game.
Perhaps most damaging is the script’s inability to create compelling characters. Clover is given a tragic backstory with suicide attempts and a strained family history, but the film tells us this rather than showing us who she is through meaningful character development. As a result, her emotional arc feels hollow, and her bond with her missing sister, meant to be the story’s beating heart, lacks resonance. The supporting cast fares even worse, operating less as characters and more as walking targets. When the killer inevitably strikes, it’s hard to muster much investment in their fates.
The dialogue doesn’t help matters either. At times, the script verges on laughably bad, with a few eye-rollingly expository lines. Characters spout horror clichés that even Scream mocked back in 1996. One scene has a character declaring, “I’ll be right back,” an unwitting death sentence played completely straight rather than with any wink to the audience. These clunky exchanges undercut what could have been moments of genuine dread.
Structurally, Until Dawn also struggles. For all its atmospheric buildup and genre-blending, the film doesn’t stick the landing. Major questions go unanswered, emotional payoffs never materialize, and thematic ideas, particularly those surrounding grief, guilt, and rebirth, are left hanging in the air. It feels as though the filmmakers were so eager to cram in as many horror elements as possible that they forgot to fully flesh out the story’s foundation.
Ultimately, Until Dawn is a mixed bag. It’s a horror movie full of good intentions, stylish direction, and occasional bursts of creativity, but one that’s weighed down by underdeveloped characters, messy storytelling, and squandered potential. Fans of the game will likely appreciate the callbacks and the expansion of the universe, and also find frustrations in how different the story, characters, and settings are from what they’re familiar with. Meanwhile, newcomers may find themselves wishing the film spent less time juggling ideas and more time building something truly terrifying.
Sandberg’s command of horror craft ensures that Until Dawn is never a bad movie, but it’s also not the great one it could have been. Much like the characters trapped in its deadly time loop, the movie feels stuck repeating some of the same mistakes that have haunted so many game-to-film adaptations before it.
SCORE: 5/10
As ComingSoon’s review policy explains, a score of 5 equates to “Mediocre.” The positives and negatives wind up negating each other, making it a wash.
