“Until Dawn” Review: An Amazingly Unsettling Horror Flick Held Back By Several Major Missteps

Back in the mid-2010s, gaming was in a totally different landscape; it was a wild west of brands trying their best to be the market leader while doing their best to stifle and kill off the then-dominant action shooter genre. People may argue that all genres were explored in that era and that there was no specific type that held on for long. But with hindsight, we know the genre that truly endured in that period was narrative-driven games, especially those where choices mattered a lot. Enter “Until Dawn,” a refreshing game that tests your morality, foresight, and reaction speed. It’s a brutal game that makes sure every small decision you make has a consequence and, in turn, results in an amazing gaming experience.

Now, just in time for its 10th anniversary, Sony has brought us the much-deserved continuation or revival of the beloved game. Though a continuation of the story was coveted by fans, this adaptation was immediately met with anticipation and divisive criticisms in equal measure as soon as it was announced. But does the movie really deserve the attention, positive or otherwise? Let’s find out.

The story follows Clover (played by Ella Rubin) who’s in search of her missing sister, Melanie (played by Maia Mitchell). She is joined by a group of friends, which comprises her ex-boyfriend Max (played by Michael Cimino), psychic friend Megan (played by Ji-young Yoo), and the couple Nina and Abe (played by Odessa A’zion and Belmont Cameli, respectively).

They manage to track Melanie’s last known whereabouts in an odd cabin in the woods, where all sorts of eerie phenomena occur. There, the group faces all sorts of monstrosities and paranormal events, killing them in the most gruesome way possible. However, they don’t stay dead, as they are instantly revived at the start of the night. With nowhere to go, the group must survive the night or be lost in this hell forever.

Right off the bat from that brief summation, you know that this film is a bold departure from the original source material, and it’s not hard to see why. The game was heavily dependent on the “choice matters” aspect to create a riveting narrative experience, something that you can’t really get in a standard movie. Though this is conjecture, this might be the reason as to why we see our protagonists being attacked by various things every night. Hell, we can even argue that that idea was dropped in one of the many, and we mean many, lore dumps that overexplain everything. But to its credit, it does work, even for us, the viewers.

Brushing aside the negatives first, this movie is a solid horror experience. The fact that every night is different and that preparing for it is almost impossible means we also feel the stress and panic the characters feel, something only possible through the talented cast. And how couldn’t you be scared? The filming set is largely practical, which helps create a truly lived-in vibe for each scene the characters are in, adding to the horror of it all. You cannot escape CGI entirely, unfortunately, but the editors exhibit incredible restraint when applying it to scenes, making sure that each use is impactful. 

As a horror film, “Until Dawn” doesn’t pull any punches. From body horror to dolls and the classic wendigos, the movie does its absolute best to sink and crawl under your skin with all the classic fears imaginable, and torments you with it for that uncomfortable and queasy feeling. Even though you know they will come back, each near miss is a sigh of relief, and each death hits like a truck, something that not all horror films can perfectly replicate.

However, this is offset by a massive wave of negative points that we can think of in the film. As mentioned before, the film relies heavily on overexplaining and lore dropping for a large portion of the movie. Not even 10 minutes into the film, the characters immediately attack you with their relation to each other, why they’re out on this trip, and so on; it is a recurring problem that persists all the way to the third act of the film.

The scares are great, but there are many instances where the characters’ collective IQ jumps no lower than a toaster’s as they start to chase obvious traps and ignore obvious warnings. What makes this even worse is that there are plenty of scenes just outright stabbing each other in the back, which defeats their idea of “sticking together.” We would really like this idea where we slowly devolve and not trust anyone anymore, but they come back as if nothing ever happened.

The third act is the weakest portion in the entire film. To avoid giving anything away, the movie abruptly leads us to the climactic scene, which is unquestionably very unsatisfying. The fact that we don’t see the rest of the monsters and spirits that attacked them previously, and might attack them again, feels like a hard slap to the face; the fact we don’t see any of those creatures at all in the final sequence except those that were introduced prior is another added gut punch.

What is perhaps the most aggravating thing about the film is that, though it is related to the game, it makes no effort to stitch the two storylines together – yet still has the audacity to imply that this is a prequel to the original game. It spins an entirely new story, which we will not mention here for spoiler reasons, and then implies it is the same thing that happens in the game, which makes no sense.

“Until Dawn” is a solid horror movie, but it might be better if it were an original movie idea instead. It immediately becomes apparent that the film tries to capitalise on the game’s success and is perhaps the only reason why it shares the name, which is a major disservice to all the incredible people who worked hard to bring this film to life. Furthermore, this forced affiliation might actually piss off the OG fans rather than make them fall in love with the franchise all over again.

Overall, “Until Dawn” is a great horror movie filled with hair-raising and unforgettable scares, and is great for those who have no idea about the original source material. However, it is also held back in more ways than one thanks in large part to the lazy writing, as well as its forced affiliation with an adored IP. If the filmmakers had decided to make this an original movie from the ground up, then it would have instantly become a slam dunk.

“Until Dawn” premieres in cinemas nationwide on 8th May 2025