Until Dawn: A Wildly Fun Horror Outing, Messy Logic Aside [Review] – That Hashtag Show

Supermassive Games’ Until Dawn became an instant horror classic for PlayStation, in part thanks to its adept atmosphere building and an innovative butterfly effect dynamic, where characters live or die based on (what seem like) the most innocuous player choices. It’s a dynamic that’s inherently hard to replicate for a non-interactive feature film, so David F. Sandberg, the director of Sony’s new Until Dawn horror film, came upon a novel idea. He didn’t try. Instead, the film follows a new batch of characters stuck within an isolated cabin, facing game-inspired threats as they die repeatedly… and possibly face a fate worse than death if they don’t stop the cycle. It’s a fun horror outing full of great kills, novel dynamics, and engaging characters, though its lore and logic leave something to be desired.

Until Dawn takes place one year after Melanie (Maia Mitchell), the sister of Clover (Ella Rubin), goes mysteriously missing during her drive away from home. The sisters’ mother had died some time prior, so Clover refuses to believe she won’t see Melanie again. Part for closure, part to investigate, she undertakes a road trip with her ex Max (Michael Cimino), friends Megan (Ji-young Yoo) and Nina (Odessa A’zion), and Nina’s new-ish boyfriend Abel (Belmont Cameli), when an encounter with a gas station attendant (Peter Stormare) sends them on a path to Glore Valley… or at least where Glore Valley was before a mining disaster swallowed the town. They arrive at a Welcome Center full of terrors that kill them night after night, mysteriously resetting, until they either escape or become part of the night.

‘Until Dawn’ Gets The Horror Right

Until Dawn marks Sandberg’s return to horror after a pair of Shazam! outings for for DC, and he hasn’t lost a beat. There’s an inherent economy to his horror outings, no doubt from his origins in horror shorts like the original Light’s Out short that launched his career. The central dynamic here—a resetting night of terror that results in frightful demise, is well used. The film’s best attribute is that Sandberg continues to find wildly new ways to terrorize its young cast. For this to avoid staleness, the night’s terrors have to feel different, and he comes up with a variety of novel threats that look, feel, and kill differently to keep the premise fresh and the terrors new. From masked murderers to spontaneous combustion to the series’ iconic wendigo antagonists, it does a continually solid job of establishing changing circumstances and enemies for our heroes.

The talented young cast anchor the film well, and the ‘doomed youths stuck in deadly cabin’ vibes capture the spirit of Supermassive’s genre-influenced games well (as well as providing a nice throwback to horror of yore). It’s somewhat of an ensemble film, but every character contributes something. Ella Rubin does a great job of leading with emotion and trauma, propelling certain necessary choices, while A’zion grounds the film with a superficial toughness. Yoo’s Megan is the most unique of the bunch, with goodness and nascent psychic ability making her easy prey for the situation’s more supernatural forces. Cameli lands Abel with apt comedic timing and just enough internal disunity as the outsider to this friend group, while Peter Stormare reprises a version of his character from the games as the intimidating Dr. Hill.

‘Until Dawn’ Is A Lot Of Horric Fun That Leaves Logic At The Door

The film is weakest in its development of the world’s lore and the logic of Dr. Hill’s ultimate plan. He’s given ample time to specify about his nefarious plans and purposes, but its development of the reason for the resetting lives and terrors remains opaque. Hill, a doctor at the local sanitarium who seemingly had a role in dealing with the mining accident’s aftermath, studies trauma, and also fear (he treats them as interchangeable, though they aren’t, a fact he should know). At times he treats the terrors as part of his experiments, at times narrating that the region has a tendency to generate terrors based on fear (in addition to transforming victims into wendigos for… reasons?). Visitors aren’t allowed to leave, and he’s relatively left alone for some reason, except when he’s tricked by a protagonist and isn’t invulnerable after all. It’s unclear what the hourglass cabin is for or why it exists, what Hill is, why people are turning into wendigos for reasons other than the canonical hunger and cannibalism (their common folklore origin), or how a mining mass tragedy has to do with these phenomena resurrect and generate terrors. It doesn’t make the film less fun in practice, but there’s a messiness to the lore as developed that could likely have been resolved with one more script draft.

Altogether, Until Dawn is a scary, well-directed, capably made outing that boasts smart cinematography and excellent, continually evolving production design while paying loose homage to its namesake game. Its dynamic does feel like a video game even if the game’s original dynamic wouldn’t translate well into a feature film, and the resetting dangers are well used to generate fresh new terrors that are capably mined for scares and comedy. The cast has a good set of dynamics, the effects and creature creation are successful, and there’s a lot of fun to be had. That said, the lore is regrettably messy for any audience member who likes consistency or deep, coherent mythos. It’s fine to leave horrors to a degree of mystery (a cosmic horror must), just as it’s great to exhibit complete clarity on the antagonistic forces at play (like how The Witch and Hereditary both have genuine transparency over what entity is driving the film’s terrors, how it’s operating, etc). Until Dawn explains just enough to trip itself up. That said, if one’s simply looking for a great-looking, scary time at the theater, Until Dawn has the goods.

Until Dawn hits theaters April 25, 2025.

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