Until Dawn (2025) Review!!

Synopsis – A group is trapped in a remote valley by a murderer and are killed, but are sent back in time and forced to relive the night of their killings.

My Take – Despite PlayStation Studios owning a massive library of IP to choose from, it is unsurprising that Sony picked Until Dawn, the very successful 2015 survival video game as their next live-action adaptation.

After all, it is one of the most unique horror game experiences ever, allowing players to have control of eight teenagers spending the night at a family lodge in the hills, and is beloved by fans not just for its immersive atmosphere, tension and iconic creatures, but also because it places the player at the center of every decision, directly influencing who lives, who dies and how the story moves forward.

Obviously, there’s no such gimmick here.

Considering how it would be difficult to compress that hook into a 103 minute run time, writers Gary Dauberman (Annabelle, The Nun) and Blair Butler (The Invitation) replicate the gaming process by creating an awkward hybrid of Groundhog Day (1993) and The Cabin in the Woods (2011) instead. Meaning, in this derivation, when the characters die they’re then brought back to life to die all over again, just in a different way.

And in the hands of director David F Sandberg (Lights Out, Annabelle: Creation) the resulting film is fun enough, but not necessarily the most coherent experience.

Yes, the kill scenes are top-notch and the setup is actually pretty well done, but the narrative just seems to be in a hurry to get through as many horror tropes as humanly possible. And while the atmosphere is tense throughout, there isn’t much rhyme or reason put into the horror.

While casual viewers looking for a lightning-fast thrill ride with gory, practical effects and plenty of jump scares, will be pleased that the film does enough to stay a notch above the piss-poor standard, but fans of the game and anyone looking for something that would push the horror genre forward will be left sorely disappointed, as it does not offer enough uniqueness to really justify its existence.

The story follows Clover (Ella Rubin), who along with her ex-boyfriend Max (Michael Cimino), and their friends, Megan (Ji-young Yoo), Nina (Odessa A’zion), and Nina’s new boyfriend Abe (Belmont Cameli), who have been retracing the final journey made by Clover’s sister Melanie (Maia Mitchell), who went missing a year ago.

Fueled by guilt considering how their last conversation was an argument, Clover has been compelled to follow vague clues all the way, even while those around her are starting to lose faith. But upon being guided by a mysterious stranger (Peter Stormare) to a place where Melanie was possibly last seen, the group ends up at a visitor center, hoping to seek shelter, in a mysterious mining town called Glore Valley.

But as soon as they begin to realize something might be amiss, the group is picked off by a masked killer, only to wake up and find themselves back at the beginning and in a loop where each decision they take leads them into a different yet horrifying death.

Without a doubt, the film is well-staged and held together by Sandberg, an efficient filmmaker who has mastered the art of helming totally competent studio horror features.

But this time around, he is let down by a far less effective script. The mixing of various horror sub-genres from slasher to ghost story to zombies to witchcraft, is an exciting attempt of keeping the viewers glued to their screens who are awaiting the next unexpected death for our fateful five protagonists.

Deaths which are frequent, violent and surprisingly graphic for a mainstream horror film. And without getting bogged down by lengthy exposition, the time loop concept, while not entirely unique, offers a fresh twist to the narrative. But the moment it tries to tie itself to the game’s universe, things begin to fall apart.

Where the playfully cheeky fun game gets its kicks from toying with scary-movie clichés, this self-serious adaptation only rarely feels like it’s in on the joke. The film lifts some key elements from the game, like the Wendigos (who do look scary), but most of them are used as generic horror fodder.

To make matters worse, the final act’s mental hospital sequence is a narrative mess. Poorly paced, it felt more like a desperate attempt to shoehorn Peter Stormare‘s Dr. Hill into an already nonsensical plot. A role that should’ve brought gravitas but only highlights how much the writers relied on nostalgia over storytelling.

Nevertheless, the acting is pretty solid across the board. Ella Rubin, Michael Cimino, Odessa A’zion, Ji-young Yoo, and Belmont Cameli are likable and committed, even when they are stuck with predictably underwritten characters, and the grueling nature of the plot compels us to root for their survival.

Peter Stormare, an actor whose creepy, looming presence is something that’s not easy to replicate, reprises a version of his role in the game. His ramblings about trauma and wendigos might be absurd, but at least he delivers it all with snarling gusto. On the whole, ‘Until Dawn‘ is an adequate horror feature that doesn’t fully realize the potential of its source material.