Until Dawn review
Until Dawn tries to evoke a ten year old video game…and ends up feeling like a twenty year old movie.
New movie reviews will not contain spoilers.
Until Dawn
Directed by David F. Sandberg
Screenplay by Gary Dauberman and Blair Butler
Starring Ella Rubin, Michael Cimino, Odessa A’zion, Ji-young Yoo, Belmont Cameli, Maia Mitchell and Peter Stormare
Until Dawn Review
While watching Until Dawn I was immediately reminded of the horror films of the early 2000’s. That was a relatively famous rough patch for the genre unless your nostalgia lines up with the period. The post-Scream era saw a large quantity of theatrical horror releases. Quality, however, was more difficult to come by. While it may sound like a damning statement to equate Until Dawn with the era…I found myself enjoying the comparison. Perhaps nostalgia catches up with us all. Had Until Dawn been released in the aughts…it would have stood out as a fun version of the too-slick, not clever enough deluge of genre films. Having been released in 2025, one week after Ryan Coogler’s excellent Sinners no less, relegates it to a still fun, still silly slice of pop-horror.
Taking its name from a decade old PlayStation game…Until Dawn contains a different story than people who played that game would expect. It does, however, directly connect to that version of Until Dawn through a character named Dr. Alan Hill (Peter Stormare). Stormare plays the part in both the game and film…allowing the new Until Dawn to deepen the lore of the original story while focusing on a completely different set of characters. The video game Until Dawn starred future Oscar winner Rami Malek, Hayden Panettiere and a few other familiar faces. Though none of those actors reprise their roles here…there is no mistaking the connection to the original material. They exist in the same world.
2025’s film version of Until Dawn sees a group of friends trapped in a nightmare loop. One year after the disappearance of her sister Melanie (Maia Mitchell), Clover (Ella Rubin), ex-boyfriend Max (Michael Cimino), friends Megan (Ji-young Yoo) and Nina (Odessa A-zion) and Nina’s boyfriend Abe (Belmont Cameli) retrace Melanie’s last known steps. They find themselves stuck in a place that resets the night every time they are killed by any number of dangers unleashed upon them. To escape…they must survive until dawn.
In its simplest moments, Until Dawn is a fun watch. It gets bogged down in a lack of decisive ideas too often…and at one point just leaps forward several cycles in a way that doesn’t disorient as intended as much as annoy. There is no shortage of issues with the way Until Dawn chooses to deliver its story. But…it’s still kind of fun. Especially when it’s aiming to be nothing more than that. One loop in particular is as entertaining as anything you’ll see on screens this year. In fact, had Until Dawn chosen to focus entirely on the ever-changing dangers inside each loop…it might have really had something.
There’s enough of that to make Until Dawn a decent enough time at the movies. It’s harder, however, to invest in character interactions and traumatic backstory when it takes center stage. The cast does what they can with the material. It’s just not as interesting as Until Dawn seems to think it is. Characters repeatedly dying in unexpected ways trying to survive and break the cycle? That’s the good stuff. The movie doesn’t stick to it as much as it should.
When the pacing is on point Until Dawn feels like a peak early 2000’s slick horror experience. Fun gore effects are tossed around, and death is around every corner. That’s the promise of Until Dawn realized to its full potential. Whenever it veers from the formula…things slow down and aren’t nearly as engaging. It’s a strange thing, really. To come up with a worthwhile concept to adapt the feel of a video game into a motion picture…and then discard it too often for it to stand out. It feels like Until Dawn cracked the hard part, understood how to utilize it…and then just decided to skip ahead halfway through the fun.
Which brings us full circle to the truth about the 2025 film version of Until Dawn. It would have worked better as a video game. Video games offer a much longer format…not to mention the interactive choices of this specific franchise fitting the material like a glove. Imagine controlling the choices of a group of characters who find themselves playing through multiple loops of differing horror concepts…trying to uncover a mystery and escape? That sounds like a great game. In Until Dawn…it only makes for a decent movie. One that, for better and worse, feels about 20 years out of date.
Scare Value
Despite several negatives that can be easily laid out…I found myself enjoying Until Dawn more often than not. There are some fun ideas here…when the story isn’t forcing them into the background. It’s a slick, 2000’s era type of horror film. That has its own negative connotations…but it also has a certain nostalgia factor at play. The truth is that you’ll probably be better off playing through the 2015 PlayStation game again…but joining this group in their loop won’t kill you. And if it does you can just get up and try again.
2.5/5
Until Dawn Link
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