Roughly 15 minutes into Until Dawn, a creepy petrol station clerk warns a group of teens that “a lot go missing further down the roads”. As they set off towards a familiar forest cabin, it’s hard not to get swept up in the Cabin In The Woods of it all. A well-worn set-up, sure, but there’s hope the horror to come might be just as inventive — maybe even with a similar tongue-in-cheek wink to the camera. That hope sadly fades fast.
The film bears little resemblance to the choice-driven PlayStation horror game it’s based on — and honestly, the retooling makes sense. The game itself is fairly standard horror fare: a bunch of teens in a cabin for a weekend of fun, heads inevitably roll. The joy of the game lies in player agency — you're dropped into a slasher flick and have to see if your choices get everyone (or no-one) out alive.
The film’s answer is to ditch that structure entirely and introduce its own mechanic: the only way to escape its Groundhog Day-style loop is to survive until sunrise. It's a neat idea. Each night brings new monsters and fresh horror, a concept full of creative potential… which the film promptly squanders.
There are flickers of promise where it briefly throws in some variety.
Instead, it leans hard into the generic. Knife-wielding murderer? Check. Witch? Check. Even the game's Wendigos make an appearance, although they’re so stripped-back they barely make an impact. Until Dawn plays all the horror hits we've seen before and leaves you waiting desperately for the moment it’ll take things up a notch. One key part holding it back is that the film takes itself far too seriously to have any real fun with its premise.
There are flickers of promise where it briefly throws in some variety: an explosive bathroom scene that starts to get creative with the horror; a found-footage montage. But those moments get axed just as they start to get interesting. It always retreats to safe, seen-it-all-before territory.
Director David F. Sandberg, who previously delivered solid scares in Lights Out and Annabelle: Creation, emerges relatively unscathed. Many of the sequences land with genuine tension, and to his credit, you can sense him trying to elevate the material with some solid scares here. The cast, too, do what they can with paper-thin characters. Ji-young Yoo stands out as Megan, the group’s psychic, and appears to be having more fun than anyone else on screen. Peter Stormare also returns as Dr Alan J. Hill, a character from the game, but despite really dialling it up in scenes, his role feels incredibly underwritten.
Ultimately, the whole thing feels undercooked. The explanation for why any of this is happening is murky at best, and becomes actively confusing thanks to a third-act monologue. Plot threads are dropped — there’s no real narrative pay-off to Megan’s powers, and Clover’s emotional connection to her sister is all but forgotten by the time we head into the film’s climax. What should have been a twisty horror ride ends up feeling like it’s bursting at the seams to move up a gear — but never does.