The game, Until Dawn, is coming up to around ten years old now and that was the quintessential horror film experience in the form of a video game. It was a game that celebrated classic horror tropes and managed to cleverly weave them all into one big goodie bag that still had an incredibly solid over-arching narrative. From slasher scares to supernatural spooks, it really did have it all for anybody who loves the genre as a whole. Even better is it falls into the interactive drama genre which means it basically plays out like a film. Think a ‘choose your own adventure’ book but its a film that you interact with through dialogue options, choices and small quick button presses to keep you on your toes. This all means the game is very accessible, particularly for non-gamers, hence why it is so popular. So if the game is about horror films, plays like a film and is probably about as mainstream as a film, why does it now need a film adaptation? Well after seeing the film, it does not really justify its existence but it is still a good bit of fun nonetheless.

Rather than being a one-to-one adaptation of the game, Until Dawn follows a new group of friends. At the centre of that group is Clover (Ella Rubin) who is trying to find her missing sister. They come to a strange valley which seems to act as a strange pocket dimension. One minute they are in a storm and there is clear skies with an ominous looking vistor centre in the woods. They investigate only to see Clover’s sister was not the only one missing. Before they can even react properly though, a masked maniac breaks into the visitor centre and kills them all very quickly. Except, they just wake up a few hours earlier when they entered the strange place. They are told in order to escape the loop, they must survive until dawn in the new hellscape they have found themselves in.

Immediately, it may be clear that this does not have much relation to the game, other than the title and some smaller tidbits. It is a really bizarre decision to just make something completely unrelated but in fairness, there are some bits of connective tissue, even if it’s not obvious from the jump. In the game, you are told that death is permanent. Once a character dies in that game, they will not respawn and will remain dead for the rest of the game. It is very clear about mortality and how you should think wisely because they do only live once. The film initially seems to miss the point of this with its concept alone. Giving each character another chance upon death does defeat the point the game is trying to make and it seems like those that worked on the film needed a concept to remind us it is based on a game. What usually happens in games when your character dies? You respawn and try again. Of all games to use this adaptation approach for, Until Dawn is one of the strangest choices because it is quite clear about death and its permanence. This being said, the characters do start to realise that they do need to be more careful. It makes the point of them not being overzealous with what they do and treating every life as if its their last. If it did not have the concept to begin with, making this point would have been too on the nose, as it would be too obviously echoing the game’s sentiment. Having them learn like this though does end up being a less clumsy way of bringing this point forward.

The good writing ends there as the characters in particular just are not interesting. None of them have anything engaging about them and are pretty much just fodder to be killed multiple times with. It does not have that archetypal ensemble that the game does. Every person in that game felt very distinct from one another and here, they’re all rather bland. Within the five friends, there are two couples, one of them beong an ex-couple. You would never believe it if you did not see it though as they have no real chemistry with each other. Clover is the only one at least servicable because we get a bit of background on her and the only reason they are all there is to find her sister. Something to really make the characters work would be the totems from the game. These are completely absent and are of the core things that makes Until Dawn. They are little totems that offer a little glimpse into the future surrounding a certain character, whether it is showing their death or perhaps something key in preventing it. Having these present in the film would allow for much more intelligent ideas from the characters and give them more agency than just stumbling around hoping to survive.

I mentioned the game as having a ‘big goodie bag’ of horror tropes. It manages to juggle a lot of different types of horror and assembles them in one big package that contains everything without feeling over the top. The film is much less subtle but it does try to do a similar thing. Each night the friends die in, they have another thing they have to deal with the next day. That can range from the masked killer they first run into, to a gargantuan creature towering over their escape route. It is quite messy but in probably the best way. Although not subtel at all, this film is a true celebration of horror as a genre and feels like a horror theme park at points. There is one excellent scene where they are looking through a character’s phone to see what they have recorded that they have forgotten in the days passed. Here, we are gifted a montage of some excellent short horror scenes, some of which were genuinely quite freakish. Whilst it tried to do this throughout the film, there needed to be more of the cool stuff that was on that phone. If you are going to do theme park horror, fully commit to it because even if it might be messy, by god is it entertaining.

Until Dawn does not really live up to the game’s quality but strangely, it does not even seem to want anything to do with the game. It shares themes and sentiments but outside of Peter Stormare’s character, some smaller nods and of course the title, not much of this indicates a true Until Dawn film. This being said, the film is a mixed bag of some random horror set pieces that can be quite engaging but will not have a lasting impact. The characters are quite dull but really, they are just crash test dummies for some of the good fun horror content on display here. It’s far from bad and will definitely quench a small horror craving. Just do not expect much more beyond that.