Until Dawn (2025)
Directed by: David F. Sandberg
Premise: Based on the videogame. A group of friends visit an isolated house where they are trapped in a time loop and stalked by a masked killer. They must survive until dawn to break the loop.
What Works: Until Dawn is based on the Playstation videogame and the filmmakers find ways of adapting that source to the screen. The time loop concept replicates the player experience. In videogames a player resets to the beginning every time they fail. In this movie the characters relive the same night every time the last of them are killed. However, the characters of the movie carry damage with them from one incarnation to the next and they realize that their number of lives is finite. The cast do a good job in their roles. Everyone has specific character territory and the actors add personal qualities that distinguish their characters. Until Dawn also possesses a sense of humor. The filmmakers are self-aware of the kind of movie that they are making and the way this time loop premise has been done before. The actors demonstrate some comic timing which lightens the tone.
What Doesn’t: Until Dawn is primarily a horror film but it’s not very scary. There are a few jump scares but the picture lacks an overall atmosphere of dread. The film’s lack of scary appeal is partly due to the clumsiness of the production. There’s little tension in the way scenes are set up and play out. Until Dawn has a flat and sometimes murky look. The filmmakers don’t use shadows or darkness to create empty negative space in which the viewer can project their fears. The violence lacks any showmanship or impact. Until Dawn is rated R but the movie often feels like the PG-13 horror films that were produced about twenty years ago. The filmmakers often cut away from the gore. The viscera that is included feels artificially tagged on to bump up the rating. Until Dawn is a haunted house picture and a slasher film. Haunted house pictures are typically about the ghosts of the past haunting the present but there’s no sense of that here. Slasher movies are often sexual but Until Dawn feels very staid. The movie plays as a grab bag of horror clichés deployed without much purpose. The filmmakers also don’t do much with the time loop conceit which was done better in Happy Death Day, Palm Springs, and Groundhog Day.
Bottom Line: Until Dawn is an uninspired horror picture. Self-aware humor notwithstanding, the film feels like it’s just going through the motions and its horror tropes are served up without logic or motivation.
Episode: #1046 (May 4, 2025)