Summary
- The Until Dawn movie adaptation will feature a time loop mechanic.
- The director and writer want to evoke the feeling of choices having consequences, but not too many consequences.
- The movie aims to expand the mythos of Until Dawn.
The decision to adapt Until Dawn, a game that is already a cinematic experience, into a full movie is either a natural one or an unnecessary one – only time will tell. The adaptation was announced last January and several of the main cast were confirmed in June. Now, Sony Pictures Entertainment has released a “First Look” at the production, revealing some of the key narrative decisions present within the film.
Until Dawn is set in the same universe as the video game, but with a different set of characters in a different location. According to Sony, the movie is expanding the “mythos” of the universe. In the video, the film’s writer Gary Dauberman explained his decision to move away from the original cast, saying “As a huge fan of the Until Dawn game and how cinematic it was, I thought a lot about how we could continue the story without giving the audience the same experience they got when they were playing the game,” he explains.
Escape the Loop
Director David F. Sandberg then explains that they’re looking to capture the same tone as the video game but with a different story. The tone of Until Dawn was boilerplate horror, so I don’t necessarily think a director will have to innovate very hard to capture that same tone in a horror movie.
Sandberg then explains the core “mechanic” of the narrative – a time loop. Playing on the fact that characters in Until Dawn can die in various gruesome ways depending on player decisions, Dauberman and Sandberg introduced a time loop where a character dying “resets” the horror scenario, with each reset placing the cast in a different horror subgenre. In the trailer, we can see Clover (Ella Rubin) being murdered by a masked man, only for everyone to snap back into existence earlier in the day.
Sandberg concludes the video by saying the characters need to survive until dawn. It’s unknown if the characters can die, or “surviving” just means not resetting until dawn so they can escape an infinite cycle. It’s likely there will be additional stakes introduced so the characters can’t just keep resetting over and over again.
The use of different subgenres is reminiscent of Joss Whedon’s The Cabin in the Woods, or even Supermassive’s own Dark Pictures Anthology. Each episode of Dark Pictures focused on a different horror subgenre. The upcoming Directive 8020 episode is inspired by space horror and is set to release sometime in 2025.
Until Dawn, meanwhile, releases on April 21, 2025.
Until Dawn is a remake of the hit horror game for PS5 and PC, featuring updated visuals, lighting, and new content using the power of Unreal Engine 5. It follows five people stranded in a ski lodge, who find themselves hunted by a terrifying killer.
