Until Dawn Movie Review: Uneven Loop

Until Dawn is a love letter to the horror genre that adds a time loop element to the story of the award-winning video game but struggles to make them connect.

When the Until Dawn video game was released in 2015, one of its trademarks was the butterfly effect system, which encouraged replayability by having the story change with every decision players made. The time loop seems to be screenwriters Blair Butler and Gary Dauberman’s attempt to adapt that to the big screen. I’m not sure it’s the most elegant solution, but it kind of works, even if it results in a completely different kind of story. But don’t worry; if you’re a fan of the game who just wants to see the Wendigos wreak havoc on the big screen, you’ll get that too.

When Clover (Ella Rubin), Max (Michael Cimino), Nina (Odessa A’zion), Megan (Ji-young Yoo), and Abel (Belmont Cameli) are just about to give up on their search for Clover’s missing sister Melanie (Maia Mitchell), they finally get a first real hint of where she might be. The owner of a gas station (Peter Stormare) tells them that people disappear quite often in a nearby valley, so naturally that’s where they head next. 

On their way, they get caught in a bad rainstorm until they suddenly arrive at a house that seems unaffected by the weather in a small radius surrounding it. They explain the weirdness away with some pseudo-science smattering and decide to go inside and wait out the rainstorm that’s still raging just a couple of meters away from the house. It seems to be abandoned, but it’s not long before a masked killer arrives who takes them out one by one.

They wake up again in the same house and realize they’re trapped in a time loop; to make it out, they have to survive… until dawn. But there’s something special about this time loop: they’re facing a different monster every time. It’s a very fun premise that allows the film to become a real love letter to the horror genre. In one moment it’s a classic slasher, and in the next a creature feature. There are demonic possessions, moments of body horror, and even found footage elements. And throughout all of it, the film is surprisingly violent. It’s clear director David F. Sandberg had a lot of fun with the gore and didn’t shy away from it at all. Bodies are slashed in half, eyes are punctured, and limbs explode. Until Dawn earns its R-rating and is all the better for it.

It all makes for such a fun ride during the first half of the film. But then the second half comes around, and it seems the screenwriters suddenly remembered they were making an Until Dawn movie. A sudden shift in the plot completely throws away the time loop premise that has been set up in favor of something else entirely. It feels like someone had an idea for an original horror movie but had to turn it into an Until Dawn adaptation to sell it, with no idea of how to actually make that happen. The result is a film of two halves that feel completely detached from one another. Either half could’ve made for a solid movie (or video game) on its own, but as it is, it turns into a complete mess in the latter half.

While I was pleasantly surprised by the gore that goes beyond the usual in this kind of teen horror space that both the movie and the game operate in, I got exactly what I expected from the characters. Which is to say they’re clichéd, underwritten stereotypes. Fortunately, I think this kind of film can sort of get away with it. But did we have to turn the one Asian character into a spiritual guide with the ability to sense evil energy? And the weirdly unnatural and compromising positions some of the girls are put into are simply off-putting. But then I was never really expecting more from Until Dawn in that regard.

Despite that, David F. Sandberg delivers some really solid directorial work here. He weaves in and out of the different horror subgenres pretty seamlessly (until the sudden shift halfway through) and makes good use of the camera and lighting to craft some good scares. When the teens explore the basement for the first time, with their phone flashes as the only available light source, we switch to a POV camera as they carefully lean around corners and scan their surroundings. In a later scene, Clover hides in the foreground, while a Wendigo looks for her in the background. The camera is static while a red flickering light hides much of the movement of the monster. It’s not the first time anyone has pulled this trick, but it works damn well.

Until Dawn is a very uneven movie, especially in its two halves that fail to combine into a greater whole. It’s frustrating to think what either half on its own could’ve turned into, but at the end of the day, it’s an enjoyable ride that I had a lot of fun with for large stretches. And it brings us David F. Sandberg’s best directorial work in a horror movie yet, as he elevates the mediocre screenplay into a gory, genre-shifting time loop.

Until Dawn is now available to watch in US & Canadian theaters, in UK & Irish cinemas, and globally in theaters.