103 min | R | April 25, 2025 | Sony Pictures Releasing
David F. Sandberg adapts the horror video game with an original story set in the same universe. The practical effects work. The time loop premise wears thin.
Video game adaptations struggle with structure. Games give players agency and choice. Films lock you into a single narrative path. Until Dawn the game was about branching choices and multiple deaths. Until Dawn the film puts a group of friends in a time loop where they die repeatedly and wake up to try again. The premise allows for creative kills and escalating dread. The problem is the film never finds a compelling reason for the loop or emotional stakes beyond survival.
Ella Rubin plays Clover, searching for her missing sister one year after she disappeared in the same remote valley. Michael Cimino, Odessa A’zion, Ji-young Yoo, and Belmont Cameli play the friend group with energy that never develops into character. Peter Stormare reprises his role from the game and brings the only genuine menace. The masked killer is effective in isolated moments but never coalesces into a memorable threat.
David F. Sandberg directed the Shazam films and Lights Out. He understands horror mechanics and how to stage a scare. The practical effects are strong. The kills are inventive and brutal. The film earns its R rating through gore and violence that feels consequential. But the time loop structure creates a repetition problem. You watch characters die, reset, and try again. The film runs out of new ways to kill them before it runs out of story.
The film exists in the Until Dawn universe but tells its own story. That’s the right choice. Trying to adapt the game’s choice-based narrative would have been impossible. What we get instead is a competent slasher with a gimmick that works better in concept than execution.