The film adaptation of the popular video game Until Dawn arrives in theaters on April 25, promising a unique blend of genres and a thrill ride for cinephiles interested in horror. The nightmarish story that blends time loop, stars Ella Rubin as Clover, who goes in search of her missing sister Melanie (Maia Mitchell). As Clover and her friends search for answers at a secluded visitor centre, a masked killer begins to stalk and brutally murder them, but they awaken at the beginning of the same horrifying evening. Speaking about the film’s unique structure, director David F Sandberg says, “Before learning of Until Dawn, I had been thinking about what a perfect project would be. Would it be a slasher movie, a supernatural story, or maybe a creature feature? Until Dawn has it all; it is several horror movies in one, which made me fall in love with it. We get to play with the entire horror toolbox. You never know what is coming next in our story, because it changes every night.” The filmmaker adds, “As a lifelong horror fan, it was a dream come true to work in all these subgenres.”
The film marks a return to his horror roots for Sandberg, who started out with the critically acclaimed indie horror feature Lights Out. Sandberg, who previously directed Annabelle: Creation in the horror genre, honed his filmmaking skills by creating horror shorts with his wife, Lotta Losten, before his feature debut. This background in crafting scares with limited resources likely informs the inventive horror sequences that Until Dawn promises.
Until Dawn reunites Sandberg with his Annabelle: Creation screenwriter Gary Dauberman, who adapted the popular PlayStation Studios game alongside Blair Butler. The film marks the first horror feature for actor Rubin, who plays the lead role of Clover. However, as for Losten, “Ella has this raw and magical way of capturing Clover’s horrors.” Sharing details about her horror debut, Rubin reveals, “Until Dawn gave me the opportunity to keep pushing, rather than pulling back. That was exciting and kind of delicious. There is no way to rein it in when your character is constantly in a life and death situation, and you’re literally being chased by a monster with an axe!”
It also brings back actor Peter Stormare as Dr Hill after his voice work on the game, but it is yet to be seen if he will be reprising the role with the same arc. Known for his unsettling performance in Coen Brothers’ Fargo, Stormare portrays a mysterious figure who provides the central group with cryptic information about their perilous destination. Elaborating about the character, Stormare says, “Initially, we really do not know who or what he is. But it is really rewarding to embody a character that you cannot nail down 100 per cent. He is both legendary and non-traditional. I was super excited to embody the character because it is one of the coolest I have ever done.”
Meanwhile, Sandberg states that Until Dawn will build on Dr Hill's character from the eponymous game. The filmmaker shares, “We will learn more about who he really is. It is great to have that connection to the game. It's also a joy to work with Peter.” Dauberman describes Stormare’s character as a “master of ceremonies" who escorts the audiences through the story. The writer adds, “He is also the man behind the curtain, who knows everything that is happening or going to happen.”
Meanwhile, a longtime admirer of Stormare’s work, Losten notes that the actor has a “way of playing creepy that is just delightful.” She cites an example: “When, as Hill, he smiles, his cheeks make a little clicky sound. Normally, in post-production, you remove those kinds of sounds because they are a distraction, but we tuned that up because it makes the character even better.”
The time loop concept, where the characters must relive the same deadly night with escalating threats, forms the narrative crux of Until Dawn. The characters face the daunting challenge of unravelling the mystery behind the loop and finding a way to survive until dawn. Screenwriter Butler emphasises the inspiration from the source material. “Gary and I loved the way the game starts as one horror genre and turns into something totally different. This amazing blend of horror styles—and a structure that lets you try to save everybody or just kill them all off in terrible ways—were our north stars in crafting the screenplay.”