Gamers are no strangers to popular gaming franchises getting TV or film adaptations that ultimately fail to live up to the game it's based on. In recent years, some gaming franchises have found success in TV adaptations. HBO's The Last of Us is critically acclaimed and fans of the game love it just as much as people who have never played the game. Prime Video's Fallout and Netflix's Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft have also enjoyed incredible success. Unfortunately, these series are video game adaptations outliers, not the standard. More often than not, the media based on video games flops hard.
The Until Dawn Trailer Pays Tribute to the Game’s Core Mechanic
But It Doesn't Understand Until Dawn's Story At All
The Until Dawn trailer failed to impress gamers who love the video game because the movie is not trying to tell the same story. In just two minutes, the trailer proved to fans that they should not expect to see their favorite video game authentically brought to life. It does, however, deserve credit for finding a way to bring Until Dawn's core gameplay to life on the big screen.
Until Dawn is a cinematic horror video game with multiple outcomes dependent on the player's decisions. The game works off the concept of the Butterfly Effect. A butterfly could flap its wings today and create a devastating hurricane weeks from now. The Butterfly Effect suggests that one small action can create a massive change in the future. Players are supposed to keep this in mind as they move through the game. Every decision they make, no matter how small, could change a character's trajectory entirely.
The game's main cast includes eight characters. The player will control all eight characters at least once throughout the night. The decisions they make as each character will impact everything, like how the characters interact with each other, how the personal relationships between each character fester, and even if they live or die. The game mostly relies on the character's choices. For example, while playing as Chris, the player will have to decide if he's going to save his best friend, Josh, or the girl he's in love with, Ashley, from a masked killer's Saw-like trap. Ashley survives no matter who Chris chooses, but if Chris chooses to save Josh, his relationship with Ashley will become strained throughout the rest of the game.
Until Dawn's 8 Main Characters:
- Rami Malek as Josh
- Hayden Panettiere as Sam
- Brett Dalton as Mike
- Meaghan Martin as Jessica
- Galadriel Stineman as Ashley
- Jordan Fisher as Matt
- Noah Fleiss as Chris
- Nichole Sakura as Emily
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These sorts of decisions aren't the only way the player impacts the outcome of the game. Players need to explore every area for clues about what's going on. Missing certain clues will actually change certain characters' fates. For example, if players fail to find Hannah's diary, Josh will fail to recognize Hannah and die. Learning the information in Hannah's diary will save Josh's life.
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Since there are so many ways the player can impact multiple outcomes, the game has a lot of replayability. Players are likely to replay Until Dawn at least once or twice to see what other outcomes they can achieve. The Until Dawn movie trailer mimics the game's replayability by putting the main characters in a time loop. They relive the same night over and over again, forced to search for clues that will help them survive until dawn and escape with their lives. It's impressive that the movie managed to work the game's most well-praised mechanic into the film, but in doing so, it left behind the real reason people love Until Dawn.
Unfortunately, That’s Where the Similarities End
The Film Focuses More on the Game's Mechanics than the Actual Story
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One year after Hannah and Beth's disappearance, Josh reaches out to the group and asks them to join him back on Blackwood Mountain. He frames their gathering as a party to honor his sisters and the rest of the group feels too guilty not to go. They have no idea that Josh has spent the last year plotting his revenge. He poses as a masked killer who purposefully separates the group and terrorizes them. Josh doesn't plan to hurt them for real, he just wants to scare them so they can feel a fraction of the fear that Hannah and Beth likely felt leading up to their deaths. Josh has no idea that something far more sinister lingers on the mountain, the same creatures that hunted his sisters leading up to their disappearance.
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One year after her sister Melanie mysteriously disappeared, Clover and her friends head into the remote valley where she vanished in search of answers. They find themselves horrifically murdered, only to wake up and find themselves back at the beginning of the same evening. Trapped in the valley, they’re forced to relive the nightmare again and again - only each time, the killer threat is different, each more terrifying than the last, and the only way to escape is to survive until dawn.
— Screen Gems Until Dawn plot breakdown
Until Dawn's Movie Cast:
- Ella Rubin as Clover
- Michael Cimino as Max
- Odessa A'zion as Nina
- Ji-young Yoo as Megan
- Belmont Cameli as Abel
- Maia Mitchell as Melanie, Clover's missing older sister
- Peter Stormare as Dr. Hill
- Dr. Hill is the only character that also appears in the Until Dawn video game. Dr. Hill was Josh's therapist. Throughout the game, Josh hallucinates Dr. Hill as his mental health declines.
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The Movie Would Have Had a Better Shot if it Wasn’t Called Until Dawn
It Looks Interesting, but the Movie Isn't Until Dawn
The movie clearly takes a lot of inspiration from the best-selling video game, Until Dawn. Some of the character designs are extremely similar, like the masked killer and the wendigo. It also goes out of its way to bring the game's core gameplay to life on screen with the time loop paradox. If this film tried to pass itself off as a horror movie that was inspired by Until Dawn, maybe it would have gone over better with fans. Advertising is as Until Dawn was a huge mistake, though.
Unfortunately, it looks like the Until Dawn movie will sit alongside dozens of bad video game adaptations that make people wonder why it's so hard to make a good video game movie. The worst part about this film is that it looks interesting. If it wasn't called Until Dawn, and it wasn't trying to market itself on the back of a well-loved video game, it would probably have done well. It shouldn't call itself a film adaptation of Until Dawn if that's not what it is. It's got an interesting enough premise to stand on its own. Trying to pass it off as something it isn't is what will ultimately destroy this movie's reputation. Even if the movie is good, gamers who love the game will never give it a chance because it butchered everything players loved about the game.
