In the current landscape where movie adaptations of popular video games are making bank and are doing alright for themselves, a stinker or two will eventually have to slip through the cracks. Be it studio obligations or projects going through development hell, it’s only a matter of time when these adaptations don’t end up as intended.

That’s the Until Dawn movie in a nutshell: a horror film that emulates the original 2015 interactive movie horror game made by talented developers Supermassive, and just add in new elements just to differentiate itself from the game. The problem is that they further make this milquetoast film a padded-out affair that doesn’t bother with coherent storytelling and pacing.

From Dusk ‘Til….

The Until Dawn movie adaptation is about a group of friends trapped in a time loop signified by the game’s trademark hourglass icon and logo, with the film’s mysterious horror creatures chasing them and killing them in different ways. In other to get out of it, they have to survive until dawn to escape their nightmare, with the place they’re stuck in having its own typical horror backstory that just goes through the motions rather than relish in it.

Probably the only noteworthy elements of the film is its set design and its gore effects; they get the job done at the very least. There are even a few key scenes involving the survivors as they go through their time loops and retrace their past experiences due to the magic and ever-shifting logic and rules of the time loop they’re in. The film even brings in Peter Stormare as his character from the game Dr. Alan Hill as more than a cameo. However, the video game obligatory additions and changes to the original story to fit with the time loop scenario is not properly explained and just dumped onto the audience to figure out, making for a mess of a horror film that combines all of the scares but none of the heart and craft to make us care for its victims.

In fact, I’ll bet you won’t be able to remember most of the cast save for the main character who is looking for her lost sister, which was the whole reason the group got stuck in the time loop mess to begin with. As pretty as the cast look in Hollywood terms, they aren’t written well and charismatic enough to make me think of them beyond kill fodder for the masked killer and other oddities in the show.

In fact, the only reason you would want to stay awake is to see some of the references the movie makes with the game it’s based on. The film even goes so far as to “borrow” elements from other successful horror titles from the B-movie and direct-to-video side of things, most egregiously the REC series, without tying them up coherently and crafting its own identity through it all.

Turn Back Time

Simply put, the Until Dawn movie is an example of a studio mandate and obligation brought to life for no rhyme or creative reason, existing only to get some sales from the genre it’s emulating. Until Dawn is a pastiche of all the horror tropes you’ve seen before and done better elsewhere.

In the hands of a better director and production team, the sort-of neat ideas this film has might come off as passable or even good. But as it stands, it wears out its welcome with its horrible pacing, schizophrenic in its storytelling, and is filled with so many tropes you’ve seen before it feels like an amateur-level YouTube mashup with an 18+ age gate.

You are better off just playing the PlayStation 4 classic game this film is “based” on; you’ll get a more coherent narrative, better characters, and a horror trope that makes more sense than whatever rojak nonsense David F. Sandberg and co. are throwing at you.

Final Score: 40/100