Genre: Horror/Thriller
Director: David F. Sandberg
Cast: Ella Rubin, Odessa A'zion, Michael Cimino, Ji-young Yoo, Belmont Cameli, Maia Mitchell, Peter Stormare
Runtime: 1 hr 43 mins
Rating: M18 (Violence and Gore)
Released By: Sony Pictures
Official Website: 

Opening Day: 24 April 2025

Synopsis: One year after her sister Melanie mysteriously disappeared, Clover and her friends head into the remote valley where she vanished in search of answers. Exploring an abandoned visitor center, they find themselves stalked by a masked killer and horrifically murdered one by one...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 night again and again - only each time the killer threat is different, each more terrifying than the last. Hope dwindling, the group soon realizes they have a limited number of deaths left, and the only way to escape is to survive until dawn.

Movie Review:

We’re sure those who have played the game will have a lot more to say about the movie, and in particular, about how the movie is nothing like the game. Such departures only turn out one of two ways, and we dare to say that even as someone who has never played the game, ‘Until Dawn: The Movie’ has turned out an absolute folly.

From what we’ve read, the game employed a specific mechanism known as the ‘butterfly effect’, whereupon each player gets the opportunity to make decisions that could change the fate of their characters; and because the game auto-saves at that point, you could simply return to that same point, enlightened by what outcome a certain decision would result in. In the movie however, that ‘butterfly effect’ becomes a time loop, very much like the horror-slasher spoof ‘Happy Death Day’.

So in their version of ‘Until Dawn’, screenwriters Blair Butler and Gary Dauberman send a group of friends into the ominously named Glore Valley, where they are doomed to repeat the night again and again until they survive the duration of an hourglass clock. The catch here is that each time they die, they come back weakened, bruised and battered from their failed attempt(s), so the longer they stay in Glore Valley, the more they become part of the undead.

What exactly is that undead? In the mind of director David F. Sandberg – better known for ‘Lights Out’, ‘Annabelle: Creation’ and the ‘Shazam!’ movies – anything goes; that means anything from Jason Voorhees-lookalikes, to Poltergeist-like creepy clown dolls, to zombies and monsters. If that sounds like the kitchen sink, it truly does feel that way. Aside from a lame late-scene that sees Peter Stormare’s mad scientist Dr Hill (perhaps the most recognizable element from the game) explain how these terrors are but a manifestation of one of the characters’ fears, there is no logic or coherence to this grab bag of creatures.

Neither for that matter does Sandberg make any apologies about the gleeful embrace of blood and gore here, that sees heads smashed in, eyeballs pierced out, and even bodies and body parts exploding. Oh yes, there is no denying that the spectacularly repulsive deaths are staged for macabre humour, which as far as we can see, is the only inventive thing about this tedious rinse-and-repeat enterprise, if that happens to be your thing.

There is certainly nothing much to care about the dispensable characters assembled for this sorry exercise – all you probably need to know is that they are there because one of them named Clover (Ella Rubin) had wanted to go on a road trip in memory of her sister Melanie, who had gone missing a year before; and besides Clover, there are her childhood besties, Nina (Odessa A’zion) and Megan (Ji-young Yeo), her ex-boyfriend Max (Michael Cimino), and Nina’s new boyfriend Abe (Belmont Cameli). Though Megan’s clairvoyance is intriguing at the start, that quality is swiftly forgotten, just as how the rest of them are quickly forgettable.

Just as we thought video game adaptations have turned the corner – most recently with the unexpected success of ‘A Minecraft Movie’ – ‘Until Dawn: The Movie’ sets back the genre once again. Like we said, it is nothing like the game, and as far as this departure is concerned, it not only lets down the legion of fans that it needed to live up to, but also frustrates those willing to give it a chance at being something different, even if not necessarily more. Our advice? Don’t wait till dawn to send this into the night.

Movie Rating:

(As terrible as video game adaptations come, ‘Until Dawn’ is a kitchen-sink horror that makes no sense, offers no pleasures, and deserves to rot in its own grave)

Review by Gabriel Chong

Genre: Horror/Thriller
Director: David F. Sandberg
Cast: Ella Rubin, Odessa A'zion, Michael Cimino, Ji-young Yoo, Belmont Cameli, Maia Mitchell, Peter Stormare
Runtime: 1 hr 43 mins
Rating: M18 (Violence and Gore)
Released By: Sony Pictures
Official Website: 

Opening Day: 24 April 2025

Synopsis: One year after her sister Melanie mysteriously disappeared, Clover and her friends head into the remote valley where she vanished in search of answers. Exploring an abandoned visitor center, they find themselves stalked by a masked killer and horrifically murdered one by one...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 night again and again - only each time the killer threat is different, each more terrifying than the last. Hope dwindling, the group soon realizes they have a limited number of deaths left, and the only way to escape is to survive until dawn.

Movie Review:

We’re sure those who have played the game will have a lot more to say about the movie, and in particular, about how the movie is nothing like the game. Such departures only turn out one of two ways, and we dare to say that even as someone who has never played the game, ‘Until Dawn: The Movie’ has turned out an absolute folly.

From what we’ve read, the game employed a specific mechanism known as the ‘butterfly effect’, whereupon each player gets the opportunity to make decisions that could change the fate of their characters; and because the game auto-saves at that point, you could simply return to that same point, enlightened by what outcome a certain decision would result in. In the movie however, that ‘butterfly effect’ becomes a time loop, very much like the horror-slasher spoof ‘Happy Death Day’.

So in their version of ‘Until Dawn’, screenwriters Blair Butler and Gary Dauberman send a group of friends into the ominously named Glore Valley, where they are doomed to repeat the night again and again until they survive the duration of an hourglass clock. The catch here is that each time they die, they come back weakened, bruised and battered from their failed attempt(s), so the longer they stay in Glore Valley, the more they become part of the undead.

What exactly is that undead? In the mind of director David F. Sandberg – better known for ‘Lights Out’, ‘Annabelle: Creation’ and the ‘Shazam!’ movies – anything goes; that means anything from Jason Voorhees-lookalikes, to Poltergeist-like creepy clown dolls, to zombies and monsters. If that sounds like the kitchen sink, it truly does feel that way. Aside from a lame late-scene that sees Peter Stormare’s mad scientist Dr Hill (perhaps the most recognizable element from the game) explain how these terrors are but a manifestation of one of the characters’ fears, there is no logic or coherence to this grab bag of creatures.

Neither for that matter does Sandberg make any apologies about the gleeful embrace of blood and gore here, that sees heads smashed in, eyeballs pierced out, and even bodies and body parts exploding. Oh yes, there is no denying that the spectacularly repulsive deaths are staged for macabre humour, which as far as we can see, is the only inventive thing about this tedious rinse-and-repeat enterprise, if that happens to be your thing.

There is certainly nothing much to care about the dispensable characters assembled for this sorry exercise – all you probably need to know is that they are there because one of them named Clover (Ella Rubin) had wanted to go on a road trip in memory of her sister Melanie, who had gone missing a year before; and besides Clover, there are her childhood besties, Nina (Odessa A’zion) and Megan (Ji-young Yeo), her ex-boyfriend Max (Michael Cimino), and Nina’s new boyfriend Abe (Belmont Cameli). Though Megan’s clairvoyance is intriguing at the start, that quality is swiftly forgotten, just as how the rest of them are quickly forgettable.

Just as we thought video game adaptations have turned the corner – most recently with the unexpected success of ‘A Minecraft Movie’ – ‘Until Dawn: The Movie’ sets back the genre once again. Like we said, it is nothing like the game, and as far as this departure is concerned, it not only lets down the legion of fans that it needed to live up to, but also frustrates those willing to give it a chance at being something different, even if not necessarily more. Our advice? Don’t wait till dawn to send this into the night.

Movie Rating:

(As terrible as video game adaptations come, ‘Until Dawn’ is a kitchen-sink horror that makes no sense, offers no pleasures, and deserves to rot in its own grave)

Review by Gabriel Chong