On Friday, April 25, “Until Dawn,” a movie based on the horror video game of the same title, was released, its creation stirring the video game’s fanbase.
This movie caused lots of discourse among fans who were worried the deviation from the plot would be a disaster, but they have nothing to worry about. “Until Dawn” follows five young characters, Clover, Abel, Max, Nina and Megan as they retrace the last known moments of Clover’s missing sister. They stumble upon Glore Valley and as Nina signs her and her friends’ names into the guest book, they get stuck in a time loop where they must survive until dawn. The catch is that they only have 13 tries before they permanently become wendigos, cannibalistic mythological creatures, and join Glore Valley.
The video game plot is much different in that a group of eight friends go up to a ski lodge to honor their lost friends who disappeared in that same place and time the year prior. Everything starts going amiss when a psychopath begins hunting down each character and wendigos begin to attack as well. The player controls each character in different moments as they all try to survive until help can get to them at dawn. Different from the movie, they only have one shot. The characters who die are gone forever.
The movie is incredibly different than the video game which can lead viewers to the conclusion that the writers weren’t basing it off the plot at all, but the concept. The movie was built off the lore of the video game rather than making the video game come to life. Once fans understand this, they may not be so harsh on the movie.
Overall, “Until Dawn,” the movie, was a success. It didn’t solely rely on jump scares, but rather had different horrors each time they restarted, making viewers sit on the edge of their seat. It was hard to tell what was coming next and to top it off, the acting was spot-on. Unlike the game, the characters actually felt like teenagers from the way they acted down to their clothes. The dialogue between each character was much better than the game as well and added a more realistic flare.
The point of the movie was to show that the best way to deal with your problems is to face them head on. This becomes more and more apparent as viewers watch, and solidifies in the last ten minutes of the movie. At the end, the reference to the video game shows that the cycle will always repeat.
“Until Dawn” is better than the game on many levels from the dialogue to character design and acting. It may not be up there with the greats of the horror genre, but it’s overall a fine watch for those who can handle it.
