Until Dawn
review by Bobby Blakey
Before taking on bringing DC’s Shazam to the big screen, director David F. Sandberg was knee deep in horror with great flicks including Annabelle: Creation and Lights Out. His latest film Until Down marks his return to the genre and stars Ella Rubin, Michael Cimino, Odessa A’zion, Ji-young Yoo, Belmont Cameli, Maia Mitchell and Peter Stormare. Could this video game adaptation offer up something that is worth repeating or should you just ignore the hour glass?
Until Dawn follows Clover and her friends who head into the remote valley where her sister Melanie mysteriously disappeared one year earlier 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.
I have never played this game and know nothing about it other than the trailer for this film so all my review will be in relation to the film itself and not its accuracy to the source material. That being said I was looking forward to this one as it looked to dive into all the horror tropes and throw them in a blender. That is exactly what this film is with it pulling in all kinds of great killers and visuals with an idea of the clock reset allowing them to keep getting more and more creative with the kills.
These elements make the film deliver and entertain more than it doesn’t
but still manages to fall into the cliched elements of the genre instead of stepping it up. The story is just complex enough to get things going and it is fine, but it just never finds its way fully out of the usual pacing of the genre. It has moments where it looks like it is going to find its own place as something more original, but never quite gets there. I say this because I was hoping for more not that it isn’t entertaining.
I enjoyed it for what it was, and the blood and gore are great. Seeing this variety of kills and the opportunity to kill the same characters over and over in fun news ways is a blast to witness. I wish the film wasn’t so dark all the time as some of the great kills get lost in the shadows sometimes, but are still fun nonetheless. In the end it is a fun horror flick worth checking out and even has a final moment that could lead to another chapter that I would be glad to check out if it happens.
In addition to the film this release offers bonus content including deleted & extended scenes, commentary, featurettes and more. Step into the never-ending terror with Until Dawn available now on digital, 4K, Blu-ray and DVD from Sony Home Entertainment.