Until Dawn is a surprisingly clever video game adaptation

I went into the Until Dawn movie with a lot of apprehension.

Often, live-action video game adaptations miss the point of their source material, which were already so inspired by movies to begin with. PlayStation and developer Supermassive’s Until Dawn game, in particular, is designed to be an interactive slasher flick, so it always seemed counterintuitive to basically turn that back into a movie.

But after seeing Until Dawn in theatres, I find myself pleasantly surprised with how it turned out. In fact, I’d go so far as to say it’s one of the better live-action video game movies we’ve gotten so far.

A key reason for that is how director David F. Sandberg (Shazam!, Lights Out) approaches the game. Rather than directly adapt that story, Until Dawn (2025) instead follows a completely separate group of young people who find themselves dealing with a masked killer and fearsome creatures. Movies and shows that follow the same narrative as their game counterparts will always be less interesting to me than the likes of Netflix’s Cyberpunk: Edgerunners or Prime Video’s Fallout that tell original stories that meaningfully expand upon their respective universes. Therefore, I quickly appreciated how this wasn’t just the exact same characters and story beats.

But beyond that, Until Dawn (2025) actually takes the mechanics of the game and weaves them into the story in some pretty clever ways. In the game, the idea (assuming you’re not a bloodthirsty player) was to guide to each character to safety by making the right choices and succeeding through rapid button prompts (quick-time events, or “QTEs”). Unlike most games, in which a character death can be undone by simply reloading a save file, Until Dawn (2015) made each demise permanent, adding meaningful stakes to the narrative. In so doing, a “butterfly effect” system was created wherein characters would be put in different situations depending on who else had survived or died, leading to a staggering variety of scenes.

Rather brilliantly, Until Dawn (2025) takes that idea of seemingly infinite possible outcomes surrounding a theoretical “happy ending” for everyone by placing the characters in a Groundhog Day-esque time loop in which they come back to life after dying. In this way, the movie gets to play around with all different kinds of gleefully gruesome deaths from an assortment of threats that play around with horror tropes and nod to the game’s branching narrative.

While the film takes a bit of time to fully establish this premise, it eventually lands into a thoroughly entertaining rhythm of seeing the characters continue to “re-do” the night for a mutually beneficial outcome. Sandberg is clearly having a ball here, mixing effective practical effects, sharp editing and some well-timed zingers to show the progression of time and the physical and mental toll the ever-repeating night is having on the group.

That direction does a lot of heavy lifting, admittedly, because the performances, while serviceable, just aren’t enough to elevate these otherwise paper-thin characters. Only Clover (The Girl from Plainville‘s Ella Rubin) has anything resembling an emotional arc here, given her journey to find her missing sister and overcome past trauma. This is honestly where the movie naturally just can’t reach the highs of the game. There, stock characters like the “hunky but jock” or “self-absorbed bitch” were subverted as you played through the multi-hour campaign, something an hour-and-a-half film isn’t capable of doing.

On the flip side, the decision to bring back one standout character from the game ultimately proves to be quite wise. In Until Dawn (2015), the ever-delightful character actor Peter Stormare played Dr. Hill, an enigmatic psychiatrist who broke the fourth wall to talk to the player. Stormare reprises the role in Until Dawn (2025), bringing that same kooky, larger-than-life energy that can be appreciated by both fans and newcomers alike while also neatly cementing the film as another story that can stand beside the events of the game.

That, in the end, is what makes Until Dawn (2025) a solid adaptation. It’s not trying to be the game again — it’s something spiritually similar but also refreshingly distinct. Sure, the pacing is a bit slow at first, and most of the characters are dull, but the well-directed kills, pristine visual effects and surprisingly smart reinterpretation of a once-interactive narrative make for an entertaining and impressive adaptation on the whole.

It’s a bloody good time all around.

Until Dawn is now playing in theatres everywhere. A remaster of the original 2025 game is available on PlayStation 5 and PC (Steam/Epic Games Store).