One year after her sister Melanie (Maia Mitchell) mysteriously disappeared, Clover (Ella Rubin) is desperate for answers. With her four friends, Max (Michael Cimino), Nina (Odessa A’zion), Megan (Ji-young Yoo) and Abe (Belmont Cameli), she heads into the remote valley where she vanished. They are horrifically murdered, only to wake up and find themselves back at the beginning of the night. They are forced to relive the nightmare evening again and again, unless somehow they can evade the various monsters and killers who are after them, until dawn.
Until Dawn is based on a video game of the same name and it is not often that those adaptations work, the original Resident Evil and Uncharted from a couple of years ago, are rare exceptions. David F. Sandberg’s movie shows its origins most obviously by giving the characters numerous, but limited, lives. Despite that, it works quite well, managing to maintain a decent amount of jeopardy. Also, by having the killers vary it does not become too predictable.
However, Gary Dauberman and Blair Butler’s script lacks a spark, especially with the dialogue that could have done with some wit, and the characters, with the exception of Megan, are pretty bland. I am not sure how this will go down with the fans of the game, but I found it reasonably entertaining but not at all scary.
Rating: 6.5 out of 10