Ticketworthy! - Until Dawn

Conventional wisdom says that when making a movie, even a horror movie, there are a few things that you need to have in order to make a good film. An engaging plot, three-dimensional characters, solid pacing, and at least decent cinematography are all vital if you want to create something that people enjoy. With Until Dawn, director David F. Sandberg seems to have decided to throw all that conventional wisdom out the window completely. The result is far, far from a quality film, but I do have to concede that I still had a pretty good time watching it.

There’s very little to talk about from a story perspective. Loosely based on the popular video game of the same name (though fans of the game will likely say that “loosely” doesn’t do justice to how little of the game is adapted here), the film follows five friends trapped in a spooky house where the night resets each time they die. They must try to last until dawn, or else risk turning into monsters and being trapped forever. The interesting catch is that each night the threats are different, and the group never knows what they are going to face.

It’s an interesting concept that I’m not sure Sandberg really gets the most out of. Since all of the victims are the same five characters dying and coming back over and over, it seems like there should be more time to flesh them out, get to know them better, explore traumas, and make the audience truly care about them. That’s not what happens. Instead, Sandberg treats the concept as an excuse to just throw as many monsters and killers as he can at our heroes to kill them in as many gory and visceral ways as he can think of. There’s almost no break, no time to breathe. It’s just chase, monster reveal, death, repeat for nearly two hours. At one point the characters even stop and watch a video montage of themselves being killed multiple times in quick succession. It is just a constant stream of blood.

As a horror fan, it’s executed well enough for my taste. The kills are mostly pretty inventive and fun, there’s decent gore, and it was fun to anxiously wonder what was coming next. Yet, it still feels like a waste of a good idea. Without looking them up, I can remember maybe two of the characters’ names, and not one of them felt important or interesting. That’s not a critique of the actors, who mostly do fine. They even made me laugh a few times amidst the carnage. It’s just that absolutely nothing except their bodies hitting the floor matters in the slightest.

It should also be noted that the cinematography is less than optimal. The shot selection doesn’t drag the movie down or anything, but it’s all very bland looking. Characters just kind of exist on the screen, standing around until it’s time to run. It never feels deliberate or artistic, and several scenes seem to just end before anything interesting can happen, only to reveal later that a death happened off screen. If you’re going to clog the movie’s runtime with endless monster attacks, it’s probably a good idea to let the audience see the payoff of as many of them as possible.

For fans of the horror genre, there’s enough in Until Dawn to let you have a fun time at the theater. I doubt you’ll remember most of it later, but you can eat some popcorn and have an exciting night out. If you aren’t a fan, there’s honestly nothing I can really recommend here. You won’t find characters you can attach to, a setting or plot that makes sense, or even an interesting mystery to solve. All you’ll get is an overlong gorefest that will leave you praying for the night to just end.