The film adaptation of Supermassive Games and PlayStation’s choose-your-own-horror exclusive Until Dawn hit cinemas this yesterday, and surprisingly the critical response suggests that the movie isn’t as bad as video game cinema normally is.
After 42 reviews, the David F. Sanberg-directed Until Dawn has a decent score of 62% on movie review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes.
Peter Gray from The AU Review scored it a 3/5, writing:
“A surprisingly fun, oft gory survivalist horror effort in Until Dawn, which gets away with its ridiculousness because it’s so open with the bonkers potential such holds.”
Benjamin Lee from the Guardian also scored it a 3/5:
“On its own, lower-stakes terms, Until Dawn is a passable, if rather unfrightening frightener, made with some skill and enlivened by a strong troupe of young actors.”
While Mary Kassel from Screen Rant was a big fan, with an 8/10 score:
“Until Dawn takes the trope of the time loop & raises the stakes, immersing us in a thrilling & dynamic world of characters we can’t stop rooting for.”
But not everyone enjoyed it, especially Meagan Navarro from Bloody Disgusting who scored it a 1.5/5:
“This version of Until Dawn is essentially nothing more than a series of unconnected horror scenes in which characters we don’t care about die again and again. Nothing more, nothing less.”
Lovia Gyarkye from The Hollywood Reporter was also underwhelmed:
“This should be a recipe for success, if a minor one, but Until Dawn doesn’t really capitalize on these elements and, as a result, is erratically frightening and vaguely dissatisfying.”
The film stars Ella Rubin, Michael Cimino, Odessa A’zion, Ji-young Yoo, Belmont Cameli, Maia Mitchell and Peter Stormare, with the premise below:
“One year after her sister Melanie mysteriously disappeared, Clover and her friends head into the remote valley where she vanished in search of answers. Exploring an abandoned visitor centre, 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.”
Will you be going to see Until Dawn? Let us know in the comments or on social media.
Despite a childhood playing survival horrors, point and clicks and beat ’em ups, these days Zach tries to convince people that Homefront: The Revolution is a good game while pining for a sequel to The Order: 1886 and a live-action Treasure Planet film. Carlton, Burnley FC & SJ Sharks fan. Get around him on Twitter @tightinthejorts
