Until Dawn is a new video game adaptation that premiered in theaters this past weekend. The film comes from the 2015 video game of the same name from PlayStation Studios, set in the same universe of the game, but feature a a new standalone storyline. The film stars Ella Rubin, Michael Cimino, Odessa A’zion, Ji-young Yoo, Belmont Cameli, Maia Mitchell, and Peter Stormare. 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 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.

I once played the video game back in 2016 or so. In no way, shape or form do I hold the video game in high regard. It was great at the time, but I have never once wanted to play it again due to it being horror and I already don’t do well with horror video games. Video game adaptations are typically hit or miss, but when they are done right, it is a near-perfect replica of what it is based on such as The Last of Us. Between the trailers giving so much away and knowing this was going to be a brand new story, I had low expectations, and yet I had hope because it comes from director David F. Sandberg who I have mostly liked with his filmography. Unfortunately, I should have set my expectations even lower.

If I was much younger like in my early teens, my friends and I probably would have loved this at a sleepover or during a simple horror marathon. As I grow older, I have grown less tolerant of quality at this level. To be fair, I do believe some of the horror elements are directed well by Sandberg who has certainly made a name for himself when it comes to horror. There a few jump scares that even got to me all thanks to the effective sound design. That’s about where my positives end.

After Shazam! Fury of the Gods, Sandberg swore he would never make an IP-related film ever again due to all the hate & death threats he received from that film. That’s actually not cool. No filmmaker should ever be put in that position and that is unfortunate that’s what came from it. Apparently, when Sandberg read the script for Until Dawn, he knew he had to make it. I’m honestly puzzled by the decision as I find the script to be one of the worst that I have seen that felt replicated from the 2000’s. The only thing that I can make sense of it is that he found an opportunity to make it better. Look, I enjoy The Last of Us. At this rate, with the amazing graphics that video games have to offer today, just stick to the video game.

One of the biggest complaints about the film is that it wasn’t a direct replica. I suppose I didn’t care enough at the time. It has been almost a decade since I first played the game. Then again, that should tell you with how long it took for this to come out that it missed a good opportunity to actually come out. The film serves as a prequel to the original game as it tries to expand the mythology. Instead, it says absolutely nothing based on how lazy & incompetent the script is.

Right from the start of the film, the characters are unbearable. They each have unique characterization that is random and only serves to push the plot forward. The reasoning for why these characters go to this place has been done over and over again. There’s a couple who lowkey despise each other. There’s an ex couple that adds nothing interesting to the story. There’s the character seen below that may be the most interesting. Instead, she is able to be a fortune teller and goes through the worst out of all the characters.

The script consistently has characters talking to help the audience understand what’s going on. It makes them not feel real and it only gets worse as the film drags on. Instead of having reasonable dialogue, they always complain to each other. A girl even stabs a guy to prevent him from doing something and all is forgiven shortly after. It’s bizarre. The film cares less about making you sympathize these characters as they try to get out and cares more about making you hate them for some bizarre reason.

The film also has plenty of opportunities to be fun. There’s a montage where characters go back through phone recordings of what’s happened before, because they can’t remember what happened before. Why can’t they remember? Who knows. The film could have used the opportunity to show that in real time in a comedic & fun montage. The film actually has serious moments where it made my theater unintentionally laugh-out-loud. It’s ridiculous in the worst way. It’s nice to have a character in the film from the video game to have some sort of connection. Based on the absurd way the film concludes their story and where it tries to set up the video game, I can’t help but think the film wanted no connection whatsoever to the video game, but was forced to add more connections in the end.

Overall, I hate being this negative on film. The biggest problem with Until Dawn is that it doesn’t even try. It has so many more opportunities to have an identity and yet, it relies on earlier films to find its voice. While some of the horror elements are directed well, the rest of the film completely falls flat due to what the script offers. Please, just stick to the video game.

VERDICT: 1/5 (Horror-ible)