No fancy intros or any of that crap, just my thoughts about Until Dawn (2025), its Saturday and I want to keep pushing content as I use to, kinda hard after a day at work like yesterday. This movie has been on my radar for a bit, mostly cause I’m a sucker for any horror movies that tries to do something a little different and also I never played the game so I’m walking in kinda blind and most of the time I find it helpful, even enjoy content when fans hate it because Im not psychologically attach to any kind of lore. Before hand I knew the movie got that whole “stuck in a loop, die and do it all again” thing going on, I got that idea just because of its cover, but then realize there were other aspects too predictable. The movie is based on this group of friends, they are out on a road trip trying to figure out and searching for one of their own who went missing, and of course they end up in some weird ass abandoned visitor center where things just get nuts. The whole setup is kinda classic horror, the remote cabin vibe, storm outside, there is something about this kind of time loop movies that makes you also feel stuck and trapped, idk if this only happens to me but that's something I really enjoy, from what I have read only I have seen fans comment how that part felt real to the game and also trying to figure out who was running the show, without playing the game I can see how the entire movie did felt like the game going around, beating monsters, getting killed multiple times, its a cool concept but I think its the execution and acting that needed a bit more. I know the movie didn't score that high on website but if someone ask me about it, I would recommend it and score it a 7/10, its for sure not the best horror movie of the decade but its not as bad as the internet says.
Rottentomatoes Rating
At first I though the time loop was going to be the same over and over but I think they did well by trying to spice things up with multiple scenarios, truth is that the script and story didnt have to be work out too much, its an existing game so its more about the execution as I mention. Between all the kills by a masked psycho, sometimes by monsters, sometimes just by doing dumb stuff they wake up and gotta do the night all over again, to the point that they waste themself like its a reset button but always having that uncertain if in fact they going to bounce back, thats wild getting to that point where you kill yourself. The kills are wild too with some of them straight up gross in a good way and the movie doesn’t shy away from showing you the gory details. There are also some kills that were bit ridiculous, like the water scene, how they weaponize water and have people explode like meat balls, it was a big WTF moment for me, I laughed and cringed at the same time, it’s that kinda movie where you’re never sure if you should be scared or just having a good time. The practical effects are killer, which is rare these days when everything’s just CGI, so I think thats a big plus for the movie, even the monsters look decent and there’s a bunch of different ones, so you never really know what’s coming next, I also liked how their definition and creation of this type of zombie is different that the common ones.
After watching the movie I'm not going to run and play the game but it does makes me curious about the story grounds, because the reason these friends are even out there is kinda dumb, “Hey, let’s go poke around the place where my sister vanished, what could go wrong?” and nobody in the group seems to have an ounce of common sense, well at times the only one who was trying to figure out things by reason was Abe but mostly because he wants so safe his own ass. The characters are kinda bland, you got the main girl looking for her sister, her ex who is just there to pick up what ever opportunity he may have with her, a couple that hates each other and a psychic friend who gets the worst of it. I didn’t care much if any of them made it out, which is probably not what the movie was going for, but thats just how it made me feel, probably also because I felt the characters where kinda childish, there was nobody waiting for looking for them so didnt look like real reasons to get out of there, besides they knew it was a survivors game so they just needed to find their way to weather the storm. The acting’s alright, nothing special with a lot of that classic horror movie yelling and running and making terrible decisions, which, if you’re into that, you will enjoy the movie.
Because its a kinda of repetitive movie I guess there is not much to explain about the scenes but the movie does this thing where it tries to be all self aware, dropping little nods to other horror movies and even making jokes about how many times they have died, I doubt thats part of the game story so its a good creative addition. The pacing is a little all over the place, its also a movie that starts declining. The first half is what opens the door to this wild place they get to and its really interesting with lots of action, new threats every night but then it kinda drags in the middle, like they ran outta ideas and just decided to montage a bunch of the deaths instead of showing them, I think the hole story of how everything became to be could have been explain better and extend it to make the second half more interesting. I also wanted more of the crazy stuff, less talking about feelings but also more context both how Melanie got lost and why she ran away, yeah we know she had all this family problems but may be if they could have done like a flash back of what was going on would have been more interesting, to me it all points to the game itself not having enough good dialogue and the movie had to improvise. The ending tries to tie everything back to the game, with some hints that this is all a prequel or whatever, but it’s kinda half baked and doesn’t really land. It does leaves the door open for a sequel, which I’d probably watch, but would it really be necessary?.
One thing that did bug me was how dark some of the scenes were, thats expected but better lighting would help a lot specially with the underground scenes, like, literally too dark to see what the hell was going on. I get that it’s supposed to be spooky but if I can’t tell who’s getting ripped apart, what’s the point? Also the rules of the time loop are kinda all over the place, sometimes they remember stuff, sometimes they don’t, sometimes dying means you turn into a monster, sometimes it doesn’t so I wonder if its just like that on the game? I comment this out of reason but I also think the uncertain makes it more interesting, I stopped trying to make sense of it after a while and just went with the flow. There’s a lot of talk about trauma and grief and all that but it never really goes anywhere, just kinda sits there in the background while people get picked off. Its just too much talking trying to figure out things and getting stuck in places, like they were going through multiple escape rooms one after another and this might become boring for some people as the movie goes, this is another aspect I would explain to anyone who wants to watch it.
This is the type of movie that you have to leave your brain at the door of the room so if you’re looking for a super smart, scary movie with deep characters and a plot that makes sense, this ain’t it, this is not the scary movie where you going to find your new scream queen. But if you want to see a bunch of idiots get murdered in creative ways, multiple times, pushing them to the point they kill themself to reset time, with some cool monsters and a time loop gimmick, you’ll have a good time. It’s not perfect, but it’s never boring to the point that makes you stop it and I think once this movie hits streaming its going to have good numbers, this is the type of movie that does well on streaming, recently I gave it a though of how big the streaming audience compared to going to the theater and at the same time less demanding of movies ending up with movies like this doing great numbers once they hit streaming but not so great at the Boxoffice, I guess the reach they have on streaming has to do with it too. I’d say it’s a solid 7/10, but no more than that even if you have play the game. I liked not knowing what was gonna happen next, not the best horror movie ever, but definitely not the worst, and sometimes that’s enough.
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