I want to start off this review by saying that I have never played any of the video games that this film is based off of. I do love horror video games (such as the Left 4 Dead series, Slaughterhouse, etc.). It is not that I ever had anything against the ‘Until Dawn’ video game series, but I just simply never got around to playing any of the games. So if what I have to say about the film adaptation sounds ignorant about the lore, then that is completely on me. I have to judge this film based off of its own merits completely separate from the games.
What did I think of the overall movie? I had a great time watching it. It is very common for numerous people to criticize horror movies for the characters to do irrational things. That does happen once in this movie. However, I feel like for what this movie is going for with the overall plot, that actually works. Because the characters get numerous chances to redo the whole entire game. So therefore, the characters get the chance to learn from their mistakes. Although they only have a limited amount of time until they become one of the unsettling villains of the very game that they are in. Which only adds to the well-crafted suspense of the film.
There actually were moments during the film that I legitimately jumped. That is quite the compliment from me, considering that I have seen numerous horror movies. So it’s hard for a horror movie to legitimately scare me and make me jump out of my seat. The fact that there were different villains that came along during the film, made it less predictable. Which is another factor for what horror movies get criticized for.
With all that being said, the film is still not perfect. To be fair, no film will ever be perfect. Because every film is made by imperfect people. Although it looks visually shocking to have some of the characters blow up, me and Taylor laughed out loud in the theater at that. It did have a satisfying pay off at the end, but earlier on, it did come across as unintentionally hilarious. That took away from the overall suspense of the film. That probably is something accurate to the games, but what may work for one medium will not always transfer to another.
Overall? It may not measure up to the realms of horror masterpieces such as ‘Texas Chainsaw Massacre’, but it is a movie I can see myself rewatching. That in of itself is a praise because if you feel like you can only watch any film only once, then that’s a very telling sign that the movie didn’t quite hit the mark. There certainly is rewatch value. It does make me want to play the games and that’s definitely what the filmmakers wanted with marketing. I give it a 4/5 stars and my reasoning for that is because the unintentionally funny moments really ruined the suspense for me, but didn’t hurt the movie too much. Thank you for taking the time to read my review.
Written by
Eric Vierthaler
