When it comes to cinematic adaptations of beloved PlayStation games, so far we've enjoyed a mixed bag. HBO's The Last Of Us series ranks among the g
When it comes to cinematic adaptations of beloved PlayStation games, so far we’ve enjoyed a mixed bag. HBO’s The Last Of Us series ranks among the great TV shows of the millennium thus far; Sony’s Uncharted movie with Tom Holland certainly ranks among the films that were released in February 2022; and Neil Blomkamp’s Archie Madekwe/Orlando Bloom/David Harbour led Gran Turismo is, well, actually probably a bit better than it gets credit for honestly. And after our first look at David F. Sandberg’s take on survival horror game Until Dawn caused no miniature measure of discourse about how much you can change a game and still keep its title for your movie earlier this week, a recent, full trailer for the time loop chiller has just dropped. Check it out below:
Wendigos are in. Ski chalets are still out. But Until Dawn looks… pretty good, actually. Sure, the presence of mythological cannibal creatures (that’s the Wendigo), Peter Stormare, and that eminently merchandisable hourglass may well be just about the only actual link to the choose-your-own-death-adventure PS4/5 game. But, in a bid to subvert expectations, Sandberg and screenwriters Blair Butler and Gary Dauberman’s approach — replace the butterfly effect, consequential storytelling of the game with a time-loop that’s all about reconsidering your choices and exploring different paths — is pretty shrewd. And with a spate of missing persons cases, a killer in a clown mask, and a house filled with friends each succumbing and then respawning time and again over the course of one wild night at a secluded suburban country house, this full trailer promises that, if nothing else, the Until Dawn movie knows its audience and is ready to lean into its tropes and tricks. With, y’know, added aforementioned Wendigo on nightmare fuel duty.
And here’s that official synopsis for the movie — led by Ella Rubin, Odessa A’zion, Michael Cimino (still not that one), Ji-young Yoo, Belmont Cameli, and Maia Mitchell — once more: “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. Trapped in the valley, they’re forced to relive the nightmare 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.”
We’ll find out just what exactly is Wendi-going on here when we Wendi-go and see the Until Dawn movie in UK cinemas on 25 April. That is, of course, if we haven’t Wendi-gone mad by then coming up with recent bits of Wendigo wordplay.
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