I Have Mixed Feelings About the Until Dawn Trailer
The Until Dawn trailer has been released! This videogame adaption is scheduled to come out on April 25th. Movies and series based on videogames have been a mixed bag. Will this one be any good?
The synopsis seems intriguing enough. Clover (Ella Rubin) and her friends are searching for her missing sister when they find a secluded lodge. After being killed, they get stuck in a time loop that kicks them back to the morning before their deaths. Each loop has new monsters for them to confront. Can they make it (cue ominous music) until dawn?
David F. Sandberg is the director. His last horror film was Annabelle: Creation. Meh. The cast is relatively unknown. This is the first horror movie for the lead actor, Rubin. She’s also going to appear in the upcoming Fear Street: Prom Queen.
Is this more likely to be a The Last of Us or a Mortal Kombat Annihilation?
Which is to say, is Until Dawn more likely to be an acclaimed success or a laughable flop? The trailer makes it look like a combination of Wrong Turn and Happy Death Day. I have to hand it to horror movie trailers: they sure don’t skimp out on the gore these days! Of course, like many modern trailers, it gives away numerous plot points as well.
The Until Dawn trailer opens with the obligatory scene of the protagonist having an ominous conversation with the vaguely menacing rural gas station attendant. Of course, the characters end up going into the woods, finding a mysterious lodge, getting brutally butchered, etc. There isn’t a whole lot of originality to be found here.
The time loop does sound cool, though. Happy Death Day had this, but it’s a plot device that hasn’t been used often in recent horror movies. There have been lots of time travel horror movies, but this isn’t quite the same thing.
So, back to my original question. I highly doubt that this will be as good as The Last of Us or as bad as the second Mortal Kombat movie. It’s far more likely to be stuck somewhere in the mediocre middle.
How Will it Compare to the Videogame?
All right folks, I have a confession to make: I have never played Until Dawn. I rarely play videogames and, when I do, they’re almost always retro stuff from the ’80s and ’90s. Therefore, I have absolutely no idea how this movie will compare.
But, based on the reactions to the Until Dawn movie trailer that I’ve seen online, it appears this movie is deviating significantly from the source material. That’s not usually a good sign. Who knows, maybe it will find a way to succeed on its own terms. At this point, though, I’m not convinced that it’s going to be worth watching.
Here is the Until Dawn trailer:
