The Until Dawn Movie Has Wrapped Filming And I'm Feeling Optimistic

There's potential for a fun horror romp... If all goes right.

Kick off the spooky season, director David F. Sandberg (of Lights Out & Shazam!) announced via Instagram that filming had wrapped for the upcoming film adaptation of Supermassive Games' well-received PlayStation horror title Until Dawn.

The adaptation is one of the latest PlayStation-exclusive titles to receive an adaptation with the likes of; Uncharted, Twisted Metal, The Last of Us and even Gran Turismo each venturing onto screens big or small as movies/TV shows. Still, due to a slew of lacklustre adaptations, there are certainly some reservations amongst audiences for video game adaptations, after all just look at how this year's Borderlands movie panned out. Still, there's enough solid groundwork for Until Dawn to be a success and keep me feeling optimistic.

For the gamers out there who have already played Until Dawn, they'll already know the joys of this rather enjoyable horror adventure. It does everything a good slasher horror should; entertaining kills, starring a fragile but fracturing group of hopeful survivors trapped in an isolated setting. It's Slasher 101.

The central narrative is an engaging romp, one that has some neat twists and great moments that have the potential to translate very well if done right. That's not to say the game is without fault, one thing that could elevate the movie is tighter dialogue and implementing a solid pace that keeps the action moving whilst maintaining the sense of dread at a good consistency throughout.

Now that's not to say that Until Dawn will be a hit. There's still plenty that could go wrong. The game has managed to secure the return of Peter Stormare, with him reprising his role as Dr. Hill, but the rest of the cast has been rounded out with fresh faces (Rami Malek is perhaps too far out of the budget range nowadays). There's potential for them to leave their mark on the characters, although on the flip side, there's concern that they perhaps won't capture them as well as the game's cast did.

One thing I'm hoping for is that the multiple-choice aspect of the game won't be shoehorned into the film, like 1985's Clue and completely derail the movie. Sure it could work showing alternative routes in the credits, but to work well as a movie it should be focused on just one particular storyline, and tell it well.

I'd be open to moments exploring the backstory of the locale and its history as there is definitely some interesting stuff in there. That is, as long as it doesn't detract from the film's central plot at the risk of becoming cumbersome or starting to eat into the pace of the movie.

As of now the movie is slated to release next year, April 25th 2025 to be exact. Hopefully, when a trailer drops we'll have a better idea of what we're dealing with but until then I'm staying fairly optimistic that this adaptation can be one of the stronger pursuits.