Until Dawn

FULL SPOILER-FREE REVIEW @ https://fandomwire.com/until-dawn-review/

"Until Dawn brings the original material to the big screen competently, especially shining in its technical aspects - mysterious atmosphere, grisly deaths, fast pacing, and an ability to keep the viewer engaged until the very end.

Ella Rubin stands out in a cast that meets the bare minimum, and David F. Sandberg proves yet again that he's a filmmaker with vision, talent, and the creativity to craft visually captivating horror sequences. Nevertheless, the flawed screenplay, lack of emotional cohesion, and a rushed ending prevent the movie from reaching a more enduring level of enjoyment.

It entertains effectively - but fleetingly."

Rating: B-

Sadly, there really isnt much new to say about this derivative horror film. Its the usual bunch of friends in the car routine, only this time its a woman-hunt they are on. You see, Melanie whom we very briefly meet at the start - has gone missing and so her sister Clover (Ella Rubin) has recruited her ex Max (Michael Cimino), best pal Nina (Odessa Azion) and her new boyfriend Abe (Belmont Cameli) and the slightly spiritual Megan (Ji-young Yoo) to try to find out what happened. As the song goes: if you go into the woods tonight, youre in for a big surprise and so dodgy and ill-conceived decisions galore now ensue as the usual set-piece housebound horror kicks in and the story sort of lurches around like a gory version of Groundhog Day. The a...

"Until Dawn" is what I call "Scoobie Do" for adults. There's a group of pals, out for a vacation romp, who find themselves facing a mysterious back story and lots of supernatural baddies, out to croak them, in bloody style.

What makes this even worse than the usual formulaic, survivalist, horror nonsense, is its story is based upon a time loop. So, in essence, this is a horror flick, with obsessive compulsive disorder. The murder and mayhem repeats itself, stripping away even the basic sense of the unknown, as we stop wondering and worrying over, who is going to die and when.

I can see how this would work in the context of a video game, which this film, is based upon. In games players die over and over, until they finally find a way ...

With twenty minutes left, I was so bored, I went to read reviews while it plays out. I already opted to go to sleep less than halfway through last night, as I realized it wasn't going to be scary at all. It's beautifuly shot, and fairly mastered, though way too dark (Hollywood doesn't know how to do HDR, so everything looks like shit from them these days), and it has that Odessa actress, that's so hot.

It's just boring, not scary, the story is poorly told, and the pacing odd and events seem jumbled. Shortly before leaving to read reviews, I was thinking, "This should've been a game. I think I'd like to play that." And now I'm told it WAS a game. So I think I'll go play that.