Press ‘reset’ for a better show

This PlayStation console to silver screen adaptation of a 2015 video game sticks to genre traditions, instead of mimicking the interactivity that the game was famous for. David F Sandberg, of ‘Lights Out’ fame, adapts ‘Until Dawn’, inserting time loop mechanics into its survival horror set-up.

Typical of a horror movie set-up, we have five to six young people in a secluded, creepy location when scary-loopy things begin to happen. Max (Michael Cimino), couple Nina (Odessa A’zion) and Abe (Belmont Cameli), and Megan (Ji-young Yoo), are helping their friend Clover (Ella Rubin) find closure after her sister Melanie (Maia Mitchell) suddenly disappeared a year ago. Clover is apparently mourning Melanie’s absence, while still grieving their mother’s passing.

Following a single clue received from a gas station attendant, Clover and her friends head into the remote valley where her sister vanished. Exploring an abandoned visitor centre, they find themselves stalked by a masked killer and get horrifically murdered one by one… only to wake up in a loop and find themselves back at the beginning of the same evening, as though a reset button gets pressed every time.

Sandberg uses gore to emphasise the slasher aspect, but it’s not enough to make the experience come alive. The narrative is limp, with a further slide into explanations that reduce the pace. Humorous bits take away from the horror beats. ‘Until Dawn’, the game, is an examination of survival skills brought to life by player decisions. The film lacks the thrill of adventure and the threats feel manufactured.

Writers Gary Dauberman and Blair Butler try to make the most of the hasty set-up by helping us get to know the group as quickly as possible. While on the road trip, we hear the friends define themselves and each other. There isn’t much detail to make them likeable or interesting, but their earnestness is largely perfunctory and less ingratiating. The friends are shown as willing to help, but to go so far as to accompany Clover to the location from where Melanie sent her last video message may not be the fun they, or we, were anticipating.

The premise and structure is confining. There’s no gleeful celebration of gore. The film is largely lacklustre and uninspired. You expect the characters to hunt around for clues and devise some kind of plan, but they don’t have the smarts to do that. They just run around or sit around and get killed. Watching these characters get killed over and over again is not exactly thrilling. By the 13th night, they are still running around in the dark and the audience couldn’t care less.

Sandberg, though able to stage some impressive scenes of horror, fails to lift the screenplay out of the morass of boring functionality. The set design fails to present a suitable aesthetic, the creature design is laughable, and the repetitive nature of the time loop makes the experience border on tedium.

Despite an innovative premise, fairly decent effects work and some crusty scenes of terror, this film is unlikely to satisfy fans of the game or the horror genre. That said, it doesn’t skimp on bloodshed, and the cast does well to help generate a fair bit of bloody entertainment.

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