Until Dawn is a horror movie from 2025. It’s one of those that you look forward to watching for a long time and then hope it will live up to the hype. Basically, it’s about this missing girl and her friends looking for her. Nothing special right? Well, there are a few things that make this a little less general. The friend go looking for their friend and they find themselves stuck in a time loop. Every day they get a new chance to get murdered by the masked killer.
Until Dawn exists in a time loop
If you’re just starting out looking at horror movies, or movies in general, you might not be that familiar with the time loop concept. If you, like me, have seen a few thousand films you are bound to have encountered it in one form or another before. I’m not saying that there are loads of them out there but there are a few and they have a certain feel to them.
Usually, just one person is subject to the time loop, or rather, it’s just one person that’s aware of it. That protagonist gathers clues and gets smarter and smarter for each loop. All the other people around it usually forget that everything just happened before. It doesn’t have to be horror movies of course. I think the Sci-Fi might be the most common genre for it. But the most famous example is probably Ground Hog Day which is a comedy with Bill Murray.
What possibly differs Until Dawn from the others is that it also has a lot of ingredients from the slasher genre. There is a naked killer who kills the people in a few inventive ways. It’s a really cool killer I think. But it’s not just a slasher. There are many other aspects of Until Dawn as well. There are supernatural parts, of course, since we’re talking about a time loop. But even if you take that aside there are a few other things that no masked killer could pull off.
Mysterious buildings appear and the story sometimes plants the idea that not everything you see is actually happening. It could be happening just in the mind of someone. There are elements of mental illness embedded in the story but if that’s the correct answer is not something I will go deeper into. Just be aware that it’s there.
Growing excitement
Watching the first half, I wasn’t too impressed. I didn’t think the acting was really trustworthy and I thought that some of the special effects were less than ok. It’s slow-paced and almost boring at times. Sure, there are bloody murders and horrific deaths along the way but it shies away from being interesting more often than not. Oh, and there’s the mandatory gas station where the kids stop for a few minutes in the beginning. You know there has to be a gas station – right? I was almost fooled for a while since it doesn’t really look like a gas station. But then I even saw it in writing so there is no doubt anymore.
But when you’re about to almost give up on Until Dawn it shifts gear. The second half is much more interesting and almost exciting at times. From not caring what happens or how the story is connected to everything we go to theorizing on what’s actually happening and if they will ever leave there alive. You could also even theorize if we will get a “happy” ending or if the antagonist will actually win. The latter solution is very unusual and I can only think about a handful of cases where the ending is so dark that there’s absolutely no hope left.
So, the bottom line is that I don’t think it lived up the the hype I had beforehand. But if you manage to sit through the first hour or so, it will get more interesting and exciting. There will be some drama between the main characters which is always good for creating something to care about. Some of the characters might not be as interested att keeping everyone alive as others and let’s leave it at that.
I’m glad I took the time to watch Until Dawn but it didn’t really give me the satisfaction I hoped it would.
