Until Dawn review: a nonsensical catastrophe

      **Until Dawn Review: An Incoherent Mess**

      "Halfway through, Until Dawn completely falls apart."

      **Pros:**

      - A promising start

      - References to horror tropes

      **Cons:**

      - Confusing narrative

      - An embarrassment to the original Until Dawn game

      - Lacks any genuine scares

      I’m meant to be reviewing Until Dawn, but I'm uncertain if what I just watched was actually the film. Did I accidentally enter the wrong theater? Has life's pressure finally driven me to hallucinate a tedious movie starring the actor from Love, Victor? Regardless, here’s my review for what I'm (not entirely) convinced is Until Dawn.

      For players familiar with the game, here’s the plot, as I have a lot of questions, comments, and concerns. In the film, a girl named Melanie (Maia Mitchell) goes missing. A year later, her sister Clover (Ella Rubin) and her friends Max (Michael Cimino), Nina (Odessa A’zion), Megan (Ji-young Yoo), and Abel (Belmont Cameli) decide to return to the site of her disappearance for closure. They drive into a mystical valley where they find themselves trapped in a time loop, facing monsters, supernatural beings, and Wendigos. Each night, they are killed and forced to relive the same evening repeatedly.

      It turns out that all of this is part of a study conducted by a psychologist in a town that sank due to a mining disaster, and he is somehow controlling the supernatural events… and the water causes explosions… and it's all triggered by Clover's psychological trauma. While it’s not a Fight Club scenario where everything happens in Clover’s mind, it’s more like her mental anguish fuels the sinister powers the doctor is utilizing for his, um, experiment. Did I mention the exploding water?

      So, gamers globally, assist me here. Am I experiencing amnesia? Did something go wrong in my brain? Am I completely misremembering Until Dawn? Because this does not resemble the game I recall. It introduces new characters, a different setting, a revised storyline, and fresh gimmicks that unfortunately flop. They even include an Easter egg suggesting the film serves as a prequel to the game, which itself is a tangled mess deserving of its own scathing critique.

      **Until Dawn Starts Out Strong**

      The most disappointing aspect of Until Dawn is that I enjoyed the beginning, which gave me false hope. Once the film picked up pace, we find the group in a remote house in the woods, where a giant hourglass on the wall has somehow flipped, initiating a countdown. They are killed by a masked assailant and then suddenly find themselves restarting the night with the hourglass reset. However, they retain memories of the previous night, and instead of being a true Groundhog Day scenario, each iteration is distinct. Their objective is to survive until dawn.

      When the plot kicked into action, I realized this isn’t really Until Dawn, but it’s entertaining and I was enjoying it, so I didn’t mind. It’s not genuinely “scary” since you know they’ll reset the night, rendering their deaths emotionally hollow. But it was enjoyable. It offered a unique spin on a well-trodden formula, so I appreciated the variation.

      **Until Dawn Becomes a Different Movie Midway Through**

      The issue with Until Dawn is that it all unravels. As I mentioned, there's a plot, rules, and objectives in place. Yet, midway through, one character abruptly awakens from a dream. She finds herself in the living room with her friends, experiencing a significant time jump. We learn they have now been trapped there for 13 nights and suddenly lack memory of prior events. It was shocking to see a film expend so much effort establishing a premise only to abandon it partway through.

      From that point, the film's coherence declines. A substantial portion features the group fleeing from various threats, whether it be the masked murderer, supernatural forces, or Wendigos. Director David F. Sandberg expressed excitement about combining several horror genres, stating, “This is great because it encompasses every horror type. I’ll explore slasher, supernatural, body horror, monster, and found footage genres.” Unfortunately, Until Dawn never comes off as a tribute or homage to classic horror; it merely feels chaotic. There’s a barrage of horror-inspired confusion, yet no cohesive narrative ties it together. Eventually, I found myself losing interest due to the absence of scares and the movie’s tendency to violate its own rules. The story devolves into unpredictable territory, where anything can occur, and your choices are rendered futile as the supernatural forces can simply conjure new obstacles.

      **Until Dawn Lacks Clarity**

      The film attempts to bring everything together by reintroducing Dr. Hill (Peter Stormare) from the game. In the video game, Dr. Hill serves as a sort of narrator and is Josh’s therapist. However, in the