An explanation of the ending of Until Dawn.

      Sony Pictures' loose adaptation of Until Dawn takes a cherished horror video game and reinterprets it with a completely new narrative filled with chilling mysteries. Directed by David F. Sandberg (Shazam!), the 2025 film follows Clover, who is on a quest to find her missing sister, Melanie. This journey leads her to a secluded house where time resets at dawn, and each night, various monsters attempt to kill her and her friends.

      Throughout its gory and time-bending narrative, Until Dawn poses numerous questions. Even after the credits roll, viewers are left wanting more answers. The film's ambiguous elements, particularly regarding the malevolent force manipulating events, heighten the horror by tapping into the audience's fear of the unknown. However, the movie’s conclusion clearly indicates that the creators have much more to reveal.

      What’s the story?

      2025’s Until Dawn opens with Melanie's death at the hands of a mysterious Masked Man. A year later, Clover is depicted retracing her sister’s steps to uncover the truth behind her disappearance. Joined by Max, Nina, Megan, and Abe, Clover investigates a convenience store where Melanie was last seen. There, she encounters Hill, who directs her to Glore Valley, a place where numerous individuals have vanished without a trace. After navigating through a torrential rainstorm, Clover and her friends arrive at Glore Valley's visitor center. That night, they are all murdered by the Masked Man, only to awaken alive at the beginning of the night once again.

      Clover and her group find themselves trapped in a time loop centered on the house. As they attempt to survive and escape, they face supernatural threats, including a possessed elderly woman, lethal tap water that causes anyone who consumes it to explode, and flesh-eating creatures called Wendigos.

      Eventually, the group discovers that a mining disaster caused most of Glore Valley to sink into the ground decades earlier. Survivors of the collapse were sent to a psychiatric hospital, where they were transformed into Wendigos under the supervision of Dr. Alan Hill, the man Clover met at the convenience store. Hill continues to conduct experiments on the living by having them die repeatedly for 13 days until the despair and horror they endure morph them into Wendigos. It is revealed that this was Melanie’s fate, and the Wendigo that she became confronts Clover.

      How does it end?

      After Megan survives one of the nights and tracks Hill, Clover and her friends venture into the tunnels beneath the house to find her. In the depths, they confront and kill the Masked Man and the monstrous version of Melanie. Clover then discovers Hill in his office, where she discreetly contaminates his drink with the explosive tap water while ranting about his schemes. Before he succumbs, Hill discloses that the monsters in the film are manifestations of Clover’s deepest fears brought to life by the house’s malevolence.

      With Hill dead, Clover rescues Megan from a Wendigo he had imprisoned for testing. The group escapes from the Wendigos, climbing out of the tunnels just in time for sunrise. Finally free from the time loop, Clover and her friends return to their car and drive away. Although this appears to be a happy conclusion for them, the film cuts to security footage from Hill’s office, which unexpectedly shows a lodge in a snowy, unfamiliar area. While this may baffle newcomers to the Until Dawn franchise, fans of the video games will recognize it as a reference to the Washington Lodge, the mountain setting of the original story.

      What does it all mean?

      While the central narrative of Until Dawn revolves around the characters escaping the time loop, the film also addresses Clover's battle with her depression, a theme mentioned several times. The Wendigos symbolize what she and Melanie feared they would become if they remained stagnant in their lives, which is why Melanie chose to leave home. After attempting suicide twice in the past, Clover is forced to confront her mental health struggles as she repeatedly faces death. Though Melanie wasn't as fortunate, Clover learns to accept her loss and resists being overwhelmed by fear and sadness. She bravely ventures into the unknown to save Megan, breaking the cycle of pain and despair by surviving until dawn alongside her friends.

      As for the time loop, the reason Glore Valley repeatedly experiences the same day remains unexplained. Given that the cycle of death and rebirth transforms individuals into Wendigos, the dark force that created these entities may also be responsible for the time loop. It’s likely that this evil was awakened by the collapse of the Glore Valley mines. The connection to the snowy lodge seen in Hill’s security footage is still a mystery. It could be another experimentation site where he observes individuals dying and turning into monsters, setting the stage for a potential sequel that aligns more closely with the video game narrative.

      Until Dawn is now showing in theaters.