Until Dawn (2025) Film Review: Thrilling survival splatter feature with a creative premise

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One year after her sister's disappearance, Clover (Ella Rubin) and her friends head to the remote valley where she vanished in search of answers. However, in an abandoned house, a terrifying time loop forces the group to fight against all kinds of supernatural threats. The only way to survive is to make it until dawn...

Derived from the 2015 PlayStation video game of the same name, this standalone story, which expands on the game's mythology, is helmed by Shazam! (2019) and Annabelle: Creation (2017) director David F. Sandberg.

The movie sports a great sense of pace, not wasting any time in teasing the mysterious concept of the house our group of twenty-somethings soon find themselves trapped in. The setup is concise and a typical horror premise, with Clover and her friends stopping off at a gas station, with the usual creepy cash registrar exuding foreboding warnings. Once our leads begin investigating the abandoned house up the road, the ominous time loop quickly kicks in and brings an onslaught of gore and terror.

The film's overall tone and concept feels like an inspired mashup of other modern horror movies, with the premise of having to repeat previous events comparable to Happy Death Day (2017); the obvious striking location similarities to The Cabin in the Woods (2011); and the chilling monsters introduced in the mid point of the plot evoke a similar design and creep factor as the terrifying underground entities in The Descent (2005). Props must go towards the production design of the film, with plenty of dark corridors and windows with no exterior, creating a wonderful, claustrophobic, threatening environment and the makeup of the zombie-like creatures also looks great.

Clover (Ella Rubin) hides from the cannibalistic Wendigo

As with many horror movies over the past ten years, the film relies on too many jump scares for the fear factor. Admittedly, some are well implemented, however, it would have been beneficial for the screenplay to fully take advantage of its fresh, unique time loop concept and perhaps further develop a few more slow-burning sequences to really induce the dread factor. Although there is plenty of fun to be had with some brutal kills throughout and a particularly effective found footage sequence which displays a handful of scary ways in which our characters have already been killed by the supernatural forces at work. It does appear to be a nice nod towards the video game it is derived from, complete with POV shots and the feeling of having to start the experience all over again.

One of the more notable downsides of the movie is the characters and performances by the actors. It may have been a directorial choice, however, the group did very often give muted reactions to the horrific displays of violence before them. Everyone did feel quite wooden, with the bland stereotypical young characters we have seen plenty of times before in the genre. What elevated them was that they actively worked to solve the mystery and learn more about the creatures and the workings of the house each time they were revived, which made them a little easier to root for.

All in all, Until Dawn may not be the most sophisticated, deep horror film, however, despite some bizarre character beats and some familiar elements borrowed from other works, the film is an admittedly fun time and delivers plenty of creative scares.

Check out the trailer for Until Dawn (2025) below, and please let me know your thoughts in the comments!