The remastered version of Supermassive Games’ horror game Until Dawn has failed to meet expectations, but will the film do any better?
Until Dawn is perhaps one of the best choose-your-own-fate videogames made so far. Supermassive Games, the developer behind the game, specialise in interactive narrative and it really doesn’t get better than 2015’s Until Dawn, which finds a bunch of young adults fighting a killer and mysterious creatures on a snowy mountain.
A remake, with upgraded graphics, was released on 4th October and had a rather catastrophic launch. As reported by Game Rant, Until Dawn attracted a measly 2,076 players on Steam on Friday, the day of release. It doesn’t help that the game came with a price tag of nearly $60, which is a lot of money to fork out for a game that has relatively low replay value.
The Until Dawn remake comes with new camera controls, more realistic graphics and a new ending, which has the internet wondering if a sequel is also on the way. Many have, however, noticed that the remake’s updates on the game’s visuals takes away some of the uniqueness, specifically removing a blue hue from the menus.
Funnily enough, the Until Dawn movie also wrapped filming on the same day the remake came out. Director David F Sandberg posted a photo on Instagram announcing the news, but story details remain under wraps. He has, however, confirmed that there will be completely new characters.
“Capturing the essence of the game but with new characters, it serves as a great stand-alone introduction to the world for the newcomer as well as offers something new that the fans of the game will enjoy,” Sandberg told The Hollywood Reporter in August. The Until Dawn movie has also been described as “an R-rated love letter to the horror genre, centering on an ensemble cast.”
Read more: Until Dawn adds Peter Stormare and more to its cast
The biggest challenge in making a film adaptation of Until Dawn is how to incorporate the game’s butterfly effect nature into its narrative. A lot of the gameplay focuses on the player making choices with each playable character, which not only affects your relationships with the other characters, but can affect the story’s events. In short, you can kill any of the characters or you could save everyone – the latter being a feat this writer has not yet managed.
Reddit seems to think the film will take a completely different approach and diverge quite significantly from the game’s narrative. Now, it’s worth remembering that these are just rumours and completely unconfirmed, but with the game clocking in at about 10 hours in total, with the characters separated for most of it, it’ll be quite a challenge to bring the narrative down to two or so hours.
Until Dawn will also mark Sandberg’s return to horror after popping over to Warner Bros and DC to direct the two Shazam! films. The director tweeted at the time of release of Shazam! Fury Of The Gods that he was “done” with the superhero genre and was excited to get back to horror. The tweets have now been removed but Deadline caught them for posterity.
There’s no confirmed release date, but with filming already wrapped, we would assume the film will hit screens sometime in 2025. At this point, we’re cautiously optimistic of the Until Dawn movie and will most certainly be checking it out when it arrives in cinemas.
