I went frame by frame through the Until Dawn film’s first look and heres what i noticed!
• its a little blurry and very dark, but it says ‘Welcome center’ (in the american spelling too) . The IMDB page says as follows, ‘one year after her sister Melanie mysteriously disappeared, Clover and her friends head into the remote valley where she vanished in search of answers. Exploring an abandoned visitor center…’ now im not too sure how credible that is but the purpose of a visitors center is a location that provides information to visitors about the place or area.
• Hidden between the missing posters are posters about events that would have happened in the area. Perhaps not hugely relevant but i still thought they were interesting details. Flea markets, advertisements, fairs, harvest festivals, swap meets, bingo sheets, and interestingly, one of the posters says ‘Glore Valley Fair’ it appears the aforementioned valley the film will take place in is called Glore Valley.
• There appears to be a model version of the valley/ town in the welcome centre too! A few buildings can be seen, the layout of the town, and what appears to be a fire watch tower.
• what we know about the plot!
• both the IMDB and ‘first look’ video explain how the film will be about a time loop, that restarts every time they die, and each time they die the threat is different, with the director, David F. Sandberg saying, ‘Every time they come back to life, its like they’re in a new horror genre’. The characters however only have a certain amount of times that they are able to come back to life, and to survive they have to make it Until Dawn.
• interestingly, the wiki page says that Peter Stormare is in the film, but is confirmed to be playing a different character. Further, his character is named ‘Hill’ on both the wiki and the ‘first look’ teaser, rather than Dr Hill as he was in the original game.
• In addition to this, the wiki also states that the film is ‘serving as a live action spin-off of the 2015 video game developed by Supermassive Games, it is set in the same universe but features an original standalone story that expands the series mythology.’
• the time loop, butterfly effect, the source material and personal opinions
• the time loop is honestly quite a clever work around to mimic how the game has different branching possibilities, pathways, endings and deaths, but at the same time, doesn’t it kind of go against the original theme of the butterfly effect? In the first look, the director says ‘things start over and they get to try again.’ But the whole idea of the butterfly effect (at least how its applied in the game) is that every action has consequences, you have to proceed with the choices you have made. When you make a choice that gets a character killed, there are no redo’s, you can’t replay the scene, you have to continue on. (Well yes technically you can but you would have to start from the beginning!) deaths have impact, choices have impact. Maybe they will find a different way to integrate the idea of the butterfly effect into the movie, or maybe it’s not relevant to the film at all.
• i’m really intrigued by this idea of new threats with every reset, especially with how the director described it being in a different genre every time, whether thats hyperbole or not theres some cool potential here for some good scares. Im still not 100% convinced there will be no Wendigo’s, i really doubt they would put them in any of the advertising/ trailers if they wanted a meaningful reveal. I can honestly see the characters being on their last reset, wondering what will be after them, and you hear the creatures screams in the distance and the audience immediately knows… idk there is lots of creative room for a cool reveal with the films set up / plot.
• and now for what everyone is thinking, this film appears to share only the name, not the vibes, themes or overall premise with the original. This honestly looks like a fun horror film, but (from what we see and know so far) its just not Until Dawn. It reminds me of the Uncharted film adaptation, fun action film, but it’s just not Uncharted. Captures the base line ideas of Uncharted, treasure hunt, stealthy heists, gun fights and action, but does not achieve anything more than this as an adaptation. i am unbelievably glad that the film is not a complete remake of the events of the game, that would have never ever worked. but i don't think they should be calling it simply 'Until Dawn', even if it is a continuation of the source material/ a further exploration of that universe. I think at the very least, this film should have a different main title, and then perhaps have the subtitle ‘An Until Dawn story’ or something. that way, it has its own title to differentiate itself from the original game, to show that its not a retelling but rather a continuation, and the subtitle 'An Until Dawn story' would further this, soldifying its connection to the original without encroaching on it.
• if you have read this far, thank you very much! Even though i’m not too sold on this film, it still feels too early to solidify any strong opinion on the movie, and regardless of how the film turns out, i’m still excited to see it and for the fandom revival!
