David F. Sandberg and Blair Butler are bringing one of the best horror games of the past decade to the big screen with a surprising twist in Until Dawn. Butler, having gotten her start on the video game-focused cable network G4, found it to be both intimidating and a dream to come full circle by helping co-write the adaptation with The Conjuring Universe veteran Gary Dauberman. For Sandberg, on the other hand, the movie offered the opportunity to return to his horror genre roots after having branched out to blockbuster filmmaking with the Shazam! movies.

Based on the Supermᴀssive Games тιтle of the same name, Until Dawn centers on a group of friends led by Clover as they go searching for her missing sister one year after she vanished, though find themselves trapped in a horrific time loop in which they encounter a different terrifying threat each night. Anora‘s Ella Rubin leads the film’s cast as Clover alongside Love, Victor‘s Michael Cimino, Fresh Kills‘ Odessa A’zion, Expats‘ Ji-young Yoo, Saved by the Bell‘s Belmont Cameli, The Artful Dodger‘s Maia Mitchell and Peter Stormare, who previously starred in the video game, though is said to be playing a different character.

In honor of the release of the film’s latest trailer, ScreenRant interviewed David F. Sandberg and Blair Butler to discuss Until Dawn. The former reflected on her full-circle journey from G4 to writing a video game adaptation, as well as the creation of the ensemble roster of characters, while both discussed their approach to creating an original story set in the world of the games, including much of the iconic imagery from the source material, and Stormare’s return.

Translating The World Of Until Dawn Was “Intimidating” & Exciting For Butler And Sandberg

“…[we] didn’t want to just remake the original storyline, beat for beat.”

Where more and more video game adaptations have found success for being faithful to their source material, namely HBO’s The Last of Us, the Until Dawn team have taken a different approach by creating an entirely new story that’s still set in the world of the game. The biggest reason for this change came from Butler, Dauberman and Sandberg’s lack of interest in making a direct remake of the game, particularly as they acknowledge the original team made it “incredibly hard to top“:

Blair Butler: It’s amazing and incredibly intimidating, because, as a huge fan of the game, I want to celebrate the things that make the game great, but also, I know this is a beloved property. I love the game, and I feel like Supermᴀssive and the writers of the game, Larry Fessenden and Graham Reznick, basically created a perfect playable horror movie that actually starred an Academy Award-winning actor, which is amazing. So, that was going to be incredibly hard to top.

And it turned out that the remaster was coming out roughly the same time that we were hoping to get this movie together. And that was another reason that I think everyone involved, Gary, as well, didn’t want to just remake the original storyline, beat for beat. So, I was on pretty early, and we worked with PlayStation to try to expand the Until Dawn universe by really leaning into the things that made the game feel so special. The fact that it is a love letter to horror movies, the idea that, with a few exceptions right at the beginning, you could save everyone or get everyone killed.

But, we all also love the way that it starts as one horror genre, a slasher movie, and then turns into something totally different, this supernatural monster movie. So, those were the things we kind of looked at as our North Stars during the process, just to have this amazing blend of horror genres and this time loop that, you really try to save everybody, or just get them all killed off in terrible ways.

David F. Sandberg: Yeah, that was the part that I thought was just brilliant, because, it’s like Blair said, the game is pretty much a 10-hour movie, so I think it wouldn’t have been as interesting for me if we were doing just the game, because then it’s going to be like a cut-down, non-interactive version of the game, which just wouldn’t be the same thing. So, I was very excited to read the script and see that it took Until Dawn further and did more with it, but also kept — when you play the game, the fun part of it is sort of replaying it and making different choices for the characters and see different deaths and all these things.

And that was so brilliantly incorporated in movie form, which is non-interactive, but you can still get the different outcomes, which I thought was brilliant, and very exciting for me, who’ve been wanting to return to horror for a while. But then, I was considering, like, “Oh, well, what kind of genre do I want to do for my return to horror? A slasher movie, or supernatural movie, or body horror, or found footage or monster movie?” And then, this script came along, and it had everything in it, so it was the perfect thing, and I wanted to do it immediately.

In addition to Sandberg and Butler, Asad Qizilbash, SVP Head of Publishing, Studio Business Group and Head of PlayStation Productions, Sony Interactive Entertainment, shared a written statement with us reflecting on the creation of PlayStation Productions, the production banner behind the film and TV adaptations of the publisher’s iconic games. Qizilbash highlighted how the movie will still incorporate “the idea of decisions with branching paths and ᴅᴇᴀᴅly consequences” from the game and teased further connections:

Asad Qizilbash: When we created PlayStation Productions, we set out to bring our memorable characters and storytelling to the screen in a way that’s compelling to fans who may or may not be familiar with the IP. With Until Dawn, fans will be able to experience the universe they are familiar with and the idea of decisions with branching paths and ᴅᴇᴀᴅly consequences while also being introduced to a brand new, original story. We can’t wait for you to see how the elements of the movie connect to the Until Dawn game.

Until Dawn’s Game Imagery Has The Same Motivation As The Game Itself

“…we wanted to try and incorporate all those things…”

While the movie may be delivering its own story, Until Dawn has already included multiple iconic bits of imagery from the game, namely the mask Rami Malek’s Josh wore while posing as a killer and the Wendigo, while the old person enтιтy with the gas tank has also drawn comparisons to fellow Supermᴀssive Games тιтle, Man of Medan, though Sandberg says it’s just as much about creating Easter eggs as delivering the same intent that they were included in the game:

David F. Sandberg: Yeah, it felt important to have that connection. So, it does feel like Until Dawn without being a rehash of the already existing Until Dawn. So, we wanted to try and incorporate all those things, and that’s part of the fun, as well. I think Supermᴀssive has created such great worlds that it’s not a reference in particular to those other games, but I think it’s all sort of part of the world, so it sort of gets in there, the inspiration and references.

Much like James Wan and Leigh Whannell before him, Sandberg has often included Easter eggs to his breakout film, Lights Out, in subsequent projects, namely the Shazam! movies. As to whether he continued this trend with Until Dawn, not only did the director confirm this to be true, but even indicated it would be a full scene that pays homage to the short-film-turned-feature-length hit:

David F. Sandberg: Yes, a little bit. There’s kind of a nod to a scene in Light’s Out, with a neon sign sort of going on and off. There’s a nod to that scene in this movie.

Building Until Dawn’s Cast Proved To Be One Of The Team’s Trickiest Tasks

“…try to find people who are already quite close to their characters…”

With the movie focusing on a new cast of characters, this led to Sandberg and the team searching for actors to carry on the same genre traditions as the Malek, Hayden Panettiere and the rest of the Until Dawn game cast. Butler acknowledged that it was “really challenging” to infuse a sense of character development with the movie’s time-loop structure, while Sandberg recalled it being “a long process” to build the cast, and shared his objective for filling out his casts:

Blair Butler: I think it’s really challenging. And Gary Dauberman, who wrote the movie, as well, and who is a producer, I think Gary really shepherded the characters and the way that they evolve and react throughout. I also think he’s such a huge voice in horror, and for him, I think it was really fun, because he got to explore some genres that he, even with his super prolific career, hadn’t been able to explore yet.

David F. Sandberg: It was a long process. We did so many auditions, I think we auditioned and watched self-tapes for pretty much every 20-year-old in Hollywood to find the perfect ones, but it was worth it. Like you said, I mean, Odessa, for example, who I’d seen in Hellraiser and loved, when we saw her tape for this, it was just like, “She is this character on the page.” And that’s always my process as a director, to try to find people who are already quite close to their characters, because it’s going to make my job a lot easier on set. You have to move fast and do things that it’s great when it’s just like, “I don’t have to direct you that much. You’re already sort of in this space.”

It was a lot of fun for them, as well. Odessa has done horror before, but most of the others hadn’t, and it was a very challenging movie because of all the physicality and all the practical effects and getting them all bloody and dirty, but they loved it. And it was interesting, because Maia Mitchell was in the movie, she said actually that it was such a liberating feeling, because she’s so used to always playing these pretty and perfect characters, and here it was just dirt and blood and crawling through mud and like screaming, and no worrying about, “Oh, how do I look right now?” So they had a lot of fun with it.

Stormare’s Mystery Character Is Key To Tying The Movie To The Game

Sandberg Also Originally Aimed To Cast Him In A Previous Film

In addition to some of the enemies from the game, the Until Dawn movie does also include Stormare, albeit in a seemingly different role than that of Dr. Alan Hill. While Sandberg and Butler are very careful with what they’re sharing about him, they do confirm that there’s a big reveal in store for his appearance in the film, and seemingly teased that it will tie into the original game:

David F. Sandberg: I love Peter and I love that we have that connection to the game. We have a lot of references, of course, but it feels like we needed this real throughline, which we get with the Hill character. I can’t really get into specifics about how he plays into all of this, but he is a part of it, for sure. And for me, as a fellow Swede, it has been a dream to work with Peter for forever. I actually tried to get him for my first movie, Lights Out, as the dad of the family, and the studio was like, “He can’t play a family guy. He’s way too creepy.” [Chuckles] So, it’s been like a dream for almost 10 years now to work with him, and I finally got to do it.

Blair Butler: I will say what David said there. I’m limited in what I can say. [Laughs]

David F. Sandberg: There’s a lot of hesitation. You’re like, “Well, what can we say?” [Chuckles] It’s, like, yeah, we want to get it out there, but yeah, it’s cool.

About Until Dawn

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, they find themselves stalked by a masked killer and horrifically murdered one by one…only to wake up and find themselves back at the beginning of the same evening. Trapped in the valley, they’re forced to relive the nightmare again and again – only each time the killer threat is different, each more terrifying than the last. Hope dwindling, the group soon realizes they have a limited number of deaths left, and the only way to escape is to survive until dawn.