Until Dawn brings a beloved horror video game to the big screen with time-loop scares and an endless supply of terrifying antagonists. The movie tells the story of Clover who, in search of her missing sister, brings a search party of friends to an abandoned visitors’ center, only to find themselves stuck in a cycle of reliving the same awful day. Clover is played by Anora’s Ella Rubin, who is joined in the Until Dawn cast by Michael Cimino (Love, Victor), Odessa A’zion (Ghosts), Ji-young Yoo (Expats), and more.
Behind the camera, the twists, turns, and Wendigos of Until Dawn were plotted out and brought to the screen by a dizzying array of creatives led by director David F. Sandberg. Sandberg is known in part for his work directing films including Shazam!, Annabelle: Creation, and Lights Out. On the script side, Until Dawn was adapted by screenwriter Gary Dauberman, who wrote Annabelle, It, and The Nun, along with Blair Butler.
ScreenRant’s Joe Deckelmeier interviewed Until Dawn director/producer David F. Sandberg and producer/writer Gary Dauberman about their work on the video game-to-movie adaptation. They discussed finding the right tone for the movie ScreenRant’s Until Dawn review called “steeped in a good old-fashioned love of the genre” and picking the right amount to lift straight out of the game. The creatives also talked about bringing one favorite game character to the screen.
David F. Sandberg Explains Until Dawn’s Sequel Status
As a movie, Until Dawn bears the responsibility of introducing new audiences to the well-established world of the game, and the film’s writers and director chose a bold way to accomplish the task. David F. Sandberg has previously described the film as more of a sequel than a straight-up adaptation, and was quick to praise Until Dawn’s writers for the approach: “That’s what Gary and Blair did [such] a great job with [in writing] the script. They didn’t try to just take 10 hours of game and condense it down, take out the interactivity, and recast it.”
“It wouldn’t have been the same thing,” said Sandberg. “This way,” the director continued, “as another sort of chapter in a bigger universe, you get more Until Dawn rather than the same Until Dawn, which excited me–especially because the game is such a love letter to horror, and we got to do a love letter to horror with the movie and all these different genres and everything.”
The Creators Of The Until Dawn Game Heavily Influenced The Script
Screenwriter Blair Butler Collaborated Closely With The Game Makers
Until Dawn was co-written by Blair Butler, who wrote 2022’s The Invitation. For this latest film, Butler worked with the game developers to maintain authenticity, then collaborated with Gary Dauberman on putting together a screenplay. About the process, Dauberman said, “I think it was a lot of dialogue back and forth. It was talking about, like, ‘Okay, well, we know the story of the game. What [were] some of the backstories of, specifically, Dr. Hill, and also, when you guys kicked around future game installments, where did you see the story going?”
“As a fan of the game and as a big video game player,” Dauberman shared, “I don’t interact with game developers a whole lot, so it’s so cool to see how they think and how they crack story. So, there was a lot of dialogue back and forth, making sure we weren’t going too far afield and [that] we were in sync. [We wanted to make sure that], if another game does come out, we’re rowing in the same direction, as it were.” Dauberman said they are fundamentally treating the movie as “A chapter of a larger story.”
Creatives Reveal How They Expanded On Game Ideas For The Movie
Sandberg Was Excited To “Do Things That They Didn’t Do In The Game”
The semi-sequel status of the until dawn movie allowed the filmmakers to cherry pick their favorite parts of the game while expanding on the lore for their own purposes. Part of this included the realistic touch of having the film’s characters’ physical and mental states deteriorate throughout the course of the story. “We thought a lot about how fear can affect your mental state, [which] also affects you physically, and wanted that to carry over into the movie the same way the game explores it,” said Dauberman.
“I just always thought that was so cool– Someone progressively turning into a monster themselves as they’re fighting monsters.”
Sandberg also revealed how they expanded on the game’s premise to bring new elements into the movie: “We got to do more, or other, different horror genres that they didn’t explore in the game. [It] was a lot of fun to do that expansion, do more of it, and do things that they didn’t do in the game.”
The One Character Who Made The Game-To-Film Jump, Explained
“I Really See Him As The Face Of The Franchise”
Although the Until Dawn movie tells a new story, one character who is making the jump from the games is Dr. Hill. Better still, the character is played by Peter Stormare in a reprisal of his game role. “He’s playing the same character,” Dauberman clarified, “but it’s different.” The writer went on to stress the importance of Hill’s inclusion, saying, “His story is probably the story of the franchise, so he’s really the character we talked about a lot with the game developers and stuff. I really see him as the face of the franchise.”
“He’s got a larger plan, and the people in this movie and the people in the game are just one part of it.”
Sandberg & Dauberman Reveal Their Process On Including Easter Eggs & Other Game Motifs
“Some Of Those Connections Were Very Much A Team Effort”
Until Dawn has plenty of Easter eggs and game tie-ins likely to please fans of the game. When asked about their inclusion, Sandberg was quick to credit his collaborators, saying, “Some of those connections were very much a team effort–even things put in by the production design team to tie it together. There were things from the script, things from production design, and just things that sort of evolved, like, ‘Oh, hey, we could put this in there to tie it together even more.’”
“Dr. Hill aside, and then the mask is so iconic that it felt like something we should carry over,” Dauberman added, “it became a bunch of Easter eggs [both] for fans of the game [and] to make it feel of the world. Of course, the hourglᴀss itself is so iconic from the game, so that felt important to carry over. Then, it was fun dropping things in. I don’t even know all the Easter eggs because the production design was dropping stuff in a lot, which is cool.”
Until Dawn arrives in theaters on April 25.
Source: Screen Rant Plus
