Until Dawn continues the tried and true trend of adapting hit horror video games into live-action. The original survival horror video game was released in 2015 and developed by Supermᴀssive Games, the studio behind games including House of Ashes and The Devil in Me. Written by Gary Dauberman (It, Swamp Thing) and directed by David F. Sandberg (Shazam!, Annabelle: Creation), the movie tells the story of a young woman named Clover who finds herself caught in an endless loop of death while searching for her sister.

The Until Dawn movie brings known game villains like wendigos into live-action, but its characters are all new. The movie stars Ella Rubin (Anora) as Clover, Michael Cimino (Love, Victor) as Max, Ji-young Yoo (Expats) as Megan, Belmont Cameli (Saved by the Bell) as Abe, and Odessa A’zion (Ghosts) as Nina. Although the central story is Clover’s, the ensemble nature of the movie offers the other cast members plenty of other moments to shine.

ScreenRant’s Joe Deckelmeier spoke with the Until Dawn cast and crew at WonderCon 2025. Director/producer David F. Sandberg and producer/writer Gary Dauberman spoke about the challenges of adapting the hit game into a feature film and how the movie could be used to explore different aspects of horror. Stars Cameli, Rubin, Cimino, Yoo, and A’zion gave insights into their characters and talked about their favorite aspects of shooting the film.

Until Dawn Filmmakers Reveal The Challenges In Adapting Until Dawn

“They Didn’t Just Take The Game & Try To Condense It Down”

When Until Dawn came out in 2015, it took the video game world by storm thanks to its innovative immersion and choose-your-own-adventure features. While those were major selling points when adapting the story for the big screen, they also posed challenges that the filmmakers would have to overcome. Dauberman, who co-wrote the screenplay with Blair Butler, explained that “the biggest challenge is that it’s already a cinematic experience when you’re playing a game.”

The question then became, “How can you give people the same thrills and push the same story forward, but give them something different at the same time?” Director Sandberg felt the screenwriters gave a perfect answer, gushing, “That’s what I found so brilliant about it; they didn’t just take the game and try to condense it down into two hours and make something that would probably not feel as good as the game. Instead, they still expanded it and captured the spirit of the game.”

“The great thing about the game,” he continued, “is that you can play over and over again, and you can get different outcomes, see different kills and get different deaths.” That might sound extremely difficult to incorporate into a movie, but the Until Dawn team found the perfect trick. “They had this mechanic of every time they die, the night starts over, but it’s like a new horror genre every time.” When Sandberg heard about it, he felt like a fan himself. “I was like, ‘That sounds awesome!’“

Ella Rubin Shares Her Toughest Moments On Set

The Actor Tried To Match Clover’s Emotional Highs & Lows

Rubin’s character Clover is the emotional anchor of the film, going through extreme and dramatic physical and emotional changes throughout Until Dawn. Though she was careful to avoid spoilers, the actor shared some of the most difficult scenes for her shoot while on location in Budapest. “The scene that was most physically difficult was different than the scene that was most emotionally difficult,” she began. “I would say the scene that was most emotionally difficult was a scene with Michael where I’m very openly acknowledging my grief.“

“I cared about that scene being done correctly so much because grief is at the center of Clover’s story,” Rubin continued pᴀssionately. “I really wanted it to be accurate to what she’s feeling and hit the mark of what it feels like to grieve.” She didn’t have to be vague about her most physically demanding scene, as it already appeared in the trailer. “I come out of the ground, and they put real dirt on top. I’m screaming, so the amount of dirt that was in my mouth? I think I puked a few times after they called cut.“

Megan’s Spirituality & Nina’s Aloofness Explained By Ji-young Yoo & Odessa A’zion

“She Deeply Believes She’s Psychic”

Megan and Nina, played by Yoo and A’zion, represent two opposite sides of the belief spectrum in Until Dawn. Megan is the spiritual core of the group, whom Yoo explained “has really been a proponent of the trip in the first place to hopefully help Clover grieve and process some things.” She is so empathetic that she “deeply believes she’s psychic, and no one believes her.” Eventually, “you see her start to figure things out a little sooner than everyone else. She becomes pretty key to us figuring out if and how we’re going to make it through the night.”

Nina, on the other hand, is much more detached when it comes to the horrors that are unfolding around her. While A’zion joked that “she’s emotionally unavailable,” the actor also had some real insight into her mind. “I honestly think that, as much as she loves Clover, she’s a little bit over it. She’s like, ‘Your sister’s gone! Get over it, but I’ll do this for you. I love you a little bit.’ When all this stuff starts happening, she’s like, “F–king great. Of course, this is happening while you’re going to look for your ᴅᴇᴀᴅ [or missing?] sister!’“

Michael Cimino Reflects On Until Dawn’s Max & Clover Relationship

“He Feels Like He Lost The Person He Loves Most”

Max has a history with Clover that precedes the events of Until Dawn, and that relationship deeply impacts his role in the group’s survival? “Max, throughout the course of the film, feels really lost,” Cimino explained. “Clover was definitely the center of a lot of his world, and through her grief and dealing with that, he’s kind of going through his own process of that as well. He feels like he lost the person that he loves the most, and the person that he’s come to know. She’s completely different now.”

But all hope is not lost. The actor revealed that, “As she’s finding herself, Max is also finding himself, and finding out how to be more of an individual and make his own decisions. And I think that is a really fun thing to see play out throughout the film.”

Belmont Cameli On Playing The Rational One In Until Dawn

“They Loved To Bully Me”

Rounding out the ensemble is Abe, who represents the more sensible archetype in any horror movie worth its salt. Cameli revealed that he was “really, really fun to play” despite also being something of an outcast within the group. “These four are super close-knit,” the actor explained, referring to the others’ characters. “I’ve known them by proxy through my relationship with Nina for a few months.”

Cameli enjoyed playing up the chasm between Abe and Nina’s friends. “They have their thing going on, and he’s a little bit older. They have this shared loyalty and history, [so] it was fun to have a contrasting energy a lot of the time.” He added that Abe’s method of dealing with the horrors was to “just try and think about things logically, whereas Megan comes from a more spiritual place. It was really fun to play the guy on the periphery. We had a lot of fun; they loved to bully me, and I enjoyed it.”

Source: Screen Rant Plus