While still aiming to deliver his own take on the material, David F. Sandberg ᴀssures the Until Dawn movie will feature connections to the game. The upcoming horror film serves as an adaptation of Supermᴀssive Games’ тιтle, with the story centering on a group of young adults who search for one of the members’ missing sister, only to find themselves trapped in a nightmarish time loop as they’re hunted by different threats each night. Led by Ella Rubin, Michael Cimino and Odessa A’zion, Until Dawn isn’t directly adapting its game, which has divided fans of the game.
Now, during a recent Ask Me Anything on Reddit ahead of the movie’s release, Sandberg fielded questions about how the Until Dawn movie connects to the game. Though cautious not to share any spoilers, the director described the movie as being “a sequel” to the game, albeit one that those unfamiliar with the source material can still enjoy, and that the decision to make the script an in-universe story was more appealing to him than a direct adaptation:
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In another response, Sandberg ᴀssured that writers Gary Dauberman and Blair Butler “talked a lot with the makers of the game while writing the script” to ensure that they were staying true to Until Dawn, which led to many other “Easter eggs and connections” to the game. He also acknowledged the “apprehension” of game fans regarding the change in story, and said that they listened to fan feedback from early screenings, which was “very positive“. Check out Sandberg’s second response below:
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What This Means For The Until Dawn Movie
Sandberg & Co. Have A Few Surprises Up Their Sleeve
Ever since the first Until Dawn trailer released, fans of the game have been hypercritical of the movie adaptation regarding its approach to translating the game to the screen, with many opining the movie would be better suited to being marketed and released as an original тιтle. That being said, the trailer did showcase a number of elements brought over from the game into the film, particularly the return of the Wendigo as one of the threats, and a masked killer donning a similar appearance to Rami Malek’s Josh.
The biggest, and most mysterious, connection between the Until Dawn movie and game remains the return of Peter Stormare to the cast. In the game, Stormare played Dr. Hill, a psychiatrist whom Josh had seemingly hallucinated throughout the events of the story, whereas in the film, it’s been stated he is playing a new character with some kind of connection to the previous movie’s Hill. Based on Sandberg’s above comments, the movie being a sequel could lead to the reveal that Stormare is still playing the same Hill and bringing his experiences from the previous story into the new one.
With all of this in mind, the Until Dawn movie does find itself charting fresh territory by creating a story that acts as an expansion of the source material. Most prior video game movies have either been loose interpretations of their games, notably the majority of Resident Evil adaptations, while some have been more straightforward translations, particularly HBO’s The Last of Us. Given Supermᴀssive has been reluctant to produce a proper Until Dawn 2, the movie could either be the closest thing to a game sequel, or lay the groundwork for the studio to make one.
Our Take On The Until Dawn Movie’s Game Connections
An Original Story Respects Player Choices
As much as I love the original game, and would’ve been open to seeing a direct adaptation of it, I actually think Sandberg’s explanation for wanting to do an original story with Until Dawn makes a lot of sense. Some adaptations really have failed to effectively translate their games for the screen, even when going for a direct adaptation, because they weren’t particularly well-suited to a film structure. Sandberg even had a great similar sentiment to the above in ScreenRant‘s recent interview with him and the Until Dawn cast at WonderCon 2025, saying the following:
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 is that you can play over and over again, and you can get different outcomes, see different kills and get different deaths. They had this mechanic of every time they die, the night starts over, but it’s like a new horror genre every time. I was like, “That sounds awesome!”
Much like Prime Video’s Fallout, I think keeping in mind that Until Dawn was a player-driven game was the right step for Sandberg, Dauberman and Butler to do when putting the movie together. Where some might have happily let the likes of Emily or Mike die, others strove to keep everyone alive, which meant a direct adaptation of the game was bound to upset someone. Though I can appreciate the “apprehension“, as Sandberg describes, of the formula change, I’m actually really intrigued by how the movie will serve as a sequel to the game.
Source: David F. Sandberg/Reddit
