Until Dawn hit theaters in April of this year, and is currently streaming on Netflix.
There are a lot of games that became movies in the past. Uncharted, Resident Evil, Silent Hill, and The Last of Us are some of the most popular ones. Some worked, some didn’t. And let’s be completely honest, it’s not easy to adapt a game into a movie. Just think about it. You need to take something interactive and turn it into a story that everyone just watches. As someone who plays these games, the experience is completely different.
So when I heard Until Dawn was getting a movie, I didn’t know what to feel. I was so ready to be disappointed. But I got the chance to watch this movie on one of the biggest streaming services out there last weekend, and I’ve got some thoughts to share. Of course, I’m writing this review from the perspective of a gamer.
Until Dawn Game
Before we talk about the movie itself, I want to share some details and facts about the game. Until Dawn is a survival game about a group of friends who are stuck in a snowy mountain lodge. Just like most survival games, every decision matters for your survival. The entire game follows the butterfly effect system, so there’s a high replay value because every choice you make changes the outcome.
The main goal of the game is simple and it’s to survive the night. You switch between different characters, trying to keep everyone alive as strange and deadly things start happening around the mountain. So, from a gamer’s standpoint, seeing the games we used to play while TV streaming is a completely different feeling because we’re used to controlling the characters of the game. 
Until Dawn Movie
Okay so, the first thing a gamer would ask is… is the movie accurate or at least close to the game? The short answer is: not really, but it tries.
Instead of following the same group of friends stuck in the snowy mountain lodge, the story gives us new characters and a new location. There’s even a time-loop twist that when someone dies, the night resets, and they try again. It’s an interesting idea, but it changes what made the game so tense. In the game, your choices were permanent. One wrong move, and someone’s gone for good. The movie doesn’t give you that same feeling of no turning back.
But I don’t discredit the effort because there were scenes that felt like a love letter to gamers like me. The wendigo appears, the “don’t move” scene makes a comeback, and Dr. Hill even shows up again. As a gamer, I appreciated those small tributes. But I also missed the weight of choice.
But in its entirety, the movie itself is good. It’s something that I might see airing on cable or satellite TV in the future, and I’ll sit and enjoy it.
As someone who played the game, I can say the movie isn’t bad. It just speaks a different language. It was able to give me the fear and mystery of the game, but it lost the heart of the game. Still, it’s nice to see this story come to life again in a new way. Maybe it’s not the same nightmare we once played through, but it’s a reminder of how powerful the original game was.
TV and City 