How The Until Dawn Movie Boldly Ties Into The Video Game

25 Apr 2025, 16:00 by Bill Bria · /Film

Sony Pictures Releasing

This article contains spoilers for "Until Dawn."

Most cinematic adaptations have a blatantly obvious and fairly mundane relation to the material they're adapting: Put simply, they're just another version of the source material. The best adaptations eschew that mundanity, putting a special spin on the story, world, or characters to make the adaptation unique, but even in those instances, the relation between adaptation and source is still fairly rote. For example, even though Denis Villeneuve's "Dune" films are distinctly his, they're still a version of Frank Herbert's novel. For another example, despite the many films and TV shows that make up the Marvel Cinematic Universe, those works do not typically connect to or cross over with the comic books they're inspired by.

Yet there have been experiments with multimedia franchises over the years, in which the works of disparate mediums are actually meant to tie-in together rather than remain separate. 1998's "The X-Files: Fight the Future" was a feature film that continued the storyline from the fifth season of the TV show and then led into the beginning of the sixth season. The Wachowskis involved several mediums when making their "Matrix" movie sequels, producing an anime anthology feature and a video game that presented different aspects of the same overall world and storyline. Richard Kelly made the choice to begin his "Southland Tales" movie halfway through the narrative, leaving the first three chapters to be turned into graphic novels. In these instances and others, the success of the tie-in aspect varies, as each separate piece of media requires some familiarity with another in order to be fully enjoyed (if not understood).

This is why this month's film version of "Until Dawn" is especially exciting and intriguing. It's been well-documented that director David F. Sandberg, producer/writer Gary Dauberman, and writer Blair Butler did not wish to merely repeat the story and characters from the 2015 video game of the same name, and thus took the movie in a completely different direction. However, they also took steps to allow both the movie and the game to exist within the same universe, meaning that the movie boldly ties into the video game in a way that leaves a lot of room for speculation, especially for future games and/or movies.

Until Dawn uses the character of Dr. Hill as a crux for the franchise

Sony Interactive Entertainment

At first glance, "Until Dawn" has precious little to do with its video game namesake, save for the subtextual and experiential aspects of presenting a player/viewer with a variety of horror subgenres, beasties, and the prospect of what an average person might do if they had to survive through a night of terror. The film involves a totally different cast of characters, different threats, and a different setting. At least, this is how things seem at first. As the movie goes on, it appears that actor Peter Stormare's appearance as a gas station attendant in the first act is not a cameo-like nod to his involvement in the video game, but actually is the first instance of his character from the video game making an appearance in the film.

That's right: Stormare's character of Dr. Hill is the main shared element between the video game and the movie, and you'd be forgiven for thinking that the character's presence in the film is merely a reference and not a connective tissue. This is due to the fact that, in the game, Dr. Hill is exclusively presented as a hallucination of the character Josh (played by Rami Malek), whereas he's clearly a very real presence in the film, as he's revealed to be the chief architect behind the time loop monster menace facing Clover (Ella Rubin) and her friends. It's through Hill that the film includes the other elements tying the film to the game, chief among them the inclusion of the mythical Wendigo creature. In the game, the characters had to survive being killed or infected by the Wendigo, whereas in the film, the characters have to escape their time loop prison lest the cumulative trauma transform them into a Wendigo, the very result that the mad psychologist Hill is hoping for.

Using Dr. Hill as the connective tissue between the movie and the game is a savvy choice on the part of Sandberg, Dauberman, and Blair. For one thing, the characters in the game all meet different fates depending on the player's choices, so using one of them would've been very tricky and potentially too unsatisfying. For another, Hill's status as supposedly a real person yet someone we didn't technically meet in the game allows the filmmakers to take license with the character, something which they certainly revel in. And finally, building a horror multimedia franchise around someone as singular and magnetic as Stormare is a good choice, full stop; it makes Stormare into the series' Vincent Price or Boris Karloff figure, someone who has the range and appeal to be both menacing and delightful when they turn up.

Until Dawn the movie could be a prequel, a sequel, or neither

Sony Pictures Releasing

Given the game's generally finite nature — there are only so many possible fates for characters and endings to the game — it may feel like "Until Dawn" the game isn't too ambiguous. Yet, when one ponders what the game's narrative and experience is in a meta context, it's all ambiguity; most people will not have received the exact same experience while playing. Sandberg and his writers' way of translating that ambiguity to the film is to leave much of the backstory ambiguous, especially regarding Dr. Hill. Although it's revealed why he's up to these dirty deeds, it's never quite explained how he's gained dominion over time and space itself, let alone a variety of evil creatures. There's a possibility that he hasn't achieved this power at all, and is merely utilizing supernatural circumstances around him to his own ends.

Added to this mystery surrounding the character is the film's setting, which appears like it might be the same Blackwood Mountain area where the game takes place. Both film and game involve a backstory where a nearby mine suffered a cave-in which cursed the town and the surrounding area ever since. Near the end of the movie, on Hill's desk, a couple of patient files can be seen, one of which appears to be Josh's, and the other could be Sam's (played by Hayden Panettiere in the game). Does this imply that the events of the game have already taken place, or that they have yet to do so? The film's final scene sees Hill's bank of CCTV monitors switching from the locations seen in the movie to a snowy lodge on a mountain as a car pulls up in front of it. This could imply that the events of the game are now about to occur, but it also could imply that a new set of victims are arriving to the same location where the game took place.

So is "Until Dawn" the movie a prequel to the game, a sequel, or neither? All we know is that, as far as the filmmakers are concerned, they're hoping that the continuity of both the movie, the game, and any future installments of either medium will be interconnected. As Dauberman told me during my recent interview with him:

"I'm hoping that there's a new game that's part of the story. Again, my ideal scenario is that there's a game, a movie, a game, a movie or a TV [series], whatever it is. But just really building it out in all different kinds of media I think is what's exciting [...] I really like the idea of it being just one interconnected franchise."

Only time will tell if we will be getting more "Until Dawn" on movie screens, game consoles, or both, but if we do, and if this intention for the series continues, we could be in for a unique multimedia treat.

"Until Dawn" is in theaters now.