Warning: This article contains SPOILERS for Until Dawn (2025).
AlthoughUntil Dawn’s movie adaptation does stray far from the original video game’s plot, its best cameo slyly alludes to this fact in a blackly humorous gag.2025’sUntil Dawnmovieis not a straightforward adaptation of the popular 2015 PlayStation game of the same name, and for good reason. With a clever script from horror icon Larry Fessenden and a starry cast that includes Rami Malek and Hayden Panettiere,Until Dawnwaseffectively an immersive, interactive horror movie, albeit one with a 10-hour runtime.
Until Dawn’s director David F. Sandberg noted this issue when adapting the video game to the screen, resulting in a radical alteration of its story. There are manydifferences betweenUntil Dawnand its movieadaptation, although both focus on a young protagonist who loses a sister and then visits an isolated location with their friends before falling victim to monsters. InUntil Dawn’s movie adaptation, the heroine is Ella Rubin’s Clover, and the friends accompanying her are her ex-boyfriend Max, ostensible clairvoyant Megan, the outspoken Nina, and Nina’s new boyfriend Abe.
Image via Sony Pictures
When the group arrives at the Glore Valley visitor’s center, they immediately ascertain that something is majorly off. As ifPeter Stormare’s unsettlingUntil Dawncharacterwasn’t enough of a warning, the visitor’s center is somehow surrounded by torrential rainfall on all sides but remains bone dry. Soon, even more explicitly supernatural threats begin to target the group, and they realize they are trapped in a time loop where a variety of paranormal monsters hunt them at the behest of a shadowy villain.
Until Dawn’s time loop is a clever way to simulate the experience of repeatedly dying in a game and returning to a save point to try again, and Sandberg’s cameo highlights this.
This has some similarities to the game, but the time loop plot is the movie’s invention. It’s a clever way to simulate the experience of repeatedly dying in a game and returning to a save point to try again, and Sandberg’s cameo highlights this.Until Dawndirector David F. Sandberg’s face adorns one of the visitor center’s many “Missing” posters, and the movie uses his presence to make a subtle meta-joke. In the scene where she is possessed and channeling the voices of various people from the “Missing” posters, Megan briefly speaks in what appears to be Sandberg’s own voice.
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Speaking while pointing to Sandberg’s poster, Megan says, “No one is coming to save you, they’re just going to watch you die over and over.” This couldn’t be more fitting as, in reality, Sandberg is the one directing these characters as viewers watch them die repeatedly. While theUntil Dawnmovie’s wendigosmight look different, this isn’t the only change the movie makes to their plot. In the same, Fessenden’s character the Stranger helps the group uncover the truth about their predicament.
Unlike the game, the movie offers no similar supporting characters to help out the group. Instead, the audience is left to “Watch you die over and over” until the group finally works out how to escape on their own when Clover eventually outsmarts the villainous Dr. Hill. Thus, Sandberg’s cameo doubles as a cute in-joke and an early warning that fans of the originalUntil Dawngame shouldn’t expect any characters to intervene and help out the heroes, despite what might happen in the source material’s story.
