Until Dawn 4K Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.5

Until Dawn 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

"I'll be right back..."

Reviewed by Kenneth Brown July 11, 2025

Evil Dead + A Cabin in the Woods + Groundhog Day = Until Dawn, director David F. Sandberg and writers Gary Dauberman and Blair Butler's uneven but occasionally satisfying adaptation of the 2015 PlayStation Studios survival horror videogame of the same name. While gamers assumed the roles of eight young adults clinging to their lives on Blackwood Mountain, the film goes in a different direction, introducing five young adults who stumble across a supernaturally vexed mansion full of terrors, beasties and masked killers that go bump in the night. Oh yeah, and anytime the trapped would-be victims die, they wake up at the start of their misadventure, memories intact, minds and bodies slowly fraying and transforming them into something... else. It's an inspired mechanic tied to a mystical hourglass and guestbook in the mansion's foyer; one that makes the movie feel much more like a videogame, with restarts and respawns, than it might otherwise. Unfortunately, while it keeps scares and suspense high for more than an hour, the film's final run towards escape or "real death" suddenly grows repetitive and uninteresting, with revelations that don't hold much water and a climax that feels stilted and tired.

When a woman named Melanie (Maia Mitchell) goes missing, her sister Clover (Ella Rubin) sets out to retrace Melanie's steps and find out what happened. Joined by her ex-boyfriend Max (Michael Cimino), best friend Nina (the Hellraiser reboot's Odessa A'zion), amateur psychic Megan (Ji- young Yoo) and Nina's new boyfriend Abe (Belmont Cameli), Clover makes her way to a gas station in the countryside where she last received a message from her sister. After speaking with the gas station attendant (Peter Stormare, donning the strangest accent this side of West Virginia), she and her friends proceed up a nearby mountain through a violent storm to a place the locals call Glore Valley. But then the rain suddenly stops and the sun breaks through in an instant. Clover and her friends are mystified by the odd weather but continue their search, seeking answers in an abandoned mansion that's been converted into a Glore Valley welcome center. Digging for clues, the group discovers several troubling things -- a log book where each guest has signed in multiple times and a wall of missing persons posters among them -- but fails to leave before the sun sets.

A wall-mounted hourglass slowly spins and a night from hell begins. Again and again and again. Pursued by a silent masked madman, Clover and her friends die one by one... only to awaken as Nina signs the next line in the guestbook; each signature becoming a bit shakier than the last. Each loop brings different circumstances, different monsters, different deaths and different opportunities to survive until dawn. But each time the young adults find themselves back at the beginning, their bodies slowly degrading, their minds slowly unraveling, and a mysterious, mentally unstable doctor (Stormare, of course) leaving them additional clues about previous victims and loops crucial to their survival. As the nights tick by, more and more buildings appear in Glore Valley, offering the survivors additional paths to safety or to their doom. And with Clover and her friends insistent that either they all escape or no one escapes, the chances of surviving until dawn are reduced dramatically.

Until Dawn slides neatly into the upper echelon of videogame adaptations... which I realize isn't saying a whole lot. Videogame adaptations haven't exactly been a boon of creativity or original filmmaking. Hollywood would do well to take things more seriously, but this is where we remain. Oh, there's fun to be had in Until Dawn, and innovative kills aplenty, especially early on when the looping mechanic allows the film to reinvent itself every few minutes. One minute it's a slasher, the next minute a biological contaminant nightmare, the next a zombie film, and the next a body horror stomach-turner. The reinventions aren't as broad or interesting as a brief shot of a lumbering Lovecraftian giant in the rain implies, though, and no doubt budgetary constraints prevented the filmmakers from pursuing loftier genre ambitions. Still, the knowledge that each victim will soon reawaken to a new nightmare keeps things fresh and frightening. I even found myself growing fond of Clover and her gang (particularly A'zion, who deserves a bigger shot at stardom), each of which is written with sparing detail but offers just enough twinkle in their eye to make me root for 'em all to make it to the final showdown with Stormare's weird doctor.

Ironically, it's only when the kids deduce that their thirteenth "life" is probably their last life -- essentially the movie's entire third act -- that the film loses steam and limps towards a less-than-vicious ending. Increased stakes should increase the tension but here it's the opposite. (Edge of Tomorrow leaps to mind, cursed as it was with a similar third-act deflation.) And with little in the way of explanations as to how or why or what is causing or fueling the mansion, there isn't much meat to chew on. Stormare's doctor becomes a nonsequitur, the tattered remains of the town of Glore Valley merely earns a familiar "we dug too deep" backstory, and the force behind the time loop, resurrections and creatures of the night is left in the dark. Even the final scene plays like the product of last-minute reshoots. Perhaps that's a good thing -- better to leave things unanswered than supply an eye-rolling reason for evil to do what evil does in these sorts of films -- but it ultimately feels like a game that needs another playthrough to unearth all the best bits.

Until Dawn 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Until Dawn comes to 4K (and 4K only, though the combo pack does include a standard Blu-ray copy) with an able-bodied 2160p video transfer that looks every bit as good as it should... so long as you weren't hoping to spot much in the shadows. Those are rendered deeply and inkily, and of course intentionally so, upping the tension and the scares with a darkness so thick you'll find yourself squinting before the next gotcha jump leaves you laughing at your gullibility. Contrast is gorgeous, as are colors. You may not think such a black-hued horror outing would sport beautiful golds, ambers and yellows, but it does just that, helped along by Dolby Vision and a string of primaries that punctuate the night at just the right moments. Detail is naturally excellent, without any disappointments to be had. Edges are razor sharp, fine textures are refined and perfectly resolved, and delineation completes the trifecta without flaw. It only helps that macroblocking and other such anomalies are nowhere to be found (other than some ever-so-slight banding in a few flashlight beams) and the disc's bitrate is nice and roomy. No significant complaints here.

Until Dawn 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Mmm. I love me some Dolby Atmos horror. Sony's Until Dawn Atmos experience is a blast, ramping up the suspense and terrors (dwindling as they may be sometimes) with aggressiveness and confidence. The halls of the film's central house creak and moan devilishly and the illusion of space and acoustics is nothing short of eerie. The rear channels maximize the immersiveness of the soundfield and directional accuracy of each effect and bit of ambience, drawing the listener deeper and deeper into a series of haunts and habitats, crawling with beasties and stalked by masked killers. LFE output is eager to please too. Heavy footsteps are bolstered by legitimate weight, explosions (or rather exploding bodies) are thunderous, head- splatting kills send chunks of skull flying, and if that's not too much for you, caged monsters ramp up the insanity mightily. Dialogue remains clean and clear as well, with perfect prioritization and a solid balance between voices, the film's score, and all the screaming, running and... um... dying. Slasher fans will be more than satisfied.

Until Dawn 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Audio Commentary - with director David F. Sandberg and producer Lotta Losten

• Deleted & Extended Scenes (HD, 37 minutes) - Eight scenes, including an alternate opening and what I'd argue is a much better ending, complete with a little more lore expansion than the one we got theatrically.

• Adapting a Nightmare (HD, 3 minutes) - Sandberg and co-writer Gary Dauberman explore the film's genre inspirations and discuss how they tackled the adaptation and expansion of the videogame.

• Death-Defying Cast (HD, 3 minutes) - A featurette highlighting the film's ensemble.

• Practical Terrors (HD, 2 minutes) - Practical creatures and gore fx featurette.

Until Dawn 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Until Dawn is a fun popcorn horror flick with a nice little mean streak cutting through its core. It's not the next great horror classic, but it'll do until the real killers (hopefully) arrive closer to Halloween. As videogame adaptations go, it's also not drivel, so that's a welcome advancement of the genre. Performances are solid, kills are a blast, and the movie maintains good momentum until the third act. Sony's 4K release -- though pricey, which is a whole other discussion -- is easy to recommend to fans thanks to a terrific 4K video presentation, thrilling Dolby Atmos track, and a decent collection of supplements (complete with a commentary and 37-minutes of deleted, extended and alternate scenes).