There’s been moreUntil Dawnnews than usual recently, though considering we’re talking about a game that’s nearly a decade old, the usual amount of newsisa big fat zero. But this week we’ve gotten a bigremakeof the game that’sdone astonishingly badly in terms of sales, probably because many feel itlooks worse than the originalbecause it’sstripped away the art direction that made the original great.
That makes it a pretty bad time for us to be getting news about its film adaptation, which reportedlyfinished filming this week as well. We don’t know very much about it yet, apart from that it’s being directed by David F. Sandberg, who directed the well-received Lights Out and Annabelle: Creation, part of The Conjuring’s horror franchise. That said, he also directed both Shazam! movies, which, um…well. Let’s not get into that.
We also know that some of its cast has been confirmed, though which roles they’re playing isn’t entirely clear. Apart from Peter Stormare, who’s reprising his role as Dr. Hill, we won’t be seeing any of the video game’s original cast in the film adaptation.
The Ties Between Hollywood And Video Games
Until Dawn cast these actors for a very specific reason – when you played the game, you were watching familiar faces. This was, of course, by design. Until Dawn was marketed as a kind of interactive movie, and what better to give you that impression than by using actors you already recognise?
The game had, most notably, Rami Malek and Hayden Panettiere playing major roles. In 2015, Malek was likely already recognisable from his role as Pharoah Ahkmenrah in Night at the Museum and its sequel, though he’d also played roles in a Twilight movie, Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Master, Spike Lee’s Da Sweet Blood of Jesus, and the ill-fated remake of Oldboy.
Panettiere, of course, was famous because of her role in Heroes – save the cheerleader, save the world, and all that. She’d also starred in, notably, Scream, Nashville, and Bring It On: All or Nothing. Other members of the cast were working actors, but less instantly recognisable. These two stars were the focal points, and developerSupermassivecontinued to play with this in its subsequent games, casting stars like Shawn Ashmore, Will Poulter, Ashley Tisdale, Jessie Buckley, and Lashana Lynch.
In a post-Death Strandingworld, this doesn’t feel like a big deal. Shawn Ashmore is in twoRemedygames,Cyberpunk 2077has Keanu Reeves and Idris Elba,12 Minutesstarsthreebig Hollywood names,The Callisto Protocolhas Josh Duhamel,Alone In The Darkhas Jodie Comer and David Harbour, and theCall of Dutyseries has a whole bunch of Hollywood actors. I could name more, but I won’t, because we actually already have a list of Hollywood actors who starred in video gameshere. Hollywood and video games are no longer entirely separate industries – there’s plenty of overlap.
But in 2015, that overlap wasn’t quite so big. Many Hollywood actors did voice acting for games like Fable 3 andDishonored, and Kiefer Sutherland, of course,voiced Venom Snake, but when it comes to video games of that generation, I’m hard pressed to name any that relied on actors’ likenesses apart from 2013’sBeyond Two Souls. And that video game had a similar mission statement: its writer and director, David Cage,called it “interactive storytelling”that aimed to cater to non-gamers.
The point is that in 2015, these actors being front and center of Until Dawn was a major pull and focus of its marketing. It piqued a lot of people’s interest simply by having the cast it did. But the movie doesn’t bring any of those original actors back, instead casting younger, up and coming stars like Odessa A’zion, Ella Rubin, Ji-Young Yoo, Michael Cimino, and Belmont Cameli. Why?
Until Dawn’s Movie Is Searching For A New Audience
The original actors had to be replaced, obviously, if this was going to be a straight adaptation of the game. The game was about young adults, and all the actors are now ten years older than they were during the game’s development. On top of that, Malek now has an Emmy and Academy Award under his belt, which I imagine has made himmuchmore expensive to hire.
But the very fact that the actors won’t be returning kind of defeats the purpose of it all, though you could also argue that a movie adaptation existing at all is self-defeating. Until Dawn was interesting because it was sort of a movie you could manipulate, where all your decisions and failures created the ending you got. Without that player agency, it’s just a slasher film, but I digress.
Part of the reason Until Dawn got the attention it did was because of its recognisable cast. I guess you could push back and say that Until Dawn now has enough cultural clout that it can exist without that cast, but considering the way its remake bombed, I’m not sure that’s really true.
In defence of the casting choices, it does work on a meta level. In 2015, the game’s stars were still early in their careers – like the movie’s cast, you could consider them on the rise. You might not necessarily recognise these names if you’re a millennial or older, but Odessa A’zion is considered something of a scream queen for her role in 2022’s Hellraiser, Michael Cimino plays the lead in the Love, Simon spin-off Love, Victor, and many of the other actors have had roles in teen dramas. I can’t help but think of Panettiere’s filmography, which looked very similar at the time she was casted, as well as those of the other actors.
These actors are somewhat recognisable – certainly not at the level of fame Malek and Panettiere were, but more familiar to a younger audience than to the people that played the game when it was first launched. Perhaps that’s the point. The Until Dawn movie probably won’t be much like the game because of the nature of the medium, but it’ll introduce a younger audience to the Supermassive series, and in that sense, the movie will do what it intends to. Whether that movie will end up just being a regular old slasher remains to be seen.
Until Dawn
WHERE TO PLAY
Until Dawn is a remake of the hit horror game for PS5 and PC, featuring updated visuals, lighting, and new content using the power of Unreal Engine 5. It follows five people stranded in a ski lodge, who find themselves hunted by a terrifying killer.
