Before taking the helm of Shazam!, filmmaker David F. Sandberg cut his teeth on horror projects like Lights Out and Annabelle: Creation.
Shazam! Fury of the Gods bombed in what proved to be a terrible 365 days for the DCEU in 2023, and he's now leaving superheroes behind for a horror return with an adaptation of PlayStation game Until Dawn.
In that, players take control of a group of friends who have to survive on Blackwood Mountain when their lives are threatened. The game features a butterfly effect system in which players must make choices that may change the story, and short of this being a Choose Your Own Adventure-style series on streaming, that was never going to work for Until Dawn on screen.
However, the movie will veer greatly from the game by going down the Groundhog Day route and having these friends start their day over after dying. Each time they return, it's in a new horror genre, an intriguing concept...which has little to nothing to do with the game.
For what it's worth, insider @Cryptic4KQual recently shared, "People who loved the game and attended the test screenings of the film didn’t seem to like it, but first-timers appeared to enjoy it a lot."
So, a solid horror movie but not necessarily the adaptation gamers might have wanted.
You can make your own minds up by checking out the first sneak peek below (via GameFragger.com). The full trailer for Until Dawn is expected to be released soon.
One year after her sister Melanie mysteriously disappeared, Clover and her friends head into the remote valley where she vanished in search of answers. Exploring an abandoned visitor center, they find themselves stalked by a masked killer and horrifically murdered one by one…only to wake up and find themselves back at the beginning of the same evening. Trapped in the valley, they’re forced to relive the nightmare again and again - only each time the killer threat is different, each more terrifying than the last. Hope dwindling, the group soon realizes they have a limited number of deaths left, and the only way to escape is to survive until dawn.
Directed by David F. Sandberg and written by Blair Butler and Gary Dauberman, Until Dawn is based on the PlayStation Studios video game and produced by Asad Qizilbash, Carter Swan, David F. Sandberg, Lotta Losten, Roy Lee, Gary Dauberman, and Mia Maniscalco. Charles Miller and Hermen Hulst executive produce.
Until Dawn stars Ella Rubin, Michael Cimino, Odessa A’zion, Ji-young Yoo, Belmont Cameli, Maia Mitchell, and Peter Stormare reprising his role from the games as Dr. Hill. The movie will be released on April 25.