Courtney Howard // Film Critic
Back in 2017, director/ producer David F. Sandberg and producer/ writer Gary Dauberman teamed up to bring us one of the best films in the CONJURING spin-off series, ANNABELLE: CREATION. They placed their characters’ conflicts and complexities at the forefront, getting us to care about the humans at the center of a possessed doll’s traumatic reign of terror. This sequel left a lasting mark, haunting audiences with its smarts and scares.
Now, the dynamic duo return to the horror genre, reuniting for yet another franchise, adapting the popular Playstation game UNTIL DAWN. And it’s not just good video game movie – it’s a good movie, period. Playing like a love letter to the horror genre, their take has 5 friends – Clover (Ella Rubin), Nina (Odessa A’zion), Max (Michael Cimino), Megan (Ji-young Yoo) and Abe (Belmont Cameli) – arriving in a remote, desolated town’s visitor center in hopes to find Clover’s missing younger sister Melanie (Maia Mitchell). It slays all day – or rather, all night long.
While the feature’s designed to hook newbies and delight long-standing fans, everyone will undoubtedly be pleasantly surprised by where this film converges with the game’s legacy and lore. To begin with, the film can’t be pigeonholed into one genre. This is a character-driven dramedy that replicates gameplay, but is also a love letter to the horror genre that craftily sneaks in a little grief movie through the backdoor.
We spoke with Sandberg and Dauberman at the film’s recent press day in Los Angeles and, according to Dauberman, their creative angle was not a difficult sell.
“Fortunately, Playstation knew the game and were on board. They’re so supportive, which gets Sony proper on board. It’s always a discussion over budget and days – the more boring stuff. I don’t think we had anyone going, ‘What is this?’ People saw the opportunity in being able to present a horror movie that’s a bunch of little horror movies within a big one.”
One of the most engrossing (emphasis on gross!) sequences is the bathroom sequence, which has everyone attempting wait it out together in one location until sun up. Shenanigans – of the body horror variety – quickly ensue. It’s a scene that represents the film’s beating heart as it’s got dynamic character interplay and mimics players’ choice to wait it out in one place, which doubles as a metaphor for sitting and wallowing in grief.
Sandberg was impressed with how Dauberman envisioned it on the page.
“The way Gary writes is like he’s sort of talking to the reader almost like a person seeing the movie for the first time. So he’ll have a ‘Holy Shit!’ written on the page. Not a character saying that. It’s in the scene description, like he’s reacting to the scene as it’s happening. It’s so great because it give you an idea of, ‘This is what it’s supposed to feel like.’ This is the reaction that you want from the audience.”
Dauberman agreed, elucidating,
“I definitely wrote ‘OH FUCK,’ in caps as if I didn’t expect what would happen.”
There are thrills and kills galore on the whole here. Yet this sequence also made exceptional use of practical effects, which, if you follow Sandberg’s social media channels, you’d see how he breaks some of these down in a tutorial video. He said,
“It’s a long dream of mine to make a movie this way. It is full of challenges to get it right. There’s a lot of planning and you only get one or maybe two chances on each thing because then you have to move on and it takes forever to clean people up from blood and things like that.
But that’s what I enjoy – coming up with these little tricks of how to pull it off the right way. And some things it’s fascinating how easy they are in execution. Planning and getting it there is troublesome. For example, the bathroom scene is just editing. It’s cuts. It’s cutting from a person to a dummy and it works so well.”
Dauberman quickly added,
“But it’s only that easy because of your prep.”
Everyone in the group has a specific personality; Clover is the resilient, headstrong leader. Max, her ex-beau, is a kind-hearted protector. Nina is a stalwart bestie and total bad-ass. Nina’s boyfriend Abe is a level-headed pragmatist. And Megan is a clairvoyant, who wears her heart on her sleeve. In the meta-context, Dauberman and Sandberg’s own creative direction acted similar to the video game’s 3rd party player, choosing the gang’s life-or-death adventures. Still, the talented twosome resonated with specific characters.
Sandberg explained,
“I like Abe a lot, because he is, while he does some questionable things, for sure, he is often the voice of reason. He’s like, ‘We should get out of here. We should just try.’ It doesn’t always work out, but I’m on board with Abe’s thinking.”
Dauberman stated,
“I find myself relating more with Max-like characters. The emotionally sensitive people. That’s more my jam. I’d love to be more like Nina and I’m just not.”
UNTIL DAWN opens on April 25.
