Until Dawn cast on creating a "spiritual successor" to the game

Until Dawn is a horror adaptation of a 2015 cult-classic video game by the same name. Directed by David F Sandberg (Annabelle: Creation, Lights Out, Shazam), and written by Blair Butler and Gary Dauberman, the film takes the story and premise of the game in order to capture the feeling of unlocking multiple endings.

"One thing that this movie has luckily brought into my life is a real appreciation for video games," Ella Rubin says, "especially Until Dawn, which is such a cinematic, beautiful game."

Rubin plays Clover, a grieving young woman looking to solve her sister’s disappearance. Clover is joined by a tight-knit group of friends, including her supportive ex-boyfriend Max, portrayed by Michael Cimino.

Neither had played Until Dawn before they auditioned: Rubin played the game before going into production, while Cimino played it with the rest of the cast during shooting.

After playing it, Rubin was even more excited by the project: "I felt incredibly grateful to make a faithful adaptation that is very different but still exists within the world of the game."

Cimino agrees: "I do feel like there is such a spiritual resonance of the game inside the film."

Character interactions became one of the main parallels Cimino noticed between two stories.

"If you played the game, there's these little personality quirks," he says. In the game, the player’s decisions influence characters’ personality traits and relationships, which in turn influence outcomes.

Each character represents clear horror archetypes, from the believer to the cynic, the jock to the final girl, and players can choose to embrace tropes or reject convention. The movie takes a similar approach.

"Everyone has their own quirks and quips, but they're also a really tight-knit friend group, and throughout the course of the film certain actions change their relationships," Cimino says, "certain things bring people together and separate others."

According to Cimino, these connections were an important part of making the film "a spiritual successor" to the game.

Adapting a story soaked in horror and that revels in gore is a gruelling task. "I was emotionally in the trenches quite often," Rubin says.

"Every day I had to put myself as viscerally as I could into the situation that they're in: either being stabbed or crying or screaming or running or grieving." And that was only when she didn’t have to film one of her many death scenes.

"She put her f***ing body on the line," Cimino gushes. "She put everything she had into this film. Like, it really shows, she killed it. I'm really so, so impressed by her."

While the cast’s performance is fantastically chilling, another key element of the game is its occasional moments of levity. Despite occasional comedic moments in the film (I’m still thinking about "waterwall"), the cast mostly leant on each other to find humour.

"It was so vital to be able to come home after a 17-hour day and have everyone just make me laugh," Rubin says. "I really am lucky that I got to find a bit of lightness within our real group of friends in real life. Truly. Thank God."

When it comes to Easter eggs, Rubin teases a scene near the end where Clover confronts Dr Hill: "I don't want to give too much away because I want people to find it themselves on screen," she says, "but if you look at the papers on the desk, there's a very dedicated Easter egg that I think hopefully fans will appreciate, and that really allows the film to be tied into the game."

Until Dawn is now showing in UK cinemas.

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