The horror film Until dawn Do not follow the video game exactly on which it is based. In fact, it has a completely new line -up of characters and a completely different story. But that does not mean that the filmmakers have completely given up their starting material. In fact, the creepiest scene of the film feels as if it had been pulled straight out of the game. Polygon sat down with director David F. Sandberg and co-author Gary Dauberman to talk about how she pulled it out.
[Ed. note: This story contains spoilers for the Until Dawn movie.]
Until dawnThe best scene comes late in the film when the band of teenagers in a repeat scenario in the stranger reached their last day in the center of the Glore Valley: they died and then restarted the day 12 times, but on the 13th iteration they found that their deaths are permanently. Since most teenagers just try to survive, Clover (Ella Rubin) sets off to get the secret of the Glore Valley. In a terrible underground cave, she ends up with a light, flashing red light as the only lighting that leads it through the darkness.
Photo: Kerry Brown/Sony Pictures that publish via Everett Collection
But down there she is not all alone. There is also a turning point that is hot on the heels. When she knew that she couldn't relax the bizarre creature, she freezes behind a little rubble and tries to stay perfectly quiet while the Wendigo crawls over her hiding place and turns over her head. The fans of the game will remind this moment as immediately of the many scenes of the game in which the player keep his controller completely quiet or caught one of their characters from the monsters and possibly even killed and the story changed permanently. And it is no coincidence that the scene feels so familiar.
“That was very intended,” said Sandberg to Polygon. “Because this is a great moment in the game when you can't move the controller, you have to stay still. So you have to have such a moment in the film.”
However, this moment of the movement is only half of the equation: In order for the scene to work, the Wendigo must be really damn creepy. Just like in the video game, the Wendigo is particularly missing in Until dawnThe first half. But they were always part of the plan for the film.
“I like the idea of fear of physically changing people, [which] she begins to transform into the monsters herself, ”said Dauberman to Polygon.“ So I like this aspect of really [the wendigo]. I have the feeling that this can be a trademark of the franchise and not necessarily just the first game. So that was an idea that I liked very much to transfer. “
The most effective and frightening aspect of the Wendigo of the game is how strangely they move, and Sandberg had to be creative to reproduce this in the film.
Image: Kerry Brown/Sony pictures that publish via Everett Collection
“I really wanted to make practical effects in this film as possible,” said Sandberg. “And that meant to change the Wendigo a little, because in the game they have these extremely long limbs that no one can ever have. So we tried to find these really thin, big people to play our Wendigo because I wanted them to be physical. And we set dancers to play them because we humans who moved their bodies in interesting ways to move their bodies.”
The effect is undeniable. As soon as the Wendigo appears on the screen, separate from the other terrible hosts of the film. Each creature looks incredible, with bizarre, unnatural movements when they slurry through the corridors, shift from the shadow at the shadow at inhumane speed and hang on the ceilings that feel thoroughly supernatural.
While the rest of the film was not exactly right from ideas from the original game, it is appropriate that the Until dawn The biggest outstanding moments and horrors of the film feel raised directly. Fans of the game will appreciate that the film at least captures the terror of the Wendigo.
Until dawn Is now in the cinemas.
