The trailer for Until Dawn brings the wild and terrifying horror video game to the big screen

For those of you old enough to remember the ’90s, there was a trend in computer gaming during that decade that saw the rise of what was dubbed “interactive film.” This concept has been brewing since at least the days of producer William Castle and “Mr. Sardonicus,” if not before, but as Hollywood has tried and failed to put such an idea in movie theaters (see: 1995 experience “Mr. Payback”), the gaming industry has made much better progress in combining the rich narrative and emotional experience of cinema with the customization and immediacy of video games. However, the shape was inelegant. Even breakout games like “Phantasmagoria” and “Wing Commander III: Heart of the Tiger” featured cutscenes with professional actors in between non-cinematic gameplay moments. In other words, the best “interactive movie” games were still just games with movie bits scattered all over the place.

For my money, the dream of an interactive movie didn’t come true until 2015, when “Until Dawn” was released from Supermassive Games (and I’m not alone in this feeling). The Horror Game, with a script written by indie horror experts Larry Fessenden and Graham Reznick, follows a group of young people who decide to party at a snow lodge on the anniversary of their friends’ untimely deaths, leading to classic horror movie shenanigans and, ultimately, a supernatural twist. The game became a best-seller, received numerous accolades, and even received a remake released last October. Now, the circle between the game and the movie is narrowing even further, with the release of the first trailer for “Until Dawn.” However, this does not appear to be a carbon copy of the video game; The film takes place in the same world as the game, but appears to have an original, standalone story. If the filmmakers really did what they set out to do, could Until Dawn do for film/video game what the game did for interactive film, and fulfill the promise of a cross-media world?

Like Fessenden and Reznick in the video game, “Until Dawn.” It has some horror vets behind it: Screenwriter Gary Dauberman (best known for many scripts in the “The Conjuring” universe) and director David F. Sandberg, who returns to the genre after his adventures in the DCEU with his “Shazam” duology. Likewise, just as the game featured some notable actors already established in genre projects (like Hayden Panettiere, Brett Dalton, and Rami Malek), this film was cast with some up-and-coming young actors like Ella Rubin (“Anora”), and Michael Cimino (“Annabelle Comes Home”), and Odessa A’zion (“Hellraiser” 2022). All of this, plus the film carrying the video game torch of trying to pay a comprehensive homage to the horror genre, makes it seem like Until Dawn could become a franchise to rival it. “Screaming” in his case is of the type.

What remains to be seen is what exactly the “Until Dawn” franchise looks like. This trailer gives us some clues, but many questions remain, the most important of which is what happens with Peter Stormare appearing as a completely different character than the one he portrayed in the game, Dr. Alan J. Hill? Given that Until Dawn’s storyline involves twin characters, could Stormare play a relative to Hill? Or is there a new supernatural development afoot? Will Until Dawn become a horror anthology, trying to include a variety of elements and subgenres in each new installment? Or, like “Scream,” will it still be centered around the “creature meets features” premise? One thing is certain: “Until Dawn” will not have an interactive element, at least nothing more than the usual screaming and yelling at the screen. Go ahead and tell the characters not to come downstairs, but you never know, one day they might hear you.

Until Dawn opens April 25, 2025.