Parents' Guide to Until Dawn

This gorefest has a few good touches here and there, but it ultimately succumbs to a poor sense of rhythm—and to the nagging feeling that none of this really makes very much sense. Built like a "cabin in the woods"-style horror movie crossed with Groundhog Day and Happy Death Day, Until Dawn gets one major thing right. In most slasher movies, the characters never seem like actual friends, just "types" that some casting director threw together. Here, they really seem to have a shared history, and they care about each other. They refuse to escape their trap unless they can all escape together.

That's a refreshing and moving touch, but it's ultimately in service of a sluggish movie. The timing is all off. A character walks through a door, and the camera cuts to another character doing something in another room; then, when it cuts back, even though some time has passed, the first character is only still just getting through the door. But that's nothing compared to the movie's inner logic. It introduces a villain character who's in charge of the evil plan, but he claims that it's Clover and her fears and anxieties that are really causing everything, driving everything. That's absurd. But even more absurd is the fact that the villain is bringing everyone back to life each night, a feat that's never explained. In other words, Until Dawn lazily half-explains its plot, with some lore in place and the rest just ignored. Clearly the basic, game-inspired concept of a "time-loop/slasher movie" was enough to secure a budget.