Until Dawn (2015)

Plot of Until Dawn: Five friends go to a hamlet up in the mountains in search of Clover’s sister Mel, who had disappeared. They end up in what is posted as a visitor’s centre where they find multiple missing posters, including on of Mel, but none with any actual info on them. When one of them signs the visitor’s book a sandglass upturns and the sand begins to run from high to low. Very soon on this night they are attacked by a man wearing a ski mask with a scythe and all die. But are surprised when they find themselves reliving the first moments from the previous night, someone signs the visitor’s book and they are killed again in a slightly different way, I think by blowing up, and spreading their guts over the landscape. The process goes on and they find more of the original town of which the visitor’s centre was a building appearing around them, and discover that the whole place was buried in a mining disaster, explain why the visitor’s centre has another house in the basement. It gradually becomes apparent that they either have to survive the night, or, if they do not survive thirteen nights they will become part of the horror.

Content: No sex or nudity. To tell the truth the young women are very unattractively clothed, intentionally. Is this the modern way? No drinking or smoking of anything. The opening scene is of Mel scraping her way from under the earth, before being killed again on the surface. There are a lot of human monsters which apparently are called wendigos, horrible looking things, plus the witch who is breathing through a mask, and controls Clover for a while. The killings are graphic and unpleasant. They are stabbed, cut into pieces, blown up, and when two of them try to escape in their car, are forced to return by an enormous shadowy figure. I don’t often say this but I think the scenes could be frightening for children, so take note of the classification.

A View:  It was not immediately apparent to me that the sandglass, which operated automatically, lasted for a whole night, or that if they were still alive when the sands had all run to the lower container, they would be fine. So, you’ll know if you decide to watch it.  It is a bit of a one note presentation, although I have found that I have quite enjoyed video game productions. This one not quite so much, mainly because the characters seem to have so little in their favour, and who would care if they died anyway. So probably a watch if you like the video game.

Fun Fact: This film made in Budapest, Hungary together with 9865 others.