Until Dawn - 4K Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Until Dawn



Movie:
4K Video:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:


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Movie
Video game movies have once again gained popularity, and we are revisiting the early 2000s. Back then, all we had to call our own were the Resident Evil films, with the rest of the attempts falling flat on their face, or simply being middling films in general. Nowadays, the success of the video game to the silver screen seems to be focused on the short-form seasons of HBO or Amazon Prime, while the movie attempts are generally horrible (looking at your Minecraft). But I was willing to give Until Dawn a chance due to the fact that I played the video game to death back in my Xbox days. And, of course, due to the fact that the director of both Shazam! Films was behind this as well. The man pulled off a DECENT low-budget pair of horror films back in the 2015’s with Annabelle: Creation and Lights Out (which is his best work to date in my opinion), so why not see him tackle a larger budgeted film based upon a creepy video game? But then again, I DID say we were revisiting the follies of the early 2000 video game adaptations, so here we are.

The story follows a pretty straightforward trajectory as Clover (Ella Rubin), Michael Cimino, Nina (Odessa A’Zion), Megan (Ji-young Yoo), and Abe (Belmont Cameli) head off on a road trip to help Clover get some closure over the disappearance of her sister. Following the same path that her sister Melanie (Maia Mitchell) took, the young adults end up in the abandoned mining town of Glore Valley, where they’re forced to take shelter after a gigantic rainstorm traps them there. There they find the clues they were looking for, with every clue pointing towards something horrific happening in the past of Glore Valley, AND seemingly dozens of people being led there that are reported missing.

As you probably guessed, this isn’t a “natural” rainstorm either. Not only are they trapped in an abandoned town with walls of water coming down everywhere, but the kids are hunted by a murderous madman who systematically hacks and slashes his way through the bodies. Oh, did I not mention this? Death seems to be a fate that they aren’t allowed to accept yet, either. Each time the group of 5 friends is killed off, they’re jumped back in time to when they first arrived, but with the added curse of carrying over some of the pain and damage taken the night before. Now, Clover and the rest of the group have to figure out a way to stop this nightmarish cycle before it’s too late, and the physical injuries they sustain during the recycled nights turn them into one of the monsters trapped in the hellish town outside of time.

The film reminds me of the tone and vibe of Silent Hill, just with elements of Happy Death Day, Groundhog Day, and Edge of Tomorrow thrown in to boot. For those who watched the trailers, the film plays out much differently than I expected it to. After watching the trailer, I remember thinking that this movie would revolve around being murdered by different horror tropes in a Happy Death Day fashion, but what ended up taking place was more Silent Hill with the Happy Death Day reliving days elements thrown in. Sadly, the film only takes pieces of both those superior films and just stumbles along. The first setup of the film and the introduction of the Groundhog Day reliving the same day trope was actually rather fun and suspenseful. The monsters hunting them each day by day was a nice twist, and added flavor to the terror, but when the narrative started explaining a bit too much, I felt things went off the rails.

Peter Stormare gets introduced as his usual scenery-eating bad guy, but his part in the film goes nowhere. It’s almost like David F. Sandberg sets him up to be this mysterious bad guy who will explain some dark secret, only for him to get defeated way too easily and leave you wondering why he was even there. The kids themselves are solid enough as young adult actors who get sliced and diced to bits like usual, but overall, the film felt like it went nowhere. As I said, there was a pretty great setup to the whole thing in the first half of the movie, then the second half just….well…..happens. And then fades into nothing.




Rating:

Rated R for strong bloody horror violence, gore, and language throughout.




4K Video: Video:

Usually when I get a combo pack release with 4K and Blu-ray discs in it I separate the discs and do two separate reviews for each disc, one for the 4K and one for the Blu-ray, but in this case there IS no separate Blu-ray release by Sony. Instead of releasing 4K and Blu-ray packages side by side, they have opted to only release a 4K combo pack and DVD release, while leaving a standalone Blu-ray set by the wayside. Being that there is only one release, I will simply do one review and reference the Blu-ray and the 4K quality in this same video section.

Until Dawn sports a gorgeous looking digital encode that his heavily stylized with a bleak and oppressive teal color grading (with hints of gray thrown in) that descends upon the film the second they get into Glore Valley. 95% of the film takes place at night, in the grungy mining town with little to no ambient lighting, so black levels are paramount. Luckily for us, Sony knows what they’re doing with their encodes, and I couldn’t find any technical flaws with the 4K disc. Crush is very minor, and fine details abound in the hotel that they take refuge in. Little bits of the film are in daylit areas, but even that has a nice dark atmosphere to it. Facial tones look good (albeit a bit pale at times due to being in the dark), and shadow detail is more than appreciable, especially in the underground tunnels near the end.

The Blu-ray looks nearly as good as the 4K disc in its own lane (so to speak). The 4K disc is head and shoulders better, but for a Blu-ray disc that is stylized like Until Dawn is, things are looking pretty good. Fine detail is quite good, but I noticed banding and some definite black crush going on (which is understandable considering how many dark sequences are in this film), but overall it’s equally as good in 1080p as the 4K is for a 4K release.







Audio:

The Dolby Atmos track is superb as well, and does what most great audio mixes do to a horror film. Elevates it above its standing. The mix is very atmospheric, with a thick feeling to it that just permeates the entire listening area. Dialog is crisp and clean as expected, with some very solid dynamic range to boot. One moment you can be listening to Clover and Max argue, the next you’re privy to heavy thudding footsteps and the rending of wood as an ax murderer tries to break into the hotel. Ambiance is great here, with little things like footsteps while running, or the creak of pipes flexing, filling out the surrounds with some great discrete usage. Overheads are used admirably, with ambient discrete sounds making up a majority of the work, but some of the score bleeds through as well. Overall, this is a great mix that borders on perfect, and is easily the highlight of the entire film.






Extras:

• Audio commentary with Director David F. Sandberg & Producer Lotta Losten
• Deleted & Extended Scenes
• Adapting a Nightmare - Join David F. Sandberg (Dir / Prod) and Gary Dauberman (Writer / Prod) as they explore the inspirations behind the film, the fun of genre-switching, and how they expanded the universe of the game.
• Death-Defying Cast - Dying over and over never felt so good – meet the fearless, game-for-anything cast as they attempt to survive Until Dawn.
• Practical Terrors - From wendigos to exploding bodies, Director David F. Sandberg knows the value of practical effects – and how those prosthetics, props, and blood elicit a more authentic reaction from the cast.

Final Score: ​

Yeah, Until Dawn was decent enough, but doesn’t live up to the quality of the game, and feels like one of those video game movies from the very early 2000s. I did love that we got to see a lot of the classic monsters and locations from the game, but the narrative was sadly a little loose and never ties all of the ends up neatly. I did find it interesting that this is the first Sony title (to my knowledge) where Sony hasn’t released a Blu-ray and a 4K UHD set. Instead, Sony decided to forego the separate releases and just release this 4K UHD combo pack, which I actually hope more studios take advantage of. Having both formats as a combo pack was a great way to introduce Blu-ray to the DVD market, and incentivize long-time Blu-ray converts to buy 4K discs, as most people only have ONE 4K player in the house, but multiple Blu-ray players. Now, with critical mass, it is most likely going to be a lot easier to just release one combo pack with 4K and Blu-ray to slip the 4K format into more houses. Maybe I’m crazy, but I like this way of releasing as long as they don’t go crazy and try to price titles like Boutique studio 4K disc. Either way, the movie was a decent rental with great tech specs, so if the trailer interests you, it’s probably worth having a little bit of fun with.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Ella Rubin, Odessa A'Zion, Michael Cimino, Belmon Cameli
Directed by: David F. Sandberg
Written by: Blair Butler, Gary Dauberman
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 HEVC
Audio: English Dolby Atmos (Dolby TrueHD 7.1 Core), French, German, Italian, Spanish DTS-HD MA 5.1, English, French, Spanish, Thai DD 5.1
Subtitles: English, English SDH, French, Spanish
Studio: Sony
Rated: R
Runtime: 103 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: July 8th, 2025

Recommendation: Rental