Until Dawn Movie Makes Fatal Mistake of Ignoring the Only Trend That Works For Game Adaptations

It’s no secret that inspiration comes from different places. Some movies are created on the basis of real-life, others from fiction books. Another way to go is a game adaptation. But here’s the catch.

When the creators of the movie Until Dawn decided to totally ignore the game their flick was based on, it predictably infuriated the OG fans.

It seems like Sony Pictures only took the name out of the popular game and decided it would be enough to draw attention and gain an audience.

But after people saw the trailer, they started asking questions like this:

“Hey Sony, I've got a question: did your writers even play the game before writing this?” user davidjsaul said in the comments.

Some people would actually prefer another notoriously bad adaptations — and it says something.

“This isn't Until Dawn. I doubt the writers even looked, or even had a TASTE of the actual game, cause I've never seen an adaptation butchered, so horribly. I've seen the live action Silent Hill films, and this is still worse,” said YouTube user SamGaming3V.

The anger is understandable. Basically, what's left of the canon in the movie are a few things like Josh's doctor, the killer's mask, the Wendigos… and that's it. Well, and the name of the movie, of course. Everything else appears to be entirely disconnected from the game’s universe. And because of that, the adaptation that could have been huge ended up being a massive disappointment to the core audience.

Until Dawn Adaptation Had One Job

There are actually several perfect examples of a game being turned into a great piece of television. The first one that comes to mind is HBO's adaptation of The Last of Us.

The show takes place in a post-apocalyptic US after a mutant fungus leaves the world in chaos. What the fans of the game love about the show is that although there are some differences between the two formats, the show is still very faithful to the game. Still, you don’t have to be familiar with the original game to enjoy the show.

Another perfect example is Fallout. While there are some aspects that are not the same to the game, the adaptation is a love letter both to the game and to the fans. Those who loved the game have tons of fun discovering Easter eggs and references while predicting the possible outcome for the plot, and those who have never played it have a chance to dive into an already formed and beloved universe.

So the question to the movie director ​​David F. Sandberg remains: why not follow a path that has proven to work (and choose the one that hasn’t instead)?

Until Dawn is scheduled to be released exclusively in theaters on April 25.