The Until Dawn Movie Trailer Has Everyone Saying The Same Thing (And It's Not Good)

From "The Outer Worlds" to "Elder Scrolls," there are plenty of video games that deserve film or TV adaptations. Honestly, we'd also put 2015's "Until Dawn" on that list, as the terrifying game featuring a group of friends going to Blackwood Mountain and the accompanying mines to find one woman's missing sister is perfect for Hollywood. Your actions as the player decide each character's fate, and the plot changes based on your choices. It's an intense game, but ... none of that seems to have made it into the upcoming movie if the recently released trailer is any indication.

Instead, the "Until Dawn" movie hinges on a time loop, and, unless you count its very nature as a video game, which means you may have to do some parts over if you die without saving, that simply isn't part of the game's story. Additionally, the trailer reveals that when the characters die, they wake up at the beginning of the night with a new threat to face, allowing them to engage with a variety of different horror subgenres. Again, that's not what happens in the "Until Dawn" game — and fans have taken notice.

Many comments under the YouTube trailer are filled with disheartened gamers letting their opinions be known, like @Iainwakura, who states, "This is NOT Until Dawn, this is an escape room horror flick that just so happens to have the same name as Until Dawn." Others note that the game's big hook is its use of a butterfly effect, meaning that no two gamers' playthroughs could be the same. But changing the plot is far from the only negative thing fans have to say about this film, which is looking like it could be yet another massive video game movie box office bomb.

Sony really needs someone in their trailer department to reconsider using scenes containing meme-worthy dialogue, especially after the "Madame Web" trailer famously spawned, "He was in the Amazon with my mom when she was researching spiders just before she died." The "Until Dawn" trailer doesn't waste any time in introducing its own awkward dialogue to the internet, as the first exchange sees Clover (Ella Rubin) state, "I'm looking for my sister. Does she look familiar to you?" Hill (Peter Stormare) asks, "She's gone missing?" And Clover responds, "I didn't say that." The objective seems to be to hint that the townsfolk are harboring a dark secret, but when Clover literally says, "I'm looking for my sister," it implies that she's missing, so despite what the movie wants us to believe, it's not weird for Hill to ask his question.

They're already off on a bad foot, but then comes what might be the most transparent title drop since Will Smith uttered, "What are we, some kind of Suicide Squad?" when Max (Michael Cimino) states, "If we want to survive, we have to make it until dawn." On X (formerly Twitter), people immediately lambasted the line, with @sensorite_kin writing, "I was watching this thinking that it doesn't look too bad and I can prolly enjoy it as it's own thing and then I heard 'we gotta survive... Until Dawn' and f******* meeeeee bro.

In the original game, the characters have to survive until dawn because that's when the Wendigos, creatures of the night, stop hunting them. Here, the group of friends seemingly needs to survive until dawn to break out of the deadly time loop. This is a major change to the premise gamers know and love, and YouTuber @DOOMStudios summed up many fans' opinions of the movie's tweaks: "Until Dawn: in name only."

The primary mechanic is different. The dialogue leaves a lot to be desired. The antagonist has been changed to monsters that aren't in the game. Even the location has changed — the game takes place on a snowy mountain rather than in a weirdly rainy forest. We've seen the internet lose it when a superhero's costume's color is slightly changed, so it's no surprise that many fans aren't happy with the direction the "Until Dawn" movie has taken. 

People weren't shy about voicing their issues with the trailer on X, including @basicbarbiez, who stated, "Cannot get over how they chose to have this movie take place at a victorian house in a bright green forest when until dawn's whole aesthetic was that it took place on a snowy mountain & underground mines." When the title card comes up in the trailer, there is a slight snow effect, so maybe wintery weather will factor in at some point.

It's possible, after all, that the trailer doesn't give everything away, but as of right now, it doesn't look like "Until Dawn" that gamers have loved over the last decade. There are some nods to the game, as X user @gnglina points out, "'Until dawn' and the only things that references it, is the killer's mask and the actor that played the therapist." But overall, the trailer hasn't done the film any favors. So should people be willing to give the film a shot?

In the interest of fairness, we will admit that not everyone was so cynical toward the "Until Dawn" movie trailer. YouTuber @ShubhamKhatdeo, for example, remains cautiously optimistic. "Adding different ways to die is a better move than just rehashing the same story," they remarked. "Adds a game mechanic and keeps you surprised. Could be fun."

Cringy dialogue aside, the concept could work even if it isn't the plot of the "Until Dawn" game, and that's exactly what the creatives wanted. In a first look shared to YouTube, writer Gary Dauberman mentions being a huge fan of the game while also clarifying, "I thought a lot about how we could continue the story without just giving the audience the same experience that they got when they were playing." Director David F. Sandberg, who previously helmed "Lights Out" and DC's two "Shazam!" movies, also wanted the "Until Dawn" movie to branch out. "The movie has this mechanic where things start over and they get to try again," he explained. "Every time they come back to life, it's like they're in a new horror genre."

It's not an inherently bad concept, and one can only wonder if the general consensus would be more positive if this was billed as an original horror movie. Who knows? Maybe "Until Dawn" will surprise us all and rank among the best video game adaptations of all time. It's probably best not to hold your breath, though ...