Derived from the interactive survivalist horror game, UNTIL DAWN is an original standalone story that expands upon the game series’ mythology, focusing on Clover and her friends, who head into the remote valley where Clover’s sister vanished in search of answers.
Exploring an abandoned visitor centre, they find themselves stalked by a masked killer and horrifically murdered one by one…only to wake up and find themselves back at the beginning of the same evening. Trapped in the valley, they’re forced to relive the night again and again – only each time the killer threat is different, each more terrifying than the last. Hope dwindling, the group soon realizes they have a limited number of deaths left, and the only way to escape is to survive until dawn.
As this wild, unpredictable adaptation arrives exclusively in theatres to terrorise audiences, Peter Gray spoke to star (and hopeful survivor) Michael Cimino about what fans of the game and the horror genre can expect, if he feels like he would’ve made the same moves as his character, and which video game he would personally like to visit the world of.
Exploring an abandoned visitor centre, they find themselves stalked by a masked killer and horrifically murdered one by one…only to wake up and find themselves back at the beginning of the same evening. Trapped in the valley, they’re forced to relive the night again and again – only each time the killer threat is different, each more terrifying than the last. Hope dwindling, the group soon realizes they have a limited number of deaths left, and the only way to escape is to survive until dawn.
As this wild, unpredictable adaptation arrives exclusively in theatres to terrorise audiences, Peter Gray spoke to star (and hopeful survivor) Michael Cimino about what fans of the game and the horror genre can expect, if he feels like he would’ve made the same moves as his character, and which video game he would personally like to visit the world of.
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Short filmTranscript
00:00i'm not someone who played the game so i kind of went into this very blind and i had i didn't know
00:05where this was going i had an absolute blast of a time like some of the things that happened in
00:09this movie are oh dude sick man so i'll say congratulations dude thank you i'm honestly i'm
00:15really excited to see like kind of how people react to it that are just like horror fans not
00:19even like fans of the game because i feel like this will honestly bring like a new audience to
00:23the game that like you know it didn't have prior you know i mean was was the game something that
00:28you were familiar with going into the film at all well yeah actually so um you know we did wind up
00:33playing the game while we were shooting um just you know to like get some i guess just to familiarize
00:39ourselves with it i was i was shooting something else during the like the prep time of this so i
00:43didn't really get to have time to uh you know like play the game it was either like play the game or
00:49work on the script and i was like i'll work on the script and then once i was there in budapest we
00:53had like some downtime it was like cool now we could kind of actually like play the game and
00:57i do feel like it is a very much like a spiritual successor of the of the game you know what i mean
01:03like it's it's honoring all the original things like the like the big friend group aspect and like
01:09the history aspect and very strong personalities which is like very like signifying things in the
01:13game and i think that that is like still carries on into the film but yeah do you like do you almost
01:21have to like i guess let go of expectation because you know video game fans horror fans like very
01:28vocal people like knowing there's an expectation does that change your approach at all
01:33i mean not necessarily i i think like for me the the the source material as far as like the script was
01:41really great and so like my approach for this was like maybe different as like i approach like
01:46maybe a tv show or but i think every every project you kind of approach differently and because of
01:52like the needs or like what's the priority with the amount of time given you know what i mean like
01:57for for this like the relationships between the characters is like a vitally important thing and so
02:02like as far as like the prep work goes you're just really just trying to make sure that all those
02:06relationships are solid there's history behind those relationships because you know it's a very
02:11again like a tight-knit friend group so you know you want to make sure that that feels accurate and i
02:15do feel like you know between everyone we have amazing chemistry just like i love everyone in
02:19the cast and like i think that that really kind of not only did we all do our prep work but like it
02:24shows on screen just because we also all love each other you know it was really great like it did like
02:29it did come across like there was uh like genuine dynamics between them like there was a lot of like
02:35there was like a lot more comedy than i was expecting like just the banter between everything i was like this is
02:40actually really funny and uh like i have to say kicking the bear was hilarious in that scene like
02:47that was possibly like one of the best moments no we we didn't you know we wanted it to be like a
02:52little tongue-in-cheek you know what i mean because it is kind of like the the the situation is kind of
02:57outrageous right it's like if if it needs to have those moments of levity to make the the the seriousness
03:04of it like that much more like important or like that much more serious and i do feel like in a
03:10regular life situation right when something bad is going wrong or like something crazy is happening
03:14there usually is like you do kind of try to make a joke out of it you know what i mean you do try
03:18to add like have like a little bit of a moment of levity so i feel like that is like true to life
03:23you know what i mean was there was there a moment in the script where it made you just say okay like
03:30this is why i love making movies this is why i want to make this film like was there one moment
03:35that you just went this is it for me i mean honestly i feel like just there's a whole slew
03:42of things that like really enticed me to like be part of this you know what i mean like i think
03:46first off this amazing cast like these this is the face of young hollywood you know what i mean like
03:52these are all people that are going to work for years and years to come and like to be amongst
03:56really really great actors and like really get to like work work my skills up and like you know learn
04:01from everyone was like amazing i feel like i'm always trying to learn from any person i work
04:05with and there's always something to learn from somebody and i think that everyone had like a
04:09different approach to material and like a different approach to their technique and i think that that
04:12was great um and then also like i think also just like working with gary prior i did um annabelle with
04:19gary dauberman and um it was great to just like work with gary again too man like you know gary is
04:27like so awesome he's an amazing guy and he directed um annabelle comes home which was my first my first
04:33feature so like to get to work with him again was like amazing dude it's like because obviously there
04:40are certain things that you're reacting to on set well they're not on set like they're on screen but
04:45they're not on set like after after like multiple takes like what's the approach for you in terms of
04:52like projecting fear authentically like does that become more difficult as you keep going on you're
04:58like i don't know what i'm acting against i mean honestly that again like it kind of goes into the
05:03prep work you know what i mean it's like it's like okay cool like you know if you if you really do the
05:07prep work and you're like bought into the stakes of like what's going on i feel like okay it's it
05:12kind of like it gets easier as you go along you know obviously being scared for that long is kind of
05:18difficult but i think i was like we kind of went along in the shoot and like i started to really
05:22like work that muscle and like really try to get into that kind of headspace a lot more it definitely
05:27i found it easier to access that kind of emotion you know what i mean and then also coming at it from
05:31like strong places inside of my character really made it easy to kind of like make sure that it was
05:36you know like coming out every single time you know that was the goal and do you do you feel that
05:43you would have made the same decisions as max at all or would you have been like i'm getting the
05:47out of here i mean honestly i can't say that like i would make i mean i feel like you know
05:52there was some questionable decisions made and throughout the film but i can't say like
05:56you know i'm obviously like an outsider looking in i knew what was going to happen in the movie
06:00if i was in that kind of situation shit i don't know man like i feel like it would be kind of i feel
06:06like there would have been a lot of things i would have done the same but maybe some things i would
06:10have done differently but i can't say like too much different i probably would have been more scared
06:16than max was to be honest you know and for you like as as as michael like if you could insert
06:24yourself into like any video game what do you think it would be oh geez man uh that's a tough one
06:32because like i think like i i'm so to me personally right like i love like fighting games like you know
06:38like i mean i wouldn't want to be in a mortal combat because i don't want to i don't want to die
06:42but like just like in this game i don't want to die a million times maybe like a racing game
06:46you know what i mean like like a like a like a gran turismo or something like that just get to drive
06:52all day long all night long and just get to just do that because you know i'm not dying so that's
06:57like cool painless it's easy yeah no because as i said like yeah like i went into this yeah not
07:04knowing what to expect and then i think i don't like i really don't necessarily want to give anything
07:09away but i'll just say explosions when that happened that yes like yes i was like that
07:15genuinely like made me jump it made me laugh i was like i'm so if i wasn't already absurd
07:21yeah it's so absurd and i think that like we did this all practically you know what i mean and it took
07:27a lot of extra time and like um you know like david really david sandberg our director really wanted
07:34to make sure that it was all done practically you know that was like a very much like an important part
07:39of the vision for him and he he really just like worked his ass off to make that happen um and you
07:45know like while we're kind of in it you don't even realize because it's just like all right cool this is
07:49what we're doing we're doing it it's and it's great but he really like gave it his all and like you
07:54know our our makeups and special special effects team was like insane our makeup team our special
08:01effects makeup team and our special effects team like they freaking killed it dude and it was
08:07it took a lot of time there's you know a lot of a lot of attention to detail when it comes to this
08:11kind of stuff and um they they really gave it their all for sure yeah no i think i think like video
08:17game movies like there's always that trepidation with them and this one like yeah complete like
08:24went above and beyond i think i think this is going to really hit with fans of the game i think it'll
08:30hit just horror fans in general like it manages to encapsulate everything without disappointing
08:37people if that's the right way to say it because i just yeah i had a lot of fun i know that everyone
08:42else will as well because it just is so unexpected and bloody and funny and i'll say it's exactly what
08:47we need right now so i just want to hats off to everybody involved thank you man yeah i'm on i'm
08:53really glad that you enjoyed the film man and i think i i agree with you i think that people will
08:57enjoy it i think that just as soon as people give it a chance and they go and see like okay this is
09:02like honoring the original source material but it's like just doing a different spin on it you know
09:07because at the end of the day the game is like a 10 hour long movie you know i know you didn't play
09:11the game but it's like it's like a film so it's like trying to condense a 10 hour long film into a
09:16two hour long movie is kind of like like into it's kind of like not honoring the original source
09:22material but like kind of doing a spin on it and doing a spiritual successor i feel like was the best move
09:27to kind of bring this to life and i'm really excited to see kind of how people react to it
09:31yeah well no i'm hoping for all the best as well because it's it's it's a fun movie like the genre
09:37is killing it at the moment and um i also just want to say as as the as the gay man love victor
09:43is the kind of show that like i wish i had growing up but like love simon hit me in a way that i was
09:49like whoo was not expecting that but it's just awesome to see representation done so like naturally
09:55and authentically and when you know we're no longer just like we're no longer being represented in a
10:01way that's just to tick off boxes like it's yeah and it's awesome to have someone like you
10:05at the forefront of that so i just want to thank you for that thank you so much man no dude i i really
10:10appreciate that thank you man that that's still like to this day like one of my one of my favorite
10:15projects i've ever done like it means so much to so many people and that's so much to me you know
10:20like meant so much to like just i don't know i i still like people will stop me and be like dude
10:25thank you so much for making this and like being in this and i i just it was everyone understood how
10:30important that was and i i still like fully stand by that project it is one of the most incredible
10:34experiences i've had in my life like i feel so honored to still have been part of that you know
10:39no well thank you so much for taking the time out enjoy the rest of your night um and yeah i'm
10:44looking forward to seeing those numbers roll in so thank you so much dude thank you man thank you bro
10:49take it easy