‘Until Dawn’ Director David F. Sandberg and Writer Blair Butler Tease Nasty Body Horror In Upcoming Video Game Adaptation: “It’s definitely Rated R” [Exclusive]
Today, Sony launched the new trailer for David F. Sandberg’s upcoming adaptation of the popular horror video game Until Dawn. With a script co-written by Gary Dauberman and Blair Butler, the team isn’t just remaking Supermassive Games’ cinematic interactive horror experience; they’re taking its vibe to craft something familiar yet unique, recognizable but not boring. And judging by the new trailer, it seems they’ve done just that.
In the film adaptation:
One year after her sister Melanie mysteriously disappeared, Clover and her friends head into the remote valley where she vanished in search of answers. Exploring an abandoned visitor center, 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.
Now watch the trailer:
But that’s not all! We were able to speak with Sandberg and Butler about the creepy new trailer, Peter Stormare, and the day that was so bloody, that some crew members had to look away.
Dread Central: David, what was so alluring to you about the script and being part of Until Dawn?
David F. Sandberg: Well, to me, the most alluring thing was all the different subgenres that are in this script. I’ve been wanting to do horror again for quite a while and have been thinking about what I wanted to do: a slasher or supernatural or body horror or monster movie. Then, I was sent this script and it was like, “This is perfect. I get to do all of it”
I think it was such a brilliant thing as well because I mean, the Until Dawn game is already an interactive movie, like a 10-hour movie. It’s the most cinematic game that I’ve ever played. And it would’ve been difficult to just make a movie out of that because then, well, you take the interactivity out and then you just cut out eight hours. And I don’t think that would’ve been as fun. So I think the script was just brilliant in that it sort of took the fun parts of the game, which is replaying it and getting to see different deaths, making different choices, and putting that in a film medium that is not interactive, but you still get all those things. So this was the perfect project for me.
DC: Blair, I was curious about writing the script. Obviously, you wrote it with Gary Dauberman, but what was the struggle in figuring out how to make a video game into a coherent script? I mean, I can’t even imagine the challenge with that.
Blair Butler: It was super challenging. So to be totally honest, when I came on to this project, I loved the game. I feel like Supermassive and Larry Fessenden and Graham Resnick, the writers of the game, created this perfect playable horror movie that literally starred an Academy Award-winning actor. So that was going to be totally impossible to top. And we knew that the remaster would be coming out around the same time. And that was another reason that everyone felt like, wow, we don’t want to try to remake the original storyline beat for Beat because that feels a little blasphemous.
So early on we collaborated with PlayStation to try and explore the untold Dawn universe. And the things that we really took as our guiding lights for the movie were the things that made the game so special. The fact that it is this love letter to horror movies, the idea that with a few exceptions, you could save almost everyone in the game or get everyone killed in horrible ways. And we also all loved the way that it starts as one horror genre because you think it’s a slasher movie and then it turns into something totally different, a supernatural monster movie.
Those were the things about the game we really wanted to celebrate. And this is a game that blends horror genres and also has a time loop that lets you try to save everybody or again, just kill ’em off in the worst way possible. So we wanted to honor that without replicating what is already a perfect movie that you can play right now.
DC: That’s so cool. And that’s awesome to hear because again, the trailer is so cool and obviously feels so different, but has that spirit. Are you integrating anything from the other games from Supermassive?
DFS: No. We stick pretty much in the until dawn world. But I love the whole sort of universe they’ve created and there’s certainly a lot of inspiration from it.
DC: I do have to know… Peter Stomare is my favorite part of Until Dawn and I’m so stoked that he’s in the movie. Can you tease a little bit more about his character? We obviously see him being the harbinger that we see in a lot of these slashers. Is there anything else you can tease?
DFS: Yeah, Peter is awesome. It is been a dream for me to work with him. I tried to get him in my first feature, Lights Out.
DC: Oh really?
DFS: Yeah. But the studio was like, “Well, he can’t play a family man who’s just a normal guy. He’s way too creepy.” But I actually wanted to get him in Until Dawn. I wrote him a letter since I’m a fellow Swede, I wrote it in Swedish, and told him I tried to get you already in my first movie. And he was like, “Well of course I’m going to be in [Until Dawn]!” So he was awesome.
I think Hill is such a great character. He really makes that character. I can’t really get into how he plays a role in this movie, but he for sure does because he is our biggest connection to the game and that world and the lore of it.
DC: Oh, that’s so exciting. I love that. I’m glad he is not just a little cameo as a creepy redneck at a gas station. I’m very excited to see how he factors into everything. Can either of you tease a favorite creature or kill in Until Dawn?
DFS: Well, my favorite part is the sort of more body horror aspects of it.
DC: In the trailer, I saw someone getting pregnant really fast and that makes me want to throw up.
DFS: That is part of my favorite thing. She doesn’t get pregnant, but it kind of looks like that. But that was one of my favorite parts. And it’s a big shock to the audience as well, that scene for sure.
And it was fun for me because I’ve never been able to do all these practical effects. The horror movies I’ve done before, these sorts of supernatural movies don’t have that many. It doesn’t have those types of scares, not that type of horror. But I’ve always wanted to have all these prosthetics and things like that.
There’s a moment relating to part of Until Dawn actually, where I was adamant that I wanted to do as much as possible in camera. So I told production we needed to get a double for this character played by an amputee so we could shoot it for real. We don’t have to paint out limbs or anything like that. We can shoot it for real. And that was a lot of fun. With all the crazy stuff we do in this movie, it was that day that some of the crew had to look away.
DC: It’s good when the crew is uncomfortable!
DFS: I know! They know exactly how it’s made and still, they get queasy.
DC: What an awesome opportunity to get to work with practical effects, though.
DFS: I did realize why not all movies do it because it is a challenge. You can’t do as many takes because of all the resets and stuff like that. And you have to schedule certain things towards the end of this shoot where we really ruin the set because there’s blood everywhere and that’s never coming out. So we had those things we had to do last and then trash the set because there was so much blood and stuff.
DC: I love that.
DFS: Yeah, it’s definitely rated R.
DC: Blair, did you have a favorite moment that you’re really excited for audiences to see?
BB: It’s funny, so Gary Dauberman also wrote the movie and was our producer. The thing that David is alluding to is something that Gary had never been able to do in another movie, and he has this huge prolific career. So yeah, it’s wild.
Until Dawn comes to theaters on April 25, 2025.
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