The Direct's Russ Milheim spoke with the cast and filmmakers behind Sony Pictures' upcoming horror film Until Dawn at WonderCon, where they revealed how they kept their time loop movie fresh.
Until Dawn follows a group of friends who become trapped in a deadly timeloop, where, after each death, they start to be terrorized by an entirely different threat.
The movie is actually based on the 2015 choose-your-own-adventure video game of the same name, though the stories are notably different.
Until Dawn Stars Michael Cimino and Ella Rubin on Keeping Their Deaths Fresh
How Did They Keep Their Performances and Characters Engaging With Consistent Deaths?
- The Direct: "Obviously, the concept is you guys are dying repeatedly in this movie, and so there's almost a repetitive nature to that. So, for you guys, how did you work in your performances to make sure that was never felt, that audiences were always engaged, and you all felt like your characters never remained stagnant?"
Michael Cimino: I mean, this is definitely, like, a bigger Ella question, because she, her character, is going through much more of like a big arc throughout this course of the film.
But as far as Max goes, I think that throughout the course of the film, he's going through an emotional arc, but also throughout the course of the film, we're going through a physical arc as well, where it's like we're getting weaker and weaker, but we're trying to find the determination to continue topersevere through all this crazy stuff that's happening to us.
Ella Rubin: I was gonna say something quite similar in that, Clover, my character, is emotionally fortifying. She starts the film at the highest point of her grief and sadness and is sort of lost and doesn't really know who she is at the moment...
She lost these two people that were her whole world, and she's kind of questioning who she is without them. And so throughout the course of the film, she's finding her strength and sort of emotionally fortifying, but she's physically deteriorating.
So the way, I guess I tried to kind of keep it fresh was, every night changing my physicality a little bit to show a little bit more emotional ability or emotional strength. And then, I mean, the makeup helped a lot. But I think, because—I'm trying not to spoil anything—because every night is different, and every night there's a different horror.
And honestly, I think that the practical effects and [director] David [Samberg] were incredibly helpful. And everything is new, and also you're acting with a physical monster, and so it was always incredibly fresh, and the situation was always very different and newly horrendous. And so I think it allowed us to kind of just for the movie to feel fresh and yeah for it to constantly be shifting and changing emotionally, physically.
Until Dawn Director and Producers on Keeping the Film Engaging
"Getting Killed Over and Over Again Really Takes a Toll on You..."
- The Direct: "Now, obviously keeping these deaths fresh and interesting must be a challenge. I know we change monsters and change threats, but how did you also just work to make sure that people watching it weren't just like, All right, here they go again, but just making sure that people were engaged and it felt new throughout the movie."
David F. Sandberg: Yeah, I mean, we do it in different ways. I mean, one key here is that the characters in the movie, they don't get refreshed, where it's like, Okay, now it's a new day. I'm back to normal. No, like getting killed over and over again really takes a toll on you. And the thing is, in this movie, you only get so many chances. Like, they can't keep doing this forever.
Lotta Losten: They need to figure out how to get this to stop happening to them. So there's like, a story thread throughout that I think helps. Along with that, it's the mystery element to it.
- The Direct: "The conceit of the film is [that] there's a new threat plaguing these people every time they die. You guys have previously teased how it kind of changes movie genres and whatnot. But are those changes in genre more than just the monster, and do you kind of play around with the editing and how it's filmed and other elements of the filmmaking process?"
David F. Sandberg: I mean, we want to lean into the genres, so it feels like you know that, okay, now we're in this type of movie. But it was interesting actually, because we, you know, one thought we had early on was like, well, let's actually have the music change as well.
So, it's like, oh, this will feel more like a supernatural movie, and this is a slasher movie, but that's something that we actually had to change because it didn't feel cohesive enough. That was very important for us, that it doesn't feel like it's just like vignettes, because it is one cohesive piece.
And our composer, Benjamin Wallfisch, did an amazing job with this score that's something that sort of fits across genres and really ties the movie together.
Lotta Losten: It's so different because we realized that too, like a traditional horror movie soundtrack or like score just didn't work with this. It needed something to be as playful and strange and big as our movie is.
- The Direct: "Looking at the trailer, it feels like a really awesome blend of two of my favorite horror movies, which is 'Happy Death Day' and 'Cabin in the Woods.' Does that sound pretty accurate to what you guys were trying to achieve, and what were some of your own inspirations while making it?"
David F. Sandberg: I mean, those two movies come up a lot. I mean, the biggest difference between something like a 'Happy Death Day' is the changes. Like, it isn't the same thing, sort of happening all over again. But those, for sure, were some, you know, inspirations.
But because we have all these different genres, we could take inspiration from everything from like, 'Evil Dead' to 'Paranormal Activity' to like, you know, 'Friday the 13th,' which, yeah, The Descent,' it's all in there, yeah, which was super fun to do.
The full interviews can be seen here:
Until Dawn hits theaters worldwide on April 25, 2025.
