Jakarta. Hollywood has been rolling out video game movies, and the interactive horror “Until Dawn” is the most recent one to hit Indonesian theaters. Unfortunately, the movie adaptation fails to impress, although it tries to get creative by making major changes to the plot.

Directed by David F Sandberg, the film "Until Dawn" starts out with a group of friends heading to a remote valley to find a missing girl. The girl in question is Melanie (Maia Mitchell) -- the sister of the protagonist, Clover (Ella Rubin). Just like its game version, the friend group has all the different types of personalities. Clover and friends later find themselves stalked by a masked killer, only to wake up and find themselves at the beginning of the same evening. They are forced to relive the dreadful night over and over again. 

“Until Dawn” clocks in at 103 minutes, and the audience doesn’t have to wait long until the horror starts. However, the film only retains a few elements of the original game: the psychiatrist Hill (Peter Stormare). The malevolent cannibalistic spirit Wendigo, and the fact that the group has to survive until dawn to escape the nightmare. The “restarts” would remind many of the game’s fans of how they would actually start over -- just to explore the different choices that its butterfly effect might bring. 

Some scenes in the film are reminiscent of classic horror game tricks that force the players to make quick decisions: for instance, when the youngsters have to hide from the masked killer. Like the original game, the “Until Dawn” movie makes fun of the horror cliches. However, it still lacks the “magic” and twists that the PS4 game brings.  This includes how the in-game Rami Malek’s Josh turns out to be the big bad who decided to pull a very well-orchestrated prank as revenge for his sisters’ presumed deaths. The game, which eventually got a PS5 remake, also quite masterfully knits the Wendingos and the miners into the story. 

But again, adapting video games into movies can be challenging. Filmmakers only have two choices: either to make a straight adaptation or to get creative. And gamers can be a tough crowd to impress.

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