Until Dawn is now playing in a theater near you, making the jump from your video game console to the big screen. While the new movie is different in parts from the Supermassive Games title, it’s still a very effective horror movie.
It’s certainly not the first video game adaptation to deviate from the original story, as the Prime Video series Fallout saw success with this when it chose to tell a new tale in the Wasteland, instead of regurgitating what had been done in popular game titles like Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas.
When it comes to Until Dawn, the studio has gone down a new deadly path with some fun nods to the original game’s story, like the inclusion of Dr. Hill for instance.
I had the pleasure of sitting down with Until Dawn director, David F. Sandberg, where we proceeded to geek out over horror for five minutes after I found out which other Supermassive Games tile he’d like to see adapted next (I really love my job). Here’s what we spoke about:
Watch On
Lucy Buglass, TechRadar: I was a huge fan of Lights Out, so it’s great to see you returning to the horror genre. How does it feel being back?
David F. Sandberg, director: “It was especially fun to be able to go all out with practical effects and makeup and monsters and all these things that I’ve always wanted to do since I was like a little kid. That was awesome and it felt great to do a really R rated movie.”
LB: Did you consider doing a beat for beat adaptation of Until Dawn, or was it always going to be an original story?
DS: “No, so when the script was sent to me, it was like ‘this was what they were doing’, and that’s what I liked about it, that it wasn’t trying to recreate the game because I think it would never have been as good as the game, and this way it’s sort of more Until Dawn rather than the same Until Dawn.”
“So that that’s what excited me, that it’s did something different, and sort of did another installment or an expansion of the franchise.”
LB: How did you find your core group for Until Dawn?
DS: “They had extensive casting! I mean, Michael Cimino (who plays Max) was someone that Gary Dauberman, the writer, had worked with before on Annabelle Comes Home, which was his Annabelle.
“But yeah, we just did lots and lots of auditions and to try and find the right people, and it paid off cause they’re all great and they work together so well as a group.”
LB: And, of course, you’ve got Peter Stormare reprising his role from the original game. What was it like working with him?
[Peter Stormare] is so good at playing creepy characters, but in real life he loves Hello Kitty
David F. Sandberg
DS: “Yeah, I mean, that’s been a dream of mine for forever, you know, I tried to get him in Lights Out, but the studio thought he was too creepy to play a family man, and now I I finally got to do it and I mean, he’s awesome!
“He’s so good at playing creepy characters, but in real life he loves Hello Kitty and like has his little Hello Kitty backpack.”
LB: I love that, a lot of horror fans are like that! I’m like that, I watch a lot of horrible stuff but I’m actually quite a timid person.
DS: “Yeah, horror fans are usually like the most sane, most pleasant people, you know, there’s something about watching the most terrible things that makes you a good person or something!”
LB: Yeah, totally! So, finally, what was the atmosphere like on set, because I love talking about creating horror in the moment. Was it fun, or stressful?
DS: “For me, it’s not always fun on set because I’m just so stressed out about everything and it’s like I’m trying to think of what’s gonna come next and, you know, you run out of time and you have to come up with a new scene.
“It’s like, well, we’re not gonna have the time to do the scene the way we originally planned. So you like quickly after, OK, what, what can we do instead? Like, OK, we have a rocking chair, let’s take this creepy clown doll and put that there and we’ll do a little scene with that, you know.
“So it’s very stressful in the moment, but I did love getting to do these practical effects and all the monsters and things like that.”
Read the full article here
