UNVEILING THE SHADOWS: THE NEW FACES OF "UNTIL DAWN" ON THE BIG SCREEN

When the announcement for the Until Dawn film adaptation came with all the typical haunts of cinematic foreshadowing, the fanbase of horror interactive elements and movie adaptations alike bristled in excitement. As PlayStation Productions and Screen Gems embark upon bringing the narrative to film full of despair, survival and spooky mystery, a new young attractively cast of actors step into the corridors of the spooky Blackwood Mountain lodge. But with the motion-capture of this adaptation, let’s explore the process of game-to-film narrative re-imagining through technology and talent.

LIGHTS, CAMERA, ACTION: THE CASTING REVELATION

Topping- and bottoming – the youngsters, Ella Rubin, fresh from appearing with Anne Hathany in The Idea of You, and his Love, Victor costar Michael Cimino; rounded out by the Expats’ Ji-young Yoo and Sitting in Bars with Cake’s Odessa A’zion – will be anchoring an ensemble of teens facing off against an unseen enemy, a farmers’ market horror story set on a mountaintop.

FROM PIXELS TO PICTURE: THE EVOLUTION OF CHARACTER

Malek, Panettiere and the others playing these characters in their original motion-capture performances allowed Until Dawn to achieve that level of irrefutable fidelity: juxtaposing actor motion and digital artistry so that the gulf between the two becomes virtually imperceptible. And this performance in a bottle, this orchestrated version of this chiaroscuro of performance and tech, was also Until Dawn’s gift of emotional verisimilitude.

A NEW VISION: ADAPTING INTERACTIVE HORROR

The adaptation is going to be more than a literal transposition of mediums; it’s a recreation. It’s a vision that the filmmakers will follow after being handed the torch, with support from PlayStation Productions and Screen Gems. ‘We’re focused on creating authentic adaptations,’ says Asad Qizilbash.

TECHNOLOGY IN MOTION: THE ROLE OF UNREAL ENGINE 5

The film accompanies the game’s upcoming PS5 remake, rebuilt using Unreal Engine 5, which significantly boosts the visual fidelity of the game and adds a third-person perspective opening up the world to more possibilities of exploration and agency.

THE ANTICIPATION BUILDS: A FALL OF FEAR

As the leaves drop in autumn, the thinning veil of secrecy around the Until Dawn remake will fall as well, as fans finally get to experience the things the new game, and the new week, promise to make scarier.

EMBRACING MOTION: THE PULSE OF ADAPTATION

Motion at the heart of Until Dawn’s transformation from console to cinemascreen, between actors inhabiting a role, via motion capture, all the way through to the narrative pace and movement of the drama. It is a practical and experiential embrace of motion that gives form to the process of adaptation, and that immerses the viewer via our sense of embodiment.