I’ve never played the video game “Until Dawn”, a popular survival horror title that released on PlayStation in 2015. “Until Dawn” was an interactive experience that stood apart for its healthy amount of exploration and butterfly effect gameplay system. The game was received well by critics and would become a surprise sleeper hit for Sony Computer Entertainment.

While it’s well documented that video games haven’t had the best track record when it comes to translating to the big screen, director David F. Sandberg gives it another shot with “Until Dawn”. Co-written by Gary Dauberman and Blair Butler, the story follows Clover (Ella Rubin), a troubled young woman still struggling after the death of her mother and the mysterious disappearance of her sister Melanie (Maia Mitchell) one year earlier.

Accompanied by her friends Max (Michael Cimino), Nina (Odessa A’zion), Megan (Ji-young Yoo), and Abe (Belmont Cameli), Clover goes on a road trip to the remote Glore Valley where her sister was last seen. Their hopes are to find clues to Melanie’s whereabouts by retracing her last known steps. They start by stopping at a country mercantile where the owner (played by the always interesting Peter Stormare) informs Clover that many folks have gone missing in the area, especially further up the road. So of course that’s where the five friends go, setting the stage for the horror that follows.

They drive deeper into the valley through a heavy downpour until they arrive at an isolated welcome center where things are noticeably off. For starters, heavy rain forms a circle around the manor and not a drop falls within it. Things only get weirder after the group goes inside to wait out the storm. Abe discovers a bulletin board covered in missing person flyers; Nina finds a guest book where visitors’ names are written multiple times in a row; Megan starts hearing warnings from unknown spirits.

But Sandberg doesn’t waste much time setting up the story. Instead he gets right to the carnage as a masked Vorhees-esque psychopath shows up and picks off the five one savage kill at a time. But to their surprise, all five come back to life only to die again in a different yet equally gruesome way. And that’s the story’s gimmick which unfortunately grows stale a little too quick. The group is caught in an endless time loop where they encounter a new horror with each reset. And each reset takes more of a toll on each of them.

Clover, Max, Nina, Abe, and Megan eventually figure out their dilemma and must survive until dawn if they’re going to escape. They learn it all with little mystery and even less intrigue. Instead the movie focuses more on the next wave of carnage which admittedly can be pretty entertaining. The use of mostly practical effects make the deaths especially fun. And you can’t help but to enjoy watching the filmmakers go down the horror movie checklist (masked psychos, a haunted house, supernatural possession, creepy dolls, clowns, etc. – they’re all here). We even get a sprinkling of genuinely funny dialogue although I’m not sure its always intentional.

But “Until Dawn” is hampered by a few too many weak spots that keep it from gelling into the killer horror experience it teases. The world’s rules don’t always make sense and things get especially muddled in the final act. But its biggest issue may be with the paper-thin characters. We have the troubled protagonist, her insecure ex, a lunkheaded psych major, a spirit dabbler, and a relationship hopper. Outside of those brief descriptors, none of the characters are fleshed out enough for us to care about them. Ultimately that makes watching their evisceration a little less interesting. “Until Dawn” is in theaters now.

VERDICT – 2.5 STARS