Summary
- Glore Valley vanished due to a mine collapse, turning townspeople into Wendigos or other creatures, raising questions of past residents and the area's origins.
- The fate of Melanie going to Glore Valley remains unknown, with suspicions of individuals being drawn to the town unexpectedly, similar to Silent Hill's mystery.
- Dr. Hill, a mysterious figure, hints at a potential sequel through TV monitors in the ending, sparking speculation on the true fate of the protagonists.
Until Dawn is a reworking of the 2015 PS4 game of the same name, and a few motifs are used to tell its story. It begins with a young woman named Melanie, who goes missing. Determined to find her, Clover, her sister, goes on a road trip with four friends to locate Melanie.
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That's when they come across a mysterious gas station clerk who points the group of five to Glore Valley. Here, the five friends find themselves trapped in a time loop, unable to escape. While there is a satisfying ending to Until Dawn, there are also a lot of questions left open-ended or outright unanswered.
Spoilers Ahead for the Until Dawn movie
7 What Really Happened To Glore Valley?
What Wasn’t It Blocked Off?
Through newspapers and found footage, the heroes figure out that Glore Valley was a small town that vanished off the face of the Earth after a mine collapsed. It seems like something that would have been all over the news when these heroes were kids, and yet they had no idea. Is this area just haunted by the dead, or is there something more at work here?
Glore Valley could have been haunted before the town's inhabitants collectively died, which would make for an interesting horror prequel. It’s just weird that the time loop is never addressed beyond when Dr. Hill tells Clover that she is special.
6 How Many People Have Gone Missing Post-Collapse?
What Dictates Their Transformations?
Most of the townspeople in Glore Valley have seemingly turned into Wendigos, and yet there are special exceptions. When Nina and Abel try to flee in a car, they see a giant kaiju-sized monster stalking the forest. There is the slasher villain known only as Psycho in the credits. Clover is possessed by a witch, making her gleefully kill people.
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There doesn’t seem to be a reason why some people turn into Wendigos and other people turn into different creatures. It’s also unknown if these other monsters were once humans, and if so, how many people were trapped in Glore Valley before Clover and the others?
5 Why Did Melanie Go To Glore Valley?
It Couldn’t Have Been The Fresh Start That She Wanted
There is one brief flashback scene in the Until Dawn movie between Clover and her sister Melanie. It turned out to be a nightmare Clover was having, but it was likely based on something that really happened. In this scene, Melanie leaves Clover because she wants to find herself and not just be stuck in the past.
If this were true, then how did she end up in Glore Valley? Surely she didn’t plan to go there to start a new life. Does this ghost town pop up randomly as people drive through, or do people have to physically drive to the old location to get trapped? It’s kind of similar to the mystery surrounding how the town of Silent Hill pops up in that series.
4 Couldn’t They Have Just Waited Around?
Don’t Believe His Lies
The best, or at least the most gore-filled, scene in the movie happens when the five heroes are locked in a bathroom. As they are discussing their situation, Abel drinks water and offers a glass to everyone else. Abel is the first to explode, followed by the other friends.
Clover is last, and she is visited by Dr. Hill, who tells her that they can’t wait around to survive and that something always comes. Is that true? If they had just waited in the bathroom without drinking the water, could they have survived, assuming the Psycho didn't show up?
3 WHAT Is Dr. Hill?
It’s Definitely Not A Dr. Who Situation
At first, it seems like Dr. Hill is a person who used to live and work as a psychologist in Glore Valley before and after the accident. When Clover confronts him toward the end of the movie, she tricks him into drinking water, causing him to explode. Yet, in the final scene, his whistling can be heard, meaning that he came back.
Is he a ghostly undead resident like the Psycho, Wendigos, and so on? Or is he something more than that? He’s different from the monsters as he retains his human form. It’s more a question of “What is Dr. Hill?” Rather than “Who is Dr. Hill?”
2 The TV Monitors
Setting Up A Sequel
Most horror movies end with a final girl or a couple of survivors, but rarely does the whole group durvive. Until Dawn allows the whole party to escape in Abel’s car, and it’s even sunny out as they drive away. The only thing missing is a rainbow to make the ending picture perfect.
They survived and defeated Dr. Hill to live another day, but Dr. Hill seemingly isn’t done experimenting yet. In the aforementioned whistling scene, Dr. Hill is watching a series of TV monitors inside a cabin, set in a snowy location. This was the setting of the game. So, was the Until Dawn movie a secret prequel to the game? If there is a sequel, will this snowy cabin feature characters game fans are more familiar with, like Josh, Sam, and Chris? Or is something else going on here?
1 Did They Actually Escape?
A Different Read On The Ending
Did the group really escape their murderous purgatory? It seems a little too good to be true, so here’s an alternative take on the ending.
When the heroes drive off, they aren’t seen again, and then things switch to Dr. Hill’s monitors immediately after. The snowy cabin is shown first, and then a red vehicle pulls into frame. This could be the characters from the game arriving at the cabin to set up a sequel, or it could be a bit more twisted. What if Clover and the others are still stuck in a time loop, and that car arriving was actually Abel’s? The two cars did look similar.
- Release Date
- April 25, 2025
- Runtime
- 103 Minutes
- Director
- David F. Sandberg
- Writers
- Gary Dauberman, Blair Butler
- Producers
- Carter Swan, Roy Lee, Gary Dauberman, Charles Miller, Lotta Losten, Asad Qizilbash
Cast
-
Ella RubinClover -
Michael CiminoMax
