Some of Until Dawn’s most thrilling moments came when I was being pursued and had to make split-second decisions on my method of escape, all the while trying not to fumble at a prompt which would result in my immediate capture or death. Quick-time events play a big part in Until Dawn, too, and though occasionally tedious - there’s far too much climbing over walls for my liking - there are real repercussions for failing. While I wish Graham Reznick and Larry Fessenden’s script had been more acerbic overall - sometimes I wondered if the bad jokes were intentionally bad jokes - I enjoyed Until Dawn’s familiarity, from the dumb jock arguing with the bad boy over the queen bee to Hayden Panettiere's character being stuck in a towel for half the run-time.

Everybody seems to think scaring the hell out of each other is really ‘fun’. Couples go to dangerous lengths to have sex. Characters take baths with their headphones in. It’s a ridiculous place to spend any length of time, of course, and during its first half Until Dawn really revels in the slasher genre’s idiosyncratic idiocy. This bitter landscape is filmed with a keen eye on isolation, and Until Dawn does a great job at encouraging the sense you’re always being watched through high angles and tracking shots. Its beautifully detailed cabin is huge, cold, and full of secrets, while the surrounding area features a sanitorium with a large morgue, an abandoned mine shaft, and a range of aggressive wildlife.

Until Dawn’s game world is small, but Supermassive has made it as entertainingly hostile as possible. Why are they there? To mark the one year anniversary of the mysterious disappearance of their friends in the surrounding woods, naturally. Eight attractive stereotypes, played with great gusto by a well-rounded cast that’s a little too good for the material, have gathered together to “party like porn stars” in a remote cabin on the top of a snowy mountain that can only be accessed by an unreliable cable car. Developer Supermassive Games has threaded horror movie cliches into Until Dawn’s set-up and amplified them to extreme degrees.

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