In the heart of Budapest, a nightmarish time loop was taking shape. David F. Sandberg’s horror film “Until Dawn,” based on the popular PlayStation video game, transformed the Hungarian capital into a playground of terror, where characters die repeatedly in increasingly horrifying ways. Set for release on April 25, 2025, this innovative horror experience blends multiple subgenres into a uniquely terrifying cinematic journey.
A Horror Hybrid
“Every night, the story resets, taking us into a new horror genre,” explains director David F. Sandberg. “As a lifelong horror fan, it was a dream come true to work in all these subgenres. Every night the characters undergo what feels like a new chapter in a different story.”
For Sandberg, “Until Dawn” represents the perfect project — one that encompasses all his favorite horror styles. “Before learning of ‘Until Dawn,’ I’d been thinking about what a perfect project would be. Would it be a slasher movie, or a supernatural story, or maybe a creature feature? ‘Until Dawn’ has it all; it’s several horror movies in one, which made me fall in love with it.”
Producer and writer Gary Dauberman embraced the film’s structure, which allows for creative freedom with character deaths. “It was both a challenge and tremendous fun because we had the freedom to say, ‘Yeah, f*** it, let’s just kill him,’” he notes with a smile.
Reteaming on the heels of their horror hit Annabelle: Creation, Sandberg and Gary Dauberman kickstarted pre-production on UNTIL DAWN by reassembling the core creative team from Sandberg’s previous films (Shazam! Annabelle: Creation and Lights Out) and from The Conjuring cinematic universe, on which Dauberman was a key creative.
Budapest’s Haunting Landscapes
Principal photography took place in Budapest, where the production team constructed key sets across various locations. Two crucial exterior sets — the Victorian-style Welcome Center and a partially buried, graffiti-tagged house — were built on the grounds of an abandoned orphanage in Fót village, while interior scenes were filmed at Origo Studios.
Perhaps most impressive was the use of the Kőbányai cellar system, an extensive network of limestone tunnels spanning over fifty acres. Production designer Jennifer Spence maximized this unique location: “I was able to push the envelope in terms of the tunnel work and what we could accomplish there. I brought smashed cars and cut them in half, created big tree pieces, and built underground homes leaning, with peaks coming out of the ground.”
This subterranean labyrinth, known locally as “the beer tunnels,” has served various purposes throughout history — from a World War II bomb shelter to a wine and beer storage facility — before becoming the perfect setting for the film’s underground horror scenes.
Adjacent to the tunnel system, a dilapidated 19th-century villa provided additional shooting locations, with sets constructed on the ground floor and among the basement’s crumbling ruins.
Practical Effects and Transformation
Sandberg insisted on using practical effects whenever possible, a decision cinematographer Maxime Alexandre embraced despite its complexities. “When we explore the characters’ ever-changing bodies, we do it for real,” he states. “When we cut a throat, we do it with practical effects.”
A key aspect of the film involves characters losing a piece of themselves with each death, becoming less human and more monstrous each time they resurrect. Hair and makeup designer Talli Pachter worked with prosthetic effects artist Steve Newburn to create these transformations, which they termed “wound shadows” — shadows that appear and disappear instead of actual wounds from previous deaths.
“We had to make full-body silicone life casts of all five principal cast members,” Newburn explains, which allowed his team to create the various prosthetics needed for the characters’ deterioration and deaths.
Cast Commitment
The demanding nature of the production required actors willing to endure extreme physical challenges. “We wanted actors who were willing to go all the way,” Sandberg explains. “We knew this was going to be a challenging shoot with many practical effects, and that the actors would have to crawl through dirt, be covered in blood, and scream endlessly.“
Ella Rubin, who plays protagonist Clover, had to push her physical limits for the role. Losten reveals, “Ella, like the rest of the cast, always had to go full on. When you’re dying repeatedly, it’s not going to be pretty.” Among her many trials, Rubin was caught in a bear trap, sprayed with blood, dragged on the ground, and even had to film flying sequences. “It gave me the opportunity to keep pushing, rather than pulling back,” Rubin shares. “That was exciting and kind of delicious. There’s no way to rein it in when your character is constantly in a life-and-death situation, and you’re literally being chased by a monster with an axe!“
Michael Cimino, who portrays Clover’s ex-boyfriend Max, brought such intensity to his scenes that Sandberg sometimes had to ask him to tone it down. “Michael always does things at a 200 percent level,” the director notes. “We’d sometimes have to remind him to slow down a bit, like when swinging a knife, because it was too fast to capture it on camera.” For Cimino, the demanding physical work was worth it for the character development. “I love that every character, after each night, is changing a bit and revealing more of themselves. Every character is on an admittedly scary path of self-discovery.“
For Maia Mitchell, who plays Melanie, the experience was “liberating, because it was all about dirt and blood and crawling through the mud and screaming. There was no time to worry about, ‘Oh, how do I look right now?’ It was a lot of fun.”
Ji-young Yoo, who portrays psychic Megan, impressed producer Lotta Losten with “the most brutal self-tape I’ve ever seen.” Her role was particularly challenging, requiring her to portray a character possessed by multiple spirits. “We needed someone who would go fully into it and who wouldn’t be timid about portraying the many different people in her own body,” Losten explains, referring to a sequence where Megan is possessed by numerous lost souls who had gone missing over the years. Sandberg adds, “It was amazing to watch Ji-young switch between different personalities and emotions. Her screams are so genuine and filled with terror.” Yoo describes her character as the “spiritual core of the group” who “thinks that the trip is going to help them all lock into some kind of energy from the missing Melanie.”
Odessa A’zion, who plays Nina, describes her character as the “bad bitch of the group, who somehow doesn’t seem to care much about their horrible situation.” Meanwhile, Belmont Cameli enjoyed the opportunity to play Abe, the outsider of the group. “Abe is definitely on the group’s periphery,” he explains. “He’s also a bit of a know-it-all and smartass. I enjoyed playing that dynamic with the rest of the cast.” Dauberman adds that “Abe gets to be a little selfish. Like, ‘The hell with this; I didn’t sign up for this!‘”
When the cast first entered the meticulously dressed interiors of the Welcome Center and other sets, they were immediately affected by the atmosphere. “The feelings we got from walking into the set,” says Rubin, with a shudder. “It’s like you can feel the horror in the carpets.“
The Mysterious Dr. Hill
One of the film’s most intriguing elements is the character portrayed by Peter Stormare, who also appeared in the original video game. While both the actor and filmmakers remain tight-lipped about whether he’s reprising the same role, Stormare describes the character as “an enigma” who “calls himself an officer of the law, a therapist, a surgeon, whatever.”
Dauberman reveals that Stormare’s character serves as a kind of “master of ceremonies who escorts us through the story. He’s also the man behind the curtain, who knows everything that’s happening, or going to happen.”
Producer Lotta Losten refers to him as the “puppet master” of this world and notes a fascinating detail about Stormare’s performance: “When, as Hill, he smiles, his cheeks make a little clicky sound. Normally, in post-production, you remove those kinds of sounds because they’re a distraction, but we tuned that up because it makes the character even better.”
A Cinematic Experience
As “Until Dawn” approaches its theatrical release, the filmmakers reflect on why horror films are perfect for the communal cinema experience.
“I think horror movies work so much better when you’re experiencing them as part of a theater audience,” says Dauberman. “I love the shared experience; the screams, the jumps, the gasps, and even the talking back to the screen.”
Sandberg shares this sentiment: “I think one of the reasons I’m such a big horror movie fan is that they make for the best movie-theater experience. Where, together, we can feel the collective tension — and hear each other screaming.”
With its innovative time-loop structure, practical effects, and genre-blending approach, “Until Dawn” promises to deliver a unique horror experience when it hits theaters next April — one designed to make audiences scream together in the dark.
