Summary
Unexpected by many, theUntil Dawnmovie flew out of left field for a lot of people and it didn’t particularly do well. But still it was certainly full of quite a lot of references and easter eggs for fans of the game that turned up to see it. And there’s more than you would think.
They mostly pop-up throughout the beginning, spatter through the middle, and flop out toward the end when things start winding down for the credits. For the eagle eyed amongst you that want to double check that you saw what you thought you saw, or for those that tuned out the movie and missed a few things, here’s the best easter eggs and hidden details in the Until Dawn movie.
10The Masked Killer
This Time The Murder Is Real
First up we need to bring up the masked killer. He’s a driving force for a few moments in the film, and the source of a few of the kills. He’s taken from the game, but in the game it was Josh messing with everyone for causing his sisters deaths but not actually really going through with killing anyone.
Whilst in the movie he’s just some random big burly guy in a mask that’s borderline unkillable and actually violently murders people in a blunt blend of Michael Myers meets Jason Vorhees. In the game he’s unmasked as Josh, but in the movie he has his head splattered with a sledgehammer by three of the survivor group.
Another similarity the two bear to each other is that both are equally frontloaded as the main threat, and both conveniently disappear for significantly large portions of the story.
9The Opening And Ending
Hot Open, Cold Close
Another nice detail that the Until Dawn movie has is that it opens with a kill, just like the game. In the movie’s beginning we’re presented with a scene out of context of a woman in distress in the woods being chased by something before she “dies”. And then later we have them turning up as a Wendigo.
In the game this is Josh’s sisters Hannah and Beth, whilst in the movie it’s Clover’s sister Melanie. Also in both the movie and the game one of the sisters turns into a Wendigo. In the game it’s Hannah, and in the movie it’s Melanie. Then in the ending of the film we see the house that our main characters were running around transforming itself into the cabin from the game, complete with snow and a car of what could presumably be the gang from the game turning up.
8The Logo
It’s Just A Title Card, Or Is It?
This is a fun detail that was an unexpected use of some title card art, but the hourglass in the film that counts down the time until dawn breaks is the same one in the games box art and title card.
In the game it never comes up again and is just there as a bit of spooky art. But in the movie it’s the proverbial ticking clock of the plot. It hangs out on a wall and is often referred to by the movie to show how much time our main characters have left until dawn breaks and their curse is lifted.
7Peter Stormare
The Legend Himself
The next easter egg worth mentioning is hard to miss, because it’s Peter Stormare and he’s also part of the plot. In the movie he turns up first working as a gas station attendant, acting as the movies harbinger. Doing the old “don’t go up there” warning that’s always ignored.
He then pops up again before Clover explodes in his psychiatrist gear to reveal that he’s running experiments on everyone trapped by the house. Which is later revealed as him being a manifestation of the darkness that inhibits the mountain and also the house. Another thing worth pointing out about Peter is that we see an ID card of his for Blackwood Sanitorium, the asylum from the game. Clover also has an encounter with him in his office, the same one from the game. During this scene he psychologically dissects her, in the same way he does to the player in the game. Although here he also spouts exposition, and then explodes.
This scene doesn’t happen in the game, he just continues being a manifestation of the mountain taken from the original doctor of Blackwood Sanitorium.
6References To Rituals And Ancient Evil Presences
Stop Antagonizing The Supernatural Entities
This is a very brief detail that gets thrown out in a conversation in the car during the opening of the movie. The group speaks about rituals, and it’s worth pointing out because Until Dawn has a lot of ritual heavy stuff and dark presences around it.
From the background information in the game about Native Americans performing rituals to keep the Wendigos at bay, to the VR game where it’s revealed that the events of Until Dawn are a regular ritual performed by the darkness within the mountain. The house itself is also constantly referred to as having a “Presence” and there’s also the curse from the witch woman on Clover. So a lot of dark supernatural stuff is chucked around gleefully by both film and game.
5Chris’s Gas Station
Everything Is A Reference
This is a fun blink-and-you’ll-miss-it detail, but the gas station that Peter Stormare is pretending to work in is named after a character from the game. To be specific, Christopher Hartley.
The stations called Hartley, and it’s just one of a few nods to the games cast. Others are Nina having Jess’s last name, Megan having Emily’s radio scene and Abel and Josh sharing the same college majors. It’s a few little sprinklings of Until Dawn lore that are fun to notice if you’re familiar, but they don’t dent the overall progress of the plot.
4Psychic Visions
This ones a bit of a deep cut, but the inclusion of a character with psychic powers is something worth pointing out. Because all of the Dark Picture games feature a mechanic where a character can have a pseudo psychic vision from touching certain collectible objects. It varies from game to game, but in the first game it’s little wooden idols left around the mountain.
These little trinkets show future events of the game, usually grisly deaths, and they’re supposed to be a way of helping you avoid a bad end, or at least be aware of the fact that it’s possible. Though in practice they’re often vague and don’t really help other than providing the player with a heads-up or reminder that people can die pretty gruesomely in the game if they’re not makingthe right decisions. In the movie it’s used for one spooky scene and then not used again as the resident psychic is conveniently removed from the group for story reasons later on.
3A Few Familiar Kills
Not As Gruesome As The Game, But It’s There
A lot of the kills in the Until Dawn movie are pretty tame, but there’s a few brutal ones that are straight out of the game. Our first one for example is Abel being bisected by the masked maniac, which happens in the game to either Ashley or Josh. Although this choice is a fake out.
Other references made through the medium of murder happen to other characters like Clover for example. We get a gas mask kill on the second night by an old lady who could also be a reference herself to theold witch in The Quarry. Since she’s also sitting at a table looking at diagrams of what seem to be werewolves. And the gas mask was an item used by Josh to subdue his friends when he was running around the cabin.
Before our third kill we also get a scene of someone doing the “Hold Your Breath” mechanic from the game whilst grabbing a knife.
2The Urge To Reset
Everyones Been Massacred, Time For A Mulligan
This is more a detail directed towards players of Until Dawn and the wider Dark Pictures games in general. But it’s the urge to reset everything once things start to go wrong and people begin to die. In the movie at least one character resorts to the plan of redoing it all after someone dies.
It’s a common feeling and method of playing a lot of fans of the games encountered thanks to how easy it was to accidentally end someone. Especially in the awkward middle two Dark Pictures games where deaths were often genuinely unfair and impossible to plan for. The urge to just start it all again in a pseudo-time loop for the game’s characters is something forever present in Until Dawn, especially if you’re going for a run thatgets everyone out alivein the end.
1This Specific Wendigo Encounter
Shot For Shot, Bar For Bar
Finally it’s worth ending on something that is a direct one to one shot recreation from the game and a genuinely nice touch by the movie. Just like the game it happens way toward the end of the story, but in the film Clover hides from a Wendigo after dealing with her Wedigo’d sister, and whilst holding her breath the creature rests on her hiding spot.
This is a recreation of the same scene in the game where Sam is hiding from one next to her in the same exact way, and she has to hold her breath to stop it from seeing her. It’s a fun and fast little easter egg that shows they were using at least some scenes from the game in the film’s production.
