Until Dawn(2025)

Submitted by Evan B

Pooper:
The group learns that Glore Valley was infected by the supernatural after a mine explosion, and that nefarious Dr. Hill is using the town to conduct psychological experiments that turn people (including Clover’s sister) into monsters. Clover kills Dr. Hill and she and her friends all manage to survive until dawn and escape the town.

Long Ending:
Clover (Ella Rubin) has been struggling ever since the death of her mom. Her depression is compounded when her older sister Melanie (Maia Mitchell) disappears while driving cross country after leaving Clover to move to a new city. This led to Clover attempting twice to commit suicide. Her friends – Max (Michael Cimino), Nina (Odessa A’zion), Megan (Ji-Young Yoo), and Abe (Belmont Cameli) – agree to help Clover search for Melanie. On the journey, they meet a gas station attendant named Hill (Peter Stormare) who says that Melanie may have stopped in a nearby town called Glore Valley. The group journey there to find the town abandoned. They go into a hotel where they find a guestbook containing Melanie’s name. Each guest (including Melanie) has entered their name in the log multiple times. The crew also finds a bunch of “Missing” posters, including a poster with Melanie in it. Nina signs the guest book as well.

As night falls the group is attacked by a seemingly unstoppable masked killer. The group are all brutally killed… only to wake up just before nightfall and repeating the actions they took before sunset (with Nina signing the guest book for a second time). They quickly deduce that they are in some sort of time loop, but also learn that the events of the prior night don’t repeat exactly the same. They are attacked and killed in many different ways, including by a witch, a wendigo, a giant monster, and zombie-like creatures. One night, they hole up in the bathroom, but are killed when they drink water only to learn that the water makes them spontaneously combust. One night, before Clover is killed, the witch tells her that they must either survive until dawn or become part of the endless night permanently. Each time they resurrect, the group finds they are weaker and that their bodies are not fully recovered. In fact, they also find their bodies are beginning to change – with their growing fangs and claws.

Ultimately, they learn (through finding clues each night) that Glore Valley was decimated (and the water infected) after a mining accident released a supernatural gas throughout the town. A videotape shows that the gas station attendant Hill, is actually a doctor who has been using the town to conduct experiments. They learn that when people are trapped too long in Glore Valley, they eventually turn into a monster. So the monsters attacking the group are all people that have previously been stuck in the timeloop. Dr. Hill contacts them and promises to let the others go if Clover agrees to stay and complete the experiment. Though Abe and Clover initially agree to Dr. Hill’s offer, the group ultimately decides that they will either survive together, or die trying (even occasionally committing suicide to reset the nights after their other friends die). Clover is also sad to discover that Melanie has morphed into one of the monsters hunting them down.

The group resurrects on night 13, and they note that none of the other signatories of the guest book ever made it past that night. They decide to make an effort to find Dr. Hill and defeat him. The group manages to locate his bunker and survive the zombies, wendigo, and masked killer that await within. As the others distract the monsters, Clover makes her way to Dr. Hill’s office. He claims that the monsters and timeloop are only arise when someone who has suffered severe trauma comes to town. The town then feeds on their trauma until they turn into a monster. As he talks, Clover secretly dumps some contaminated water in his coffee. Dr. Hill gruesomely explodes after drinking it, and the friends reunite to try and escape. They evade the monsters throughout various tunnels and manage to make it back to the surface just as dawn rises. They hear the creatures howl as the time loop is broken and the monsters are destroyed. The friends all drive off, having survived the night. However, the security cameras in Dr. Hill’s office change to now monitor a secluded mountain cabin in a wholly different vacation. A car pulls up to the cabin and some unsuspecting people get out, suggesting that the time loop is not confined just to Glore Valley and that these poor people will now need to survive until dawn.

Order of Deaths:

• Night 1: Abe (Masked Killer impales him to the wall and chops his body in half with a pick-axe) Max (Masked Killer stabs him through the eye with a stake), Megan (Masked Killer smashes her head multiple times into the floor), Nina (found dead in the hallway, impaled on a pick-axe), Clover (Masked Killer chases her into the wood and kills her with a pick-axe to the chest)
• Night 2: Megan (she is possessed by the spirits of the previous people who died in Glore Valley. The spirits make her snap her own neck), Abe (tries to drive off with Nina, but the path is blocked by a giant beast. While they sit in the car, the Masked Killer smashes through the window and stabs him), Nina (The Masked Killer kills her offscreen), Max (A possessed Clover slits his throat), Clover (she is possessed by a witch. After killing Max, the possessed Clover walks outside and is run over by the Masked Killer).
• Night 3: They barricade themselves in the bathroom and share a glass of water. They learn the water is contaminated and causes them to spontaneously combust. Each and every one of them blow up in bloody fashion.
• Night 4: Abe (after he tries to convince them to let Clover sacrifice herself so they can escape, Nina stabs him to force him to change his mind and repeat the night until everyone lives. The Masked Killer then stabs him in the head), Nina (killed by the Masked Killer offscreen), Megan (falls through the skylight of Dr. Hill’s hidden underground bunker. Dragged away to be eaten by a wendigo), Clover (injured when she runs into a bear trap and attacked by her now mutated sister. Max slits her throat so the night can be reset), Max (drinks the contaminated water to reset the night and explodes).
• Night 13: (the film jumps from night 4 to 13, not detailing how they died on the other nights): Masked Killer (Abe, Nina and Max manage to lift up his giant sledgehammer and smash his head in with it), Melanie (Clover tackles her now monstrous sister onto a wooden post that impales her), Dr. Hill (after Clover tricks him into drinking the contaminated water, he blows up).
• Miscellaneous: Abe watches videos on his phone that shows some of what happens on the nights between Night 5 and Night 13. In one video, Clover is shown having been infected by a parasitic worm. In another, Nina is shown bleeding from her eyes and mouth while screaming. Another video shows them all being attacked by a cloaked, masked figure (different than the Masked Killer). Yet another video shows Max brutally stabbing a wendigo.