Let Brett Dalton Keep You Up ‘Until Dawn’

When Brett Dalton and Elizabeth Henstridge took the stage at Rose City Comic Con, you would have expected that all of the questions thrown their way would focus on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. But a surprising number of audience members asked Dalton about his recent appearance in Until Dawn, a PlayStation 4 exclusive horror game released in August.

Dalton revealed a few behind-the-scenes tidbits about the frightening but stunning game that any fan of survival horror should pick up.

Until Dawn is the story of eight teenaged friends out in, yes, a spooky cabin in the woods in the middle of the night. The goal of the game is to get as many of them to survive the night as possible.

The terrifying game uses horror movie tropes, gore, and cheap scares, but the use of player decisions is remarkable. Almost every conversation option has an impact on the game’s story and the character’s fate; in fact, depending on how you respond to certain types of scares, the game puts more of those in the story.

The game’s development originally began in 2013, but when the decision was made to recast and reshoot for the PlayStation 4, Dalton was one of the few actors who made the cut for the second iteration.

At Rose City Comic Con, Dalton remarked that his part was filmed during the course of a few weekends during the first season of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., and he moved on without thinking much about it. The recent reaction to the game’s release and the fans’ reception has been a pleasant surprise.

Dalton is one of the leads of Until Dawn, along with Hayden Panettiere, who at the time of voice recording was considered the only recognizable star. (Rami Malek, who now stars in USA Network’s Mr. Robot, is also in the game’s cast.)

“I wasn’t a ‘name’,” Dalton said of his initial experience acting for the game. “It was one of my first jobs out of grad school.”

Henstridge turned to him and asked, “Did you have to wear one of those [motion capture] suits with dots?”

“I didn’t, but I wore it anyway,” Dalton joked.

Until Dawn is unique in that it’s more of a horror movie experience than a true game, taking about 8-10 hours to play through. The amount of options likely means that you’ll never get the same story twice, so if you or your (brave) teens enjoy being a little bit scared, it’s an entertaining title to pick up for a quiet weekend.