Creepy Until Dawn 2 will get to be the nightmare after Christmas this year, launching January 28, 2027. Developer Firesprite revealed the date at PlayStation State of Play alongside a new game trailer that makes the anthology sequel look like an episode of Ghost Adventures gone wrong – which, if you're a voyeuristic horror freak like me, is ideal.
The interactive drama game is out 12 years after the Supermassive original about beautiful teens getting their necks snapped on Blackwood Mountain, and it'll carry on some of that game's haunted history with a trip to the nearby Blackwood Sanatorium. The team of unscrupulous YouTubers and fake paranormal investigators Dead True eventually make their way to the abandoned Akishima Island on the other side of the world, where they're confronted with the same tough questions: slit your palm, or a chicken's soft throat?
Fargo actor Peter Stormare will reprise his role as the sinister psychoanalyst Dr. Hill, while Baldur's Gate 3 star Neil Newbon joins the cast as Sebastian, who Until Dawn 2's new pre-order trailer depicts as a cruel network executive. He urges the Dead True team – led by obnoxiously blond host Owen (Stranger Things' Dacre Montgomery) – to turn the fragile supernatural into an on-screen spectacle. This is a path that ends in nosebleeds, cracked jaws, and, shown by the pre-order trailer in fleshy detail, leeches that latch onto Owen's chest like milk-fed babies.
Dispatch developer AdHoc Studio is assisting with production, Firesprite creative director Stu Tilley says in a PlayStation blog, so I'm hoping Until Dawn 2 will have more of the mean sense of humor the disappointing Until Dawn movie left in Supermassive's game.
Supermassive is in a painful spot right now, having recently laid off up to 75 employees in its third round of layoffs in three years, and it's been squeezing out middling dramas since the flabby Dead by Daylight spinoff The Casting of Frank Stone in 2024. Now it's Sony who owns the Until Dawn IP, not Supermassive, but I'm still hoping Until Dawn 2 might help repair the horror studio's reputation by association. I love what it used to be: an expert at crafting tense survival situations that make you yell at your screen and imagine yourself in the survivor's place – imagine yourself as a survivor.
Helpfully, Tilley writes in his blog that AdHoc's contributions make Until Dawn 2 a game "packed with rich characters, razor-sharp dialogue, fraught relationships, tough decisions, and yes… more than a few gruesome deaths. Every choice, every interaction can ripple with dramatic consequences."
Until Dawn 2 could be a real homage to found footage movies like 2018's Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum and 2011's Grave Encounters, which lampoon ghost hunters' half-hearted search for proof with the wry suggestion that people can only handle tragedy if it's entertainment. It's horror that makes me judge and understand myself, and after so many years since the first Until Dawn game from Supermassive, that's still what I want.
Pre-orders begin September 10 and include cosmetics and in-game Dr. Hill bobblehead collectibles to see when you close your eyes.
