| “ |
This is what I study. Fear is my trade. |
” |
| —Hill | ||
Hill is the main antagonist of the Until Dawn film and said to be the same Dr. Alan J. Hill as in the game.[1] He is initially shown working as a gas station attendant who meets Clover while she and her friends are searching for her sister. He eventually reveals himself to be the source of all her troubles, due to the fact that he is experimenting with the death loop in Glore Valley and intentionally leading his subjects to become Wendigos. Like the original game, he is played by actor Peter Stormare.
Appearance[]
Dr. Alan J. Hill is a middle-aged man with green eyes. As opposed to the game, he now has a big brown beard and long hair.
At the beginning of the film, Hill is introduced as a simple gas station attendant. He wears a beige buttoned shirt, a black denim vest, black pants and black shoes. He also wears a dark green and white cap.
Later on the film, he appears with a look better known to fans of the game. He wears a white buttoned shirt with a open dark gray suit on top of it, black pants, and black shoes. He uses a dark blue and light blue striped tie as an accessory, similar to the game.
He also gets splattered with Clover's blood after she explodes in the Bad Water night.
Personality[]
Hill presents himself as calm, intelligent, and highly composed, but masks a deeply sadistic and manipulative nature beneath this veneer of professionalism. He views fear as a powerful tool to exploit, and shows little empathy as his subjects suffer repeated deaths and eventual transformation into Wendigos.
Until Dawn (Film)[]
Dr. Hill talks to Clover about Melanie's disappearance in Glore Valley.
Hill first appears as a gas station worker when Clover enters the station to ask about her missing sister, Melanie. However, before Clover can explain, Hill ominously notes that Melanie is already missing and warns her about many people going missing in Glore Valley. Disturbed, Clover and her friends continue their search using the lead he provided.
After the friends drink bad water during the third night, causing them to combust, Clover falls to the ground after Max dies in front of her. She hears a whistle before Dr. Hill appears above her, and tells her she won't survive by standing still.
During the fourth night, the group decides to go into the basement to find clues. They discover some old VHS tapes and ID cards (including a staff card from the Blackwood Sanatorium) from Dr. Hill, whom Clover recognizes as the gas station attendant. Hill is revealed to be a villain who experimented with the Glore Valley curse. He originally was working with the Glore Sanatorium during a mining incident, circa 1998, where he contributed to the transformation of patients into Wendigos - a parallel with the 1952 Blackwood Mines mining disaster and the survivors turning into Wendigos in the Blackwood Sanatorium. The tapes show that Hill has been experimenting with the death loop and that, if a person is stuck in it for thirteen nights, he will become a Wendigo. Hill then talks to the group through a speaker and tells them that the loop must claim someone, but four may be able to leave. Abe jumps on the idea, and the group is horrified that he is even considering it. When Hill says that he is willing to speak to Clover alone in the woods, Abe presses more, saying that one dying is better than five. Clover accepts his offer and after Hill tells her to meet him in the woods, she runs out of the house but Dr. Hill is not there. She gets caught in a bear trap before being confronted by Wendigos, while the others argue inside.
During the thirteenth and final night, the group notices Megan is missing, and after noticing they are on their final night, Clover makes a stand and proclaims she will kill Hill and get the group out. They open up a hallway that leads into the Glore Valley mines. While Nina, Max and Abe try to hold off Wendigos in the mines, Clover finds the Glore Valley Sanatorium and sees Megan in a locked room, restrained in a chair with a chained Wendigo facing her. Clover tells her she will get the keys and free her, before stumbling into Dr. Hill's office. Hill confesses to Clover that he studies fear itself, and reveals that her own fears manifested the monsters that hunted the group throughout the night, such as her ''self-destructive tendencies'' causing the combustion deaths. While Hill talks and puts his coffee mug on the desk, Clover places it under drops of contaminated water, causing him to gruesomely explode.
In the film's final scenes, Josh's patient file is briefly shown, implying that Dr. Hill was involved in the events of the original Until Dawn game, likely through manipulating Josh and exploiting his fears. However, it is unlikely that Hill was directly responsible for the original Wendigos on Blackwood Mountain, as those creatures originated from acts of cannibalism, unlike the fear-born Wendigos of Glore Valley.
Dr. Hill can finally be heard whistling while the Washington Lodge is shown, hinting that Hill may not be dead.
Relationships[]
Clover[]
Clover first meets Dr. Hill at the Hartley’s gas station, where he ominously hints at her sister Melanie’s disappearance and warns of others vanishing in the area of Glore Valley. Here, Hill adopts the guise of a helpful attendant, but unaware to Clover, this exterior masks a calculating psychiatrist who is behind the horrors that eventually befalls the group, in which he has chosen Clover as his new main subject.
As the story unfolds, Clover discovers Hill’s role in the death loop, learning that he purposefully experimented with the death loop to study fear, causing Wendigo transformations following a mining disaster at Glore Valley,
Clover’s determination to uncover the truth leads her directly to him. In the film’s climax, their dynamic shifts from cautious observation to outright confrontation, as she poisons his coffee with bad water and watches him explode.
Death[]
- After Hill reveals himself to be behind the death loop to Clover, she poisons him with bad water, causing him to explode. Though, Dr. Hill may not have died, as he is heard whistling in the end.
Trivia[]
- Hartley’s, the name of the gas station at which Hill works, is likely a reference to Chris Hartley, a protagonist from the game.
- Hill was originally going to be the sole survivor of the collapse that happened in Glore Valley after the mining incident as revealed in the deleted scene "Earthquake & Werewolf," In the final cut he ended up being said to be an employee called in from outside to help the Glore Sanatorium with the survivors of the incident.
- Hill's staff card for Blackwood Sanatorium has information that doesn't align with the Blackwood Sanatorium from the game. In the movie, Blackwood Sanatorium is in Pennsylvania, and Hill worked there from 1988 to 1990. In the game, Blackwood Sanatorium is in Alberta and fully closed in 1955.