Dead by Daylight is getting the film treatment, and the creative team assembled to bring the hit survival-horror game to the big screen includes some serious horror credentials. Icelandic director Thordur Palsson, known for The Damned and The Valhalla Murders, will helm the project alongside screenwriter Alexandre Aja, the filmmaker behind Crawl, Piranha 3D, and the recent thriller Never Let Go. David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick, who wrote three films in The Conjuring universe and both Aquaman movies, is also credited on the script.
The announcement came during Dead by Daylight's 10th anniversary livestream, with Blumhouse founder Jason Blum and producer Stephen Mulrooney joining Palsson on stage to confirm the details. The film is slated to begin production in 2027.
Palsson emphasized the challenge of translating the game's distinctive tension to cinema. "For me, the main thing is capturing the feeling of playing Dead by Daylight," he said during the reveal. "I want to capture the feeling of looking over your shoulder. I want to capture the dread, the tension, the fear of what's waiting for you in The Fog." He added that the goal is to create horror that lingers with audiences long after they leave the theater.
The film will feature iconic locations from the game, including The MacMillan Estate and Greenville. Behaviour Interactive, the Canadian developer behind the asymmetric multiplayer game, has been partnered with Blumhouse Productions for the adaptation.
Dead by Daylight itself remains a phenomenon in gaming since launching on PC in 2016. The title has expanded to PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch, and has become known for its extensive crossover library pulling characters from Halloween, A Nightmare on Elm Street, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Hellraiser, Scream, Alien, Silent Hill, Resident Evil, and numerous other horror franchises, plus one unexpected guest: Nicolas Cage.
The movie project was initially announced in March 2023, when Behaviour Interactive revealed that the search for both a director and screenwriter had just begun. Nearly two years later, those positions are now filled with established names in horror filmmaking.
Author Emily Chen: "Assembling Aja and Johnson-McGoldrick for a Dead by Daylight screenplay is the right call, but translating asymmetric multiplayer tension into a linear narrative will make or break this adaptation."
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