Movies
Blumhouse’s ‘Dead by Daylight’ Adaptation Finds Director in ‘The Damned’ Filmmaker
The 10th anniversary celebrations of Behaviour Interactive’s Dead by Daylight brought no shortage of announcements last night, including the reveal that Atomic Monster and Blumhouse’s feature adaptation has found its director.
The Damned filmmaker Thordur Palsson has been tapped to helm the adaptation, producers Jason Blum and Stephen Mulrooney announced on stage last night.
“There is no better moment than the tenth anniversary to share this news. Thordur is the filmmaker we trust to carry Dead by Daylight from the screen you play on to the big screen you watch in theaters,” said Jason Blum, founder and CEO of Blumhouse Atomic Monster.
“For me, the main thing is capturing the feeling of playing Dead by Daylight,” said Palsson. “The main thing is 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.”
The “scary cinematic adaptation” of the Behaviour Interactive video game will be written by David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick (Orphan, Aquaman, The Conjuring 2) and French master of horror Alexandre Aja (High Tension, The Hills Have Eyes, Piranha 3D, Crawl).
Launched in 2016, the popular Dead by Daylight is a multiplayer slasher video game that pits characters up against slasher maniacs both original and iconic to the world of horror.
Expect to visit iconic backdrops like The MacMillan Estate and Greenville in the adaptation, which is expected to begin production in 2027.
In the wake of Backrooms and Obsession, everyone is prowling YouTube for horror shorts to adapt and horror filmmakers to scoop up, so don’t be surprised to see a whole bunch of upcoming articles about YouTube success stories crossing over into theaters. One horror short that’s already been picked up for expansion is Dolly director Rod Blackhurst’s Alone Time.
The 12-minute short was uploaded in 2014 and has amassed nearly 2 million views at the time of this article being written, and Deadline reports that it’s getting a feature adaptation.
Witchcraft Motion Picture Company & Fever Dream will turn the viral short into a feature film.
Alone Time follows Ann Saunders, a young NY professional whose carefully constructed life begins to unravel following a devastating personal loss. “Seeking refuge from a collapsing relationship, a deteriorating family situation, and mounting emotional trauma, Ann reluctantly joins her closest friend on a remote camping trip deep in the Adirondack wilderness.”
The synopsis continues, “When her friend mysteriously disappears, Ann becomes convinced that an unseen figure is stalking her through the forest. What begins as a survival nightmare slowly transforms into something far more disturbing as fractured memories, conflicting realities, and hidden truths force Ann to confront the possibility that the greatest threat may not be lurking in the woods at all, but buried deep within her own psych.”
“Alone Time has quietly followed me for over a decade,” director Rod Blackhurst said in a statement. “What began as a short film about isolation and the weight of life now feels more relevant than ever. The original short found its audience organically online long before that was considered a legitimate path for filmmakers. Bringing it to life as a feature allows us to explore those themes on a much larger and more psychologically unsettling canvas.”
Blackhurst is directing the feature length expansion.
You can watch the original Alone Time short film below.