After 10 years, Dead by Daylight is getting the horror film treatment with director Thordur Palsson helming the adaptation of the video game for Blumhouse Atomic Monster and Behaviour Interactive.

The Icelandic director (Netflix’s The Valhalla Murders, The Damned) was announced as the movie’s director on Sunday during the Dead by Daylight 10th anniversary celebration in Montreal, a sold-out, one-day event for fans of the hit horror multiplayer game.

The Dead by Daylight video game, which has featured crossovers with several horror franchises, allows one player to take on the persona of a Killer and the other four to play as Survivors. The Killer has to hunt down the Survivors and sacrifice them to a force known as the Entity, while the Survivors have to avoid being caught and power up the exit gates by fixing a series of generators.

“There is no better moment than the 10th anniversary to share this news,” said Jason Blum, founder and CEO of Blumhouse Atomic Monster. “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.”

Blum’s co-founder and CEO James Wan said, “One million people step into Dead by Daylight daily, and this adaptation brings them the world they love most, from Greenville to The MacMillan Estate. Thordur understands that the terror only lands if you care about who’s running, and The Damned proved he can make you feel the walls closing in. That is exactly the instinct this film needs on screen.”

Stephen Mulrooney, chief product officer for Behaviour Interactive and producer of the Dead by Daylight movie, praised Palsson’s “distinct vision, atmospheric storytelling and ability to build tension,” which he said makes him “the perfect creative voice to bring our universe to life in a way that will resonate with both longtime fans and new audiences alike.”

Wan, Blum and Mulrooney are producers on the film. Behaviour Interactive’s Remi Racine;,Atomic Monster’s Michael Clear and Judson Scott, Blumhouse’s Ryan Turek, and Striker Entertainment’s Russell Binder are executive producers. 

A graduate of the UK’s National Film and Television School with an MA in Directing Fiction, Palsson created Iceland’s first Netflix Original series The Valhalla Murders in 2020. Last year, his debut feature film The Damned premiered at Tribeca Film Festival and was released in the US.

Palsson is repped by Sayle Screen, CAA, Sycamore Media and Jackoway Tyerman.