Thordur Palsson confirmed to direct Dead by Daylight movie, shooting set for 2027

Thordur Palsson is officially confirmed as the director of the upcoming Dead by Daylight movie, with shooting expected to begin in 2027. The announcement landed during the Dead by Daylight 10th anniversary broadcast, where Blumhouse founder Jason Blum and producer Stephen Mulrooney joined Palsson on stage.

This matters for decision-makers because the movie is not being built as a generic horror pitch. Palsson’s stated goal is to capture the specific feeling of playing Dead by Daylight, including “the feeling of looking over your shoulder” and “the dread, the tension, the fear of what's waiting for you in The Fog.” That is a very direct translation of game texture into film language, and it sets expectations for what the adaptation should deliver on opening weekend and beyond.

On the creative side, Palsson is not operating alone. The screenplay is credited to Alexandre Aja and David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick. Aja is named as the director of Never Let Go, Crawl, and Piranha 3D, while Johnson-McGoldrick is identified as the writer of three films in The Conjuring series, and as the writer of both Aquaman films. For studios, that combination is notable because it pairs contemporary horror-adjacent blockbuster sensibilities with proven genre credibility from a major theatrical horror franchise pipeline.

The project’s setting is also being treated as a marketing and world-building asset, not background dressing. The film is expected to feature iconic locations including The MacMillan Estate and Greenville. In game adaptations, audiences often forgive plot changes if the world feels authentic. Here, the adaptation is telegraphing that the geography and atmosphere that players recognize will show up on screen, which can reduce the usual “this is just the game in name” skepticism.

From a timing perspective, shooting in 2027 gives the production window to do what many adaptations struggle to do: align a fast-moving audience expectation cycle with a slower feature-film manufacturing cycle. The Dead by Daylight adaptation was first announced back in March 2023, but at that time it was clarified that the project was only in its initial stages and that the search for a screenwriter and director had only just begun. So the director confirmation is the next milestone in a longer runway, and it signals the project has moved from announcement novelty into execution.

The underlying franchise engine also matters. Dead by Daylight was developed and published by Canadian studio Behaviour Interactive. The game is described as a one-versus-four online asymmetric multiplayer survival-horror experience, famous for an extensive list of crossovers with existing horror films, TV shows, and games. The source lists crossovers including Halloween, A Nightmare on Elm Street, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Child's Play, Hellraiser, Scream, The Evil Dead, Alien, Silent Hill, Resident Evil, and many, many more, plus Nicolas Cage. For executives, that crossover history creates two strategic pressures: the movie must stand alone enough for non-players, but it also has to respect the franchise’s DNA so players do not feel the adaptation is ignoring what makes Dead by Daylight distinctive.

There is also a distribution footprint that impacts how the audience may show up. The game was first released on PC in 2016, then moved to PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch. That broad platform footprint typically widens brand awareness across different consumer segments, which can raise the ceiling for theatrical interest. It can also raise the bar: when a brand is everywhere, the “capture the feeling” promise has to be delivered with confidence.

Finally, look at the institutional signals. Blumhouse founder Jason Blum and producer Stephen Mulrooney were on stage for the announcement, placing the adaptation under a studio brand that is widely associated with high-output horror filmmaking. Pair that with Palsson’s explicitly stated mission to translate “The Fog” fear into cinema, and you get a clear message: this is positioned as horror with tension as the product, not just horror with jump scares.

For other executives watching the market, this is the kind of incremental-but-real confirmation that tells you what franchise adaptation strategies are starting to prioritize. The director, the writers, and even the locations are being chosen to preserve a core emotional experience, while the timeline suggests a production schedule designed to reach a specific audience moment. If they pull it off, Dead by Daylight could become the next proof point that game horror can translate. If they miss, it will be judged against the exact feeling Palsson promised to capture: the dread of always knowing something is behind you, even when you cannot see it yet.