Dead by Daylight Movie Finds Director, Celebrates 10th Anniversary with Turnbound Collab and Year 11 Roadmap

Looking ahead, Dead by Daylight revealed its Year 11 roadmap, including new Chapters, a major visual overhaul, new game modes, modding support, and collaborations with franchises such as Terrifier, Scooby-Doo, and Diablo.

Dead by Daylight is currently celebrating its 10th anniversary, which included a recent special event in Montreal (the home city of developer Behaviour Interactive). However, the latest news related to all of this is that a proposed movie now has a director: Thordur Palsson.

The name might not ring any bells, but Palsson’s debut folk horror movie The Damned was well-received by critics when it hit cinemas at the start of 2025. He’s also the driving force behind Netflix’s first original Icelandic series, The Valhalla Murders. The Dead by Daylight movie is being produced by Blumhouse Atomic Monster, the combined film company run by Jason Blum and James Wan (The Conjuring).

“There is no better moment than the 10th anniversary to share this news,” said Jason Blum. “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.”

Horror Behind the Camera

Palsson joins the Dead by Daylight movie alongside the previously announced writers David Leslie Johnston-McGoldrick and Alexandre Aja. The former is one of the key creatives behind the scenes for The Conjuring franchise, whereas Aja is best known as the director of creature feature Crawl, The Hills Have Eyes remake, and his breakthrough hit Haute Tension (High Tension).

“What David and Alexandre bring to Dead by Daylight is a rare balance of character driven storytelling and relentless genre intensity,” said Blum. “Drawing from survival horror and psychological terror, their work establishes a world where fear is not just experienced, but earned. It is a cinematic blueprint designed to attract a director who can elevate that vision through performance and scale.”

Blum might be happy to big-up the creative talent now attached to the movie, but he’s keeping tight-lipped about what people can expect to see make it over from the game. While Dead by Daylight launched with three killers, its roster of supernatural murders now has over 40 characters, including the K-Pop themed The Trickster and twisted mutant The Unknown, so right now it’s anybody’s guess who or what will stalk the hapless victims in the movie.

Ch Ch Ch Ah Ah Ah

A lot of the Killers in Dead by Daylight have made their way into the game’s Fog from other media, notably horror movies. The latest addition emerges on June 16 and he’s one of the most requested slashers: Jason Vorhees.

“Few horror characters have proven to be as resourceful, creative, and viciously brutal as the man in the hockey mask,” Behavior said in a press release. “It was important to capture several different aspects of Jason’s slaying methods in his Power, leading to a versatile and oppressive Killer capable of mobility, ranged brutality, and stealth.”

These abilities include being able to teleport across a map, tracking Survivors by the sound of their footsteps. As he does this, Jason leaves a visible trail of mist behind to give players a warning he’s near, and likely freak them out at the same time.

“I’m a lumberjack and I’m okay!”

It’s also possible to use a projectile or hook and use it to pin down a Survivor, as well as unleash the fittingly-named Jump Scare ability to shatter nearby objects. Players will also be able to unlock game-specific costumes for Jason that all keep his trademark hockey mask but match it with everything from a dirty lumberjack design through to a waterlogged corpse look.

Turnbound Gets Gory

In a twist on the usual crossover shenanigans, a few Killers are making their way from Dead by Daylight over into turn-based autobattler Turnbound, developed by 1TK Games. The update is live now, and lets players unlock exclusive skins that turn playable heroes into versions of Dead by Daylight’s core Killers, by completing set missions.

Turnbound has characters trapped in a haunted board game, which is not something I get to write very often.

Wukong can be turned into The Trapper if he destroys an opponent Hero Tile using a “Bloodthirsty Bat.” Alice unlocks The Huntress skin if she has a battle with five “The White Rabbit” Tiles on a board. Kitsune accesses The Artist costume when players destroy six Tiles using “Pecklet” Tiles in a single battle, and Robin can become The Deathslinger if they destroy two Tiles using a “Haunted Harpoon” in a single turn.

Year 11 Roadmap

The weekend’s big party also came with a bumper update related to upcoming Dead by Daylight content, as well as an appearance by Blum and Palsson. The latter noted his intent with the movie, as he said “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. I love horror that stays with you after it’s over, and that’s the cinematic experience we want to bring to the big screen for you guys.”

Here’s what’s currently on the cards for this next year.

There’s a new Survivor-focused Chapter, The Life Road, that launches on June 25 and introduces Shane Wiigwaas, the game’s first Indigenous Survivor. Later releases include the community-developed Chapter Chorus of Sin in August, a Terrifier Chapter featuring Art the Clown in November, and a 2027 adaptation of The Casting of Frank Stone.

The developers also outlined long-term gameplay plans. A major visual overhaul planned for 2027 will update character models, animations, facial expressions, maps, lighting, weather effects, and environmental details. Additional features include new voice lines for original characters, new game modes such as 1v1 Mode and Zombie Mode, and support for sandboxed modding tools that will allow players to create and share custom content.

Several new cosmetic collections were revealed, including the Black Banquet and Sunflesh collections, collaborations with Iron Maiden and Ice Nine Kills, and additions tied to The Walking Dead, Silent Hill, and Diablo. Behaviour also confirmed that Scooby-Doo characters will be added to the game through a future collection. Jinkies!

Dead by Daylight, Featured