Blumhouse and Atomic Monster, in association with Behaviour Interactive, are currently producing an upcoming Dead by Daylight film.
Hollywood seemed to have finally gotten comic book movie adaptations right with the long-running MCU and DCU franchises; however — it’s arguable if they have even scratched the surface of what’s possible with video game adaptations. Beyond a few standouts like the recent Mortal Kombat (2021), most video game adaptations are hardly passable as movies.
However, we’ve got a chance to break the trend with the upcoming Dead by Daylight movie that Blumhouse and Behaviour Interactive just announced.
According to the Behavior Blog,
“We couldn’t be more thrilled to work with Jason Blum and James Wan, two giants of the horror film industry, to further expand the Dead by Daylight universe. Atomic Monster and Blumhouse are the ideal partners to craft Dead by Daylight’s killer entrance onto the big screen.”
Stephen Mulrooney, Executive Vice President at Behaviour Interactive
The fact that Atomic Heart and Blumhouse, creators of iconic titles like Sinister and Paranormal Activity, will handle the film’s production may bode well for the movie.
The Cabin in the Woods or Pixels?
The upcoming DbD movie has the potential to be amazing or quite horrid. While there are original characters and lore within the game, the franchise has long relied on its cross-title collaborations, including the likes of Hellraiser, Scream, and Nightmare on Elm Street, among others.
Indeed, the actual lore of the game does open the potential for a The Cabin in the Woods-esque gorefest with some of the best that Atomic Monster and Blumhouse have to offer.
If you’re not aware of the actual lore of the game — it has inter-dimensional aspects mainly revolving around a supernatural entity called, well, The Entity, which requires sacrifices to exist and recruits the likes of Freddy Krueger, Michael Myers, Pinhead, and other horror icons to hunt down Survivors.
With this pretty loose stage set, the game relies on multiplayer PvP gameplay, where one player assumes the role of a Killer and must hunt down a team of other players looking to escape, called Survivors. Since the narrative isn’t exactly the focus of the game, it’s totally dependent on the movie’s creators to flesh out the story.
In many ways, however, the movie could be great. Blumhouse and Atomic Monster have many IPs that it could use to make the film more interesting, if not at least inject a bit of fan service into the film for horror fanatics. Demonic entities like Bagul or The Nun, or maybe an anarchist group on the hunt from The Purge series, could all appear in the film.
Whether they decide to take some movie risks or play it safe will largely depend on who they get to write and helm as director, which has yet to be decided. We’re hoping for something fresh and creative, as we’re pretty tired of the “same old thing” from video game horror movies.
What are your thoughts on the upcoming Dead by Daylight movie? Will it flop or be a hit? Let us know in the comments below.
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