Dead by Daylight movie draws in fresh blood with Crawl and The Conjuring 2 writers

It’s been a while since any further developments surfaced regarding the big-screen adaptation of Dead by Daylight. The survival-horror video game franchise, which pits four Survivors against a Killer they’re trying to evade, has grown into a major franchise since its 2016 debut, with famous monsters and horror legends joining the carnage.

The project was first announced in 2023, and last year, Blumhouse head Jason Blum assured that nothing was moving forward “until the script was right.” Now it appears that I’s are set to be dotted, and t’s will be slashed to pieces, with news from The Hollywood Reporter that daring writers have been appointed. Thankfully, their history in scary stories should put fans at ease that the project is in the right blood-soaked hands.

David Leslie Johnston-McGoldrick and Alexandre Aja have been hired to churn out a script, which will be their first collaboration. Johnston-Godrick has contributed to major horror franchises, including The Walking Dead, The Conjuring Universe, and the first chapter of the Orphan franchise. Aja, on the other hand, has spent a lot of time in the director’s chair, having handled the 2006 remake of The Hills Have Eyes and the gnarly alligator flick, Crawl, to name a few. Unfortunately, he’ll be too busy getting wet again with the shark-infested sequel, Under Paris 2, to call the shots this time around.

For now, there’s no director in place, but Blum has praised the writing team brought together for the upcoming adaptation, which he’ll produce alongside James Wan and Stephen Mulrooney. “What David and Alexandre bring to Dead by Daylight is a rare balance of character-driven storytelling and relentless genre intensity,” Blum said in a new statement following the recent development. “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.”

As the list of video game adaptations continues to grow, it’ll be interesting to see if Dead by Daylight reaches the top-tier status that only a few have managed to meet. Check out our list of the best video game movie adaptations here.