Thordur Palsson to Direct 'Dead by Daylight' Movie
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- Blumhouse Atomic Monster and Behaviour Interactive tapped Icelandic filmmaker Thordur Palsson to direct their film adaptation of the survival horror game "Dead by Daylight," announced to coincide with the game's tenth anniversary.
- Palsson's résumé includes creating and directing Iceland's first Netflix Original series "The Valhalla Murders" (2020), his feature debut "The Damned" released theatrically by Vertical in early 2025, and his current production "Avalanche," a four-part mini series about a meteorologist warning her village of an impending disaster.
- Jason Blum, founder and CEO of Blumhouse Atomic Monster, said "There is no better moment than the tenth anniversary to share this news. 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."
- "Dead by Daylight" is a Behaviour Interactive/505 Games multiplayer survival horror title launched in 2016, pitting four survivors trying to escape against one killer; the original 2016 killer roster was The Trapper (bear traps), The Wraith (invisibility), and The Hillbilly (chainsaw).
- Video game adaptations are framed in the article as a booming theatrical category, citing "A Minecraft Movie" ($960 million) and "The Super Mario Bros. Movie" ($1.3 billion) as top earners of their respective years, alongside "Sonic the Hedgehog," "Five Nights at Freddy's," and "Iron Lung."
- Palsson is represented by Sayle Screen, CAA, Sycamore Media, and Jackoway Tyerman.
Why it matters: Palsson arrives with indie-TV and Icelandic-horror credentials rather than blockbuster experience, but the video-game-film category the source itself cites — $960M for "A Minecraft Movie" and $1.3B for "The Super Mario Bros. Movie" — has become one of Hollywood's most reliable theatrical earners. Tying the announcement to the game's tenth anniversary gives Blumhouse a built-in, pre-marketed fanbase for a competitive genre adaptation slot.
