The film adaptation of Dead by Daytime has finally found a director who is believed to be able to convey the same sense of fear and horror as the game.
Adapting horror video games to the big screen always presents its own challenges which are clearly not easy. Not just translating characters or nuances that are already well known to followers, but also capturing the tension that is at the heart of the playing experience. That’s the challenge now faced by the team behind the film Dead by Daytime.
Through Dead by Daytime’s 10th anniversary celebration broadcast, Practices Interactive announced that the film adaptation project has finally found a director. This position will be filled by Thordur Palsson, a filmmaker from Iceland who is known for gripping works such as The Valhalla Murders and The Damned.
The announcement was made directly by Blumhouse founder, Jason Blum, with producer Stephen Mulrooney on stage. According to Blum, Palsson is the person who can be trusted to bring the Dead by Daytime experience from the video game screen to the big screen in cinemas. This statement is one of the biggest upgrades for the film project first announced in 2023.
Shortly after being introduced, Palsson also explained the vision he wanted to bring to this adaptation. For him, the most important aspect is not just presenting characters or beasts that players know, but capturing the unique sensation that arises when playing Dead by Daytime. He specifically highlighted the feeling of always looking back, the feeling of anxiety about an invisible threat, and the tension when entering The Haze as the main elements that he wanted to translate into a film style.
The process of developing the film Dead by Daytime has been quite long. After being announced almost three years ago, the project has only started to show significant progress in recent months. Previously, Blumhouse and Atomic Beast also announced the team of writers who would work on the script for this film, such as David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick, who is known for the business franchise The Raising, and Alexandre Aja, who has directed films such as Creep and Piranha 3D.
What do you think after seeing the lineup of scary movie characters who will direct this film?