David Leslie Johnston-McGoldrick and Alexandre Aja will write Blumhouse-Atomc Monster’s feature adaptation of Behaviour Interactive’s Dead by Daylight.

As reported by The Hollywood Reporter, Johnston-McGoldrick has worked with Atomic Monster’s James Wan previously on The Conjuring franchise, while Aja was the director and screenwriter behind movies like The Hills Have Eyes and Crawl.

Though Aja is already tied up directing another project, he will be working with Johnston-McGoldrick on the story as the team continues its search for a director.

“What David and Alexandre bring to Dead by Daylight is a rare balance of character driven storytelling and relentless genre intensity,” said Jason Blum, Blumhouse’s founder and CEO.

“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.”

Behaviour seem similarly happy with the writers, too.

“Alexandre and David are two modern masters of horror, and their script celebrates a dark distinction, Dead by Daylight is a game, its world is a nightmare,” added Stephen Mulrooney, producer and Behaviour’s chief product officer.

“We look forward to working with a director who appreciates the depth of their story, and cannot wait to see their visceral vision brought to life.”

We found out that Blumhouse – the horror-focused movie production company behind the likes of Paranormal Activity, Sinister, Insidious, and Get Out – had plans to adapt Dead by Daylight into a film back in 2023.

The project is being developed in conjunction with Dead by Daylight studio Behaviour Interactive and Atomic Monster (the production company run by prominent horror director James Wan), with the latter calling the game’s “incredible environment teeming with atmosphere and terrifying villains…perfect for a scary cinematic adaptation”.

Dead by Daylight launched its asymmetrical multiplayer horror – which sees four survivors attempting to escape a powerful killer – back in 2016, and the game’s been played by over 50 million people since then and features some of cinema’s most iconic horror villains, including Halloween’s Michael Myers, Nightmare on Elm Street’s Freddy Krueger, Texas Chainsaw Massacre’s Leatherface, Saw’s Amanda Young, and Scream’s Ghost Face.