At the top of December, Paramount revealed it was doing another Paranormal Activityflick with James Wan on hand as producer, and now they might’ve landed a director for the gig.
Per the Hollywood Reporter, Canadian filmmaker Ian Tuason is in final negotiations to reboot the found footage horror series. If you haven’t heard of him before, that’s the point; he gained popularity making VR horror shorts online before tackling his first feature film Undertone. That film premiered at a Canadian film festival earlier this year and was so popular it launched a bidding war that may see it get released by A24.
Should Tuason be signed on, it’ll bring things full circle for him, as he’s deemed the first Paranormal Activity one of the top three movies that scare him behind The Blair Witch Project and the original Exorcist. There’s some additional overlap between Paranormal and Undertone in that he’s called the latter “found audio” rather than a found footage movie, owing to its central storytelling gimmick of audio files about a couple being possessed, similar to Paranormal’s recordings of a couple being haunted by a ghost in the house.
Whether directing duties go to Tuason or someone else, we’ll have more on this Paranormal Activity reboot as news emerges.
[This story contains spoilers for The Conjuring: Last Rites.]
Billed as the “fourth-and-final” film in The Conjuring series, Last Rites has grossed a franchise record of nearly $500 million at the worldwide box office. That puts director Michael Chaves in the unenviable position of having to answer questions about the subfranchise’s future and whether a tenth film is in the cards for the greater Conjuring universe. (If you’re a truther for Chaves’ 2019 feature debut, The Curse of La Llorona, then it’d be the eleventh film.)
“It’s absolutely done. It’s absolutely the end. No more Conjuring movies,” Chaves cheekily tells The Hollywood Reporter in support of Last Rites‘ recent digital debut and Nov. 25 4K release.
In any event, Last Rites very much feels like a sendoff for Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga‘s demonologist characters, Ed and Lorraine Warren. The film even ends with Lorraine’s prophetic vision of their remaining years together as grandparents. But unlike other series cappers, Last Rites didn’t try to be a summation of every demonic threat the duo has ever encountered, instead opting for another familial story by way of 1986’s Smurl haunting in Pennsylvania.
“One of the references that I kept on giving [for a final chapter] was Logan. I’ve always loved how Logan wasn’t this big, sprawling movie where every villain is unleashed on Wolverine,” Chaves says. “These fan-made trailers would show up online, and every demon that the Warrens have ever trapped is unleashed. So I thought it was awesome, but I was like, ‘I’m so glad we’re not doing that version of the movie.’ Ultimately, it would be a very hollow experience.”
Last Rites also ends with Wilson’s Ed essentially passing the torch to his soon-to-be son-in-law, Tony Spera (Ben Hardy), followed by the nuptials between Tony and the Warrens’ daughter, Judy (Mia Tomlinson). The wedding ceremony allowed the franchise to have a sequence à la Tony Stark’s funeral in Avengers: Endgame, where familiar faces from all the Conjuring movies appear and show their gratitude to the family that saved them from various malevolent forces.
To name just a few, Lili Taylor and Mackenzie Foy returned as Caroyln and Cindy Perron from James Wan’s franchise-launching The Conjuring (2013), and Wan himself also cameoed. Sadly, scheduling conflicts prevented Joey King and Ron Livingston from reprising their roles as fellow Perron family members.
But the biggest heartbreak of all involves Vera Farmiga’s younger sister, Taissa Farmiga, who starred as Sister Irene in the Conjuring universe’s two ’50s-set Nun movies. Chaves directed her in 2023’s The Nun II, which confirmed that Irene and Lorraine’s resemblance was not just because the roles were being played by real-life sisters. They’re fictionally from the same bloodline too. Alas, scheduling also prevented Taissa from appearing in the wedding scene, however, she wouldn’t have been aged up with prosthetics to play a 56-year-old Irene.
“The idea of bringing in this long lost relative in Sister Irene, and then also dealing with the difference of age, was too complex once you did the math. It would’ve become too big and too sprawling,” Chaves admits. “I did text Taissa to say, ‘You should show up at the wedding, just as a little glimpse, a cameo. We won’t worry about the [25-year] age gap or anything.’ But she was shooting something, and we couldn’t do that.”
Below, during a recent conversation with THR, Chaves also addresses his own future among the Conjuring universe’s brain trust.
***
After a franchise record $482 million worldwide, are we sure The Conjuring: Last Rites is still the last hurrah for Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga’s Ed and Lorraine Warren?
It’s absolutely done. It’s absolutely the end. No more Conjuring movies. (Chaves smiles after his tongue-in-cheek answer.)
Patrick Wilson’s Ed Warren and Vera Farmiga’s Lorraine Warren in Michael Chaves‘ The Conjuring: Last Rites.
Giles Keyte/Warner Bros.
What led to the current decision in the first place? Did Patrick and Vera feel like they’ve gone as far as they can go with these characters?
It really came from a place of wanting to end on our own terms. I love and grew up with the Nightmare on Elm Street series. It’s such a fun, in some ways, horror franchise, and it’s really innovative. They just kept on making those until they couldn’t make them anymore. So the hope with [Last Rites] was to tell a final chapter that would bring it all together and be a really nice close to the series and give people a conclusion.
Your previous Conjuring movie did very well at the box office despite being a day-and-date release ($206 million against a $39 million budget). But seeing what Last Rites put on the board as a theatrical exclusive, have you tortured yourself yet over what The Devil Made Me Do It would’ve done under normal circumstances?
No, not at all. Conjuring 3 was such a hard journey, and it was such a hard movie to make before going into COVID. [Writer’s Note: The pandemic also upended the film’s scheduled reshoot period.] I didn’t even know if the movie was going to come out. I didn’t even know if the world was going to survive. So I look back on that as an incredible victory and an incredible relief. That movie was either the first or second highest-grossing R-rated movie of the pandemic. It even made more money than The Suicide Squad. So the pandemic had a major impact on this business, and while we’re still feeling the repercussions, I totally count that as a victory. It did great considering those times.
We last spoke for The Nun II, and you intimated that the flash of Lorraine’s (Vera Farmiga) eyes in Sister Irene’s (Taissa Farmiga) vision was confirmation that they share the same bloodline. Did you and the rest of Conjuring brain trust know back then that you would at least try to bring them together in Conjuring 4?
That was as far as we could go with that storyline. We didn’t bring Irene into the fourth film, even though I love working with Taissa. I want to work with all the Farmigas eventually. But it just didn’t really work in the [Last Rites] storyline. The focus really was going to be Ed and Lorraine, and their relationship with their child, Judy. So the idea of bringing in this long lost relative in Sister Irene, and then also dealing with the difference of age, was too complex once you did the math. It would’ve become too big and too sprawling.
Going into the movie, one of the references that I kept on giving was Logan. I’ve always loved how Logan wasn’t this big, sprawling movie where every villain is unleashed on Wolverine. It was actually the smallest, most intimate Wolverine story, and by being the most intimate Wolverine story, it’s such a beautiful final chapter because it’s big emotionally.
When we were making Last Rites, these fan-made trailers would show up online, and every demon that the Warrens have ever trapped is unleashed. It was as if Ghostbusters was being applied to the Conjuring. So I saw that and thought it was awesome, but I was like, “I’m so glad we’re not doing that version of the movie.” There’d be a lot of busyness from going through the family tree of demons and Lorraine’s connections. And ultimately, it would be a very hollow experience.
Taissa Farmiga’s Sister Irene in The Nun II.
Warner Bros. Pictures
Wasn’t there a plan to age up Taissa for a wedding appearance?
No, there wasn’t. I don’t know where that was shared from. I did text Taissa to say, “You should show up at the wedding, just as a little glimpse, a cameo. We won’t worry about the [25-year] age gap or anything.” But she was shooting something, and we couldn’t do that.
At least you had Murph from Interstellar present. (Mackenzie Foy played one of the Perron kids in the first film.)
(Laughs.) Exactly.
I forgot Joey King was also in James Wan’s first Conjuring. You can’t include everyone, obviously, but was she or Ron Livingston ever thrown out there?
We were totally talking to them, but they were also shooting something else at the time. If we were all in the same city, then it would’ve been possible for them to just duck over, but we were shooting in England. Honestly, we were trying to get everybody who has ever been in a Conjuring movie into that wedding scene, but we just couldn’t. It’s really hard to schedule something like that.
James Wan’s future involvement in the franchise is reportedly up in the air at the moment, but do you think you’ll have a place at the table in whatever form the franchise takes?
Well, this is the final chapter. This is the last movie. We’re not going to make any more Conjuring. (Chaves again flashes a tongue-in-cheeksmile.) I don’t know. It’s been such a great journey, and I’ve loved being a part of it. So I would totally love to be called back.
Patrick Wilson’s Ed Warren, Ben Hardy’s Tony Spera and Vera Farmiga’s Lorraine Warren in Michael Chaves’ The Conjuring: Last Rites.
Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures
When you cast the roles of Judy (Mia Tomlinson) and Tony (Ben Hardy) in this film, was the decision made with an eye toward the future as well?
The goal with casting them was just getting the best actors possible. Without a doubt. New Line told me this advice a long time ago, but in terms of planting seeds for sequels, they always say, “Just make the best movie possible and let the audience tell you they want a sequel.” There’s been so many examples through the years of filmmakers planting all these seeds or proposing these big universes and imagining these big slates that never end up going anywhere. The core movie just wasn’t great enough. So it was really just casting the best people possible.
Speaking of sequels, did you get a heads-up that the sequel to your feature debut, The Curse of La Llorona (2019), was on its way?
Oh yeah. I know everybody involved. So I’m very happy and very excited for them.
Lastly, you said something to me a couple years ago that I still ponder from time to time. You said that you were trying to rely less on past films for inspiration and more on outside sources such as photography. Are you still in that same mindset?
There’s this great site called ShotDeck, which became very popular. It has all these images from all these different classic movies, and everyone uses it as a reference. So I was also using that initially, and I thought it was incredible. But so much of The Nun II was inspired by ‘50s street photography, and it’s such a great place to get your ideas. You’re not just referencing movies; you’re actually referencing the real world. You’re getting great ideas from photographers that you might not have heard of before, so I’ve been trying to move into that and find my references from things that are outside of movies. It’s hard because we all love movies, and so it’s natural to have the kneejerk response of, “Oh, it’s just like that movie.” But I think my filmmaking has gotten better when the references I bring to the table are deeper and broader.
*** The Conjuring: Last Rites is now available on digital ahead of its Nov. 25 4K UHD Release.
James Wan is making a third aqua man movie. No, not a third Aquaman movie. A third movie about a person in the water. The director of Aquaman, as well as Saw, Insidious, Furious 7, and more, will produce and potentially direct a remake of the classic Universal Monsters film The Creature From the Black Lagoon.
According to Deadline, Wan is “developing a grounded modernized retelling that leans into visceral horror whilst paying respect to the original classic.” So, basically, it’ll fit in with the other modern Universal Monsters remakes such as The Invisible Man and the upcoming Wolf Man. Both of those are helmed by Leigh Whannell, a close friend and collaborator of Wan’s who co-created Insidious and Saw with him. The film will fall under the new deal where Wan’s Atomic Monster teamed up with Blumhouse over at Universal.
There’s much to discuss here, so let’s dive in. Creature is one of those properties that, unlike Dracula, Wolf Man, Mummy, Frankenstein, and others, has never gotten a proper remake. But not for lack of trying. For almost 40 years Hollywood has been trying to bring the Creature back to the big screen. So, right there, you must take this news with a grain of salt. Wan is a powerful producer and talented director, but many others have tried and failed in what he’s attempting here.
It’s also fun to consider this in the wider context of Wan’s flirtation with the water. Of course, he made two Aquaman movies but he also began to develop a Trench movie based on those films, which actually was going to be a Black Manta movie. He has yet to pick his next directorial effort, and it very well may be this—but if so, to do three out of four studio movies set underwater in a row is wild. (The excellent Malignant being the other one.)
As for the Creature himself, he originated in the 1954 classic directed by Jack Arnold. A film that, now pushing 70 years old, is just as effective as ever. Some think it should never be remade. Others think maybe it already has, in a way. But either way, this is going to be a fascinating journey.
Based on the popular video game franchise, the first live-action Silent Hill film—released in 2006 and starring Radha Mitchell as desperate mother Rose—vanishes into a supernatural dimension, or at least departs Netflix, on May 31. Watch on Netflix.
Smile 2 rounds out its cast. M3GAN 2.0 is going to take a lot longer to come out than planned. Simu Liu is teaming up with James Wan for a new sci-fi series. Doctor Who teases a mysterious new alien. Plus, what to expect on the rest of Halo season 2. To me, my spoilers!
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Smile 2
Deadline reports Raúl Castillo (Cassandro) and Miles Gutierrez-Riley (The Wilds) have joined the cast of Smile 2 in currently undisclosed roles.
Relapse
Variety has word Joseph Quinn (Fantastic Four, Stranger Things) will star in Relapse, an “elevated horror film” directed by novelist Bret Easton Ellis. Quinn will play Matt Cullen, a man “who checks into rehab after witnessing a horrific death during a debauched party. Three months later, he is set to get his life back together, staying at his parent’s mansion in the hills of Los Angeles. But things have changed around Matt and everything seems off balance. Fueled by his unstable personality and the invading power of social media, Matt’s paranoia grows, messing up with his rehabilitation program. As he starts using again, a mysterious presence starts growing around Matt, and a monster that has been haunting him since he was a teenager reveals itself. His therapist tries to help, convinced that the monster is actually in Matt’s head.”
The First Omen
According to Bloody-Disgusting, The First Omen has been rated “R” for “violent content, grisly/disturbing images, and brief graphic nudity.”
Abigail
Bloody-Disgusting additionally reports Abigail has also been rated “R” for “strong bloody violence and gore throughout, pervasive language and brief drug use.”
M3GAN 2.0
M3GAN 2.0 has been pushed back four months and will now reach theaters on May 16, 2025.
A demon named Calypso wants the soul of an Afghanistan war veteran-turned-actor in the gory, likely NSFW trailer for Laugh.
Laugh – Teaser Trailer
Untitled Simu Liu Series
TV Line reports Peacock has handed a straight-to-series order to an untiled “sci-fi thriller” starring Simu Liu. Produced by James Wan, the story is said to follow Liu as “an intelligence analyst who realizes his brain has been hacked, giving the perpetrators access to everything he sees and hears. Caught between his shadowy agency and the unknown hackers, he must maintain a performance 24/7 to flush out who’s responsible and prove where his allegiance lies.”
Bewitched
Deadline also has word a reboot of Bewitched from The Boys writer, Judalina Neira, is now in development at Sony Pictures TV.
Star Trek: Legacy
During a recent interview with Trek Movie, Terry Matalas confirmed there have still been no discussions with Paramount about developing his proposed Star Trek series.
There’s not. They have Star Trek that they are making and they only have so much money and streaming space. There’s currently not, but we’re looking forward to whatever the Star Trek universe brings … and never say never.
SurrealEstate/Reginald the Vampire/The Ark
According to TV Line, Syfy has renewed SurrealEstate, Reginald the Vampire and The Ark for new seasons.
Chucky
TV Line additionally reports the second half of Chucky’s third season will premiere Wednesday, April 10, at 10/9c on USA and Syfy.
Doctor Who
The BBC has shared Russell T. Davies’ audition script for the role of Fifteenth Doctor introducing the “Spikes” — a spiky, yet-to-be-seen monster said to be intense thoughts brought to life.
Quantum Leap
Ben leaps into the bodies of a Baltimore firefighter and a 1970’s race car driver in the trailer for next week’s two-part season finale of Quantum Leap.
Quantum Leap 2×12 “As the World Burns” / 2×13 “Against Time” Promo (HD) Season Finale
Halo
Finally, Paramount+ has released a new “this season on…” trailer for the second season of Halo.
Since 2013, Warner Bros.’ Conjuring movies has been going along with mainline installments and spinoffs for various villains of the Warren family. But all scary things must come to some kind of end, and the upcoming The Conjuring 4 is aiming to bring the mothership series to some kind of close.
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Per the Hollywood Reporter, Michael Chaves has been brought on to direct the new film. All his previous films have been Conjuring offshoots such as The Curse of La Lloronaand The Nun II, along with the previous mainline film, The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It. This new film, subtitled Last Rites, will once again feature Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga as Ed and Lorraine Warren as they deal with another supernatural problem only they can solve. Filming is expected to take place in the summer over in Atlanta.
Interestingly, THR notes that Conjuring 4 will be the final entry in the main series. What that means for the remainder of the Conjuring universe is up in the air: James Wan, a key creative for the whole enterprise, has taken his Atomic Monster banner over to Blumhouse. (Fellow collaborators like Gary Dauberman, David F. Sandberg, and Akela Cooper have either joined Wan or are focusing on their own projects.) A Conjuring TV show was announced back in April 2023, but it’s entirely possible that WB quietly gave it the axe between then and now. It’s doubtful Last Rites will mark the complete end of TheConjuring altogether, but it would allow WB to take a few years off and retool the franchise with some new creative staff on hand.
At one moment in Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, characters are running through a mutated jungle, chased by lion-sized cockroaches while avoiding violent, human-eating plants. In another moment, multiple characters are standing around, their hair flowing wildly, delivering wooden dialogue that’s almost as painful for them to say as it is for us to hear.
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That mix of positive and negative is a great representation ofAquaman and the Lost Kingdom. It’s a movie that tries to be everything at the expense of being anything. At times it’s goofy and exciting. At other times it’s serious and stoic. But unlike the 2018 original, which found a strong balance between those things, this sequel struggles to blend an overly complicated narrative and lofty themes alongside the big, fun action set pieces. It’s not altogether terrible but more often than not, it feels like a slog.
When we last left Arthur Curry (Jason Momoa) he’d defeated his half-brother Orm (Patrick Wilson) and became king of Atlantis, a vast underwater kingdom hidden from the surface world. Now, probably a year or so later, Arthur and Hera (Amber Heard) have a child, Arthur Jr., and finding a way to be both a father and a king has become a struggle. These early scenes are among the best in the movie, allowing Momoa to be his big-kid self while also opening up new possibilities for the character, that of a hero torn between two worlds. Unfortunately, that gets forgotten rather quickly.
Orm and Arthur.Image: Warner Bros.
That’s partially because one of Arthur’s old nemeses, Black Manta (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II), is searching the globe for technology that will help him fight and defeat Arthur. He soon stumbles upon a mysterious, powerful black Trident that gives him ancient powers he can’t quite explain. Manta and his crew instantly become more formidable than ever and, to find and defeat him, Arthur must ask his imprisoned brother for help.
Starting there and moving on throughout the movie, the major plot points in Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom all seem a tad too complex and drawn out. Manta discovering the Trident comes after a slightly overstuffed exploration sequence. Arthur needing Orm means he has to go against a council he’s a part of and betray one of his allies, while also defeating some random bug monsters. There is also a lot, and we mean a lot, of talk about this ancient, deadly energy source that plays a huge role in the story. Then, once Arthur and Orm forge an unlikely alliance, their journey takes them to several different spots, such as a whole pirate hideaway that’s very cool to look at, and features Martin Short voicing an underwater Jabba the Hutt character called Kingfish, but adds almost nothing of note.
Then there’s the promise of the title, this mythical Lost Kingdom, which you’d imagine plays a major role in the movie (it being in the title after all) but is held back until very close to the end, making it feel incredibly superfluous. Elements are seeded throughout of course, but once we get the big narrative dump explaining the Lost Kingdom and everything around it, you’ve basically figured it out and just want to plow through it to get to the big finale.
Image: Warner Bros.
The big finale is when, finally, the usually incredible director James Wan really gets to flex his muscles. There are wonderful 360-degree camera moves. Terrifying and bold angles as we discover key new locations. And as the film starts to get a little more interesting to look at, you realize something: you’ve been watching a James Wan movie for about 90 minutes and nothing about it has stood out visually until now. Are there cool creatures? Ships? Entertaining action? Sure. But all of it is overshadowed by a film’s desire to take a relatively simple basic story and overstuff it for overstuffing’s sake. Whether or not it’s true, the climatic battle scenes simply have more cohesion and authorship to them, as if those were locked in while everything around them changed.
And yet, despite all its flaws, there are plenty of moments where Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom can be very enjoyable. Jason Momoa is, as usual, really fun to watch. He and Patrick Wilson have great chemistry and a bunch of great scenes together. Amber Heard’s Mera, rumored to be cut out of the film or at least cut back, has a few really big, heroic moments. Characters ride giant bugs. Giant seahorses. Nicole Kidman pilots a shark. Plus, there are several attempts at making the movie about something other than Aquaman vs. Black Manta, all of which give the sense the movie is going to be better than is, but then fail to deliver. One example is the political tension between underwater worlds. Another is the story’s impact on the global environment. But ultimately even the best moments get forgotten because they, like the rest of the movie, are all over the place.
Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom is certainly not the worst film in the recent DC Universe—but as the follow-up to one of the better ones, we expected more. It feels like a movie that was way more impacted by whatever was happening behind the scenes at DC than anyone involved would care to admit. Because if that wasn’t the case, everyone involved came in with too many ideas and decided to shove them all in there. The result is a film that doesn’t sink, but neither does it swim. It just kicks and kicks hoping to rise above. But it does not.
For 15 years now, people in Hollywood have been trying to get a live-action Robotech movie made. Specifically, a movie based on Robotech’s first and most popular season, which was a Western repackaging of Japanese masterpiece Macross.
Robotech’s original animated intro
In 2007 it was Tobey Maguire leading the charge for a Warner Bros. production that ultimately went nowhere. Eight years later Sony took a swing, with Aquaman director James Wan attached, but it too would eventually wind up cancelled. Now we’re getting a third and more recent attempt, with Sony trying once again, announcing in 2022 that Hawkeye director Rhys Thomas will be trying to get the adventures of Rick Hunter and friends on the big screen.
This third try might have a better chance of actually getting made; aside from regular Hollywood politics and economics, previous attempts were also plagued by a long-running legal standoff that had stymied Western releases of Macross products for decades. They were largely resolved in 2021, clearly paving the way for Sony’s renewed attempts at getting a Robotech movie made.
Anyway, enough background! This is an art feature, not a history lesson. But I needed to spell all that out so that we’re clear about what’s being showcased tonight: a collection of art from that middle project, Sony’s aborted first attempt that, after suffering a big setback in 2018 when Wan bailed to make Aquaman, was quietly cancelled in 2019.
Most illustrations focus on the SDF-1, Macross Island (whose vibes Price absolutely nails here) and redesigned Veritech fighters, though there are also some works showcasing original plot elements (like the oil rigs) that would have been new for this particular film.
The final rounds of conversation are wrapping up. If all goes well, it seems that Karl Urban will star as Johnny Cage in Mortal Kombat 2. The sequel to New Line Cinema’s 2021 film is getting underway, and fans couldn’t be more excited. While the first entry in the series did stray from the conventional Mortal Kombat story, it did a very good job at setting up various classic characters, as well as introducing some new ones, like Cole Young, the hero of the movie who had never appeared in a previous Mortal Kombat game.
Karl Urban is perhaps most famous for his portrayal of Billy Butcher in the hit Amazon series The Boys. He’s also been prominently featured in the recent Star Trek movies as the younger version of Dr. Leonard “Bones” McCoy. He was also the star of the much beloved Dredd reboot from 2012. Urban’s played a number of other characters, after getting his first big Hollywood role in 2002’s Ghost Ship.
Johnny Cage himself is an interesting character. He’s largely based around Jean-Claude Van Damme… specifically Van Damme’s performance in 1988’s Bloodsport. While he often serves as comic relief in the games, he’s also an extremely skilled martial artist. The character is a Hollywood action star, who gets noticed as one of Earth’s greatest fighters. As a result, Raiden enlists him to defend “Earthrealm” against the forces of “Outworld” in the Mortal Kombat tournament. Johnny and his allies then take on baddies such as Goro, Shang Tsung, and eventually, the emperor of Outworld himself, Shao Kahn.
Mortal Kombat 2 will be produced by James Wan, Todd Garner, Simon McQuoid, and E. Bennett Walsh.
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The video game Dead by Daylight is making its way to the big screen.
Production studios Blumhouse (“Get Out”) and Atomic Monster Productions (“M3GAN”), founded by horror guru James Wan (“The Conjuring” and “Insidious”), are joining forces with the gaming studio Behaviour Interactive to develop a feature film adaptation of the popular survival horror game, Variety reported.
In the high-stakes multiplayer game, one player takes on the role of a killer who stalks, slashes and strives to slaughter a team of four survivors before they can collaborate to escape death.
The game also features seven of its own exclusive monsters, including the Trapper, the Hillbilly and the Hag. In recent years, horror icons like Ghost Face and Freddy Krueger have also been added to the game via add-on packs for purchase.
No writer or director of the film has been named yet, but fans of the slasher simulator quickly flooded Twitter with excitement over the release.
dead by daylight movie directed by james wan? i really won big today
DEAD BY DAYLIGHT IS GETTING A MOVIE WITH ATOMIC MONSTER AND BLUMHOUSE!!
First Blumhouse’s announcement of lauching a video game division called Blumhouse Games last month and now this?!?! 2023 really is going to be an amazing year! 😭❤️ pic.twitter.com/UKmDSRDYPV
Released in 2016, Dead by Daylight has since amassed 50 million players. Last March, the game’s official Twitter account celebrated the impressive milestone on social media.
“Thank you to all of our players,” the Canadian gaming studio said on Twitter. “We hope to see you in the fog!”
Speaking about the upcoming project, Wan said in a statement relayed by Variety: “In ‘Dead by Daylight’ the Behaviour team has created a love letter to the world of horror, building an incredible environment teeming with atmosphere and terrifying villains — perfect for a scary cinematic adaptation.”
He added: “We’re big fans of the game at Atomic Monster, and are thrilled to be teaming up with Blumhouse to bring this frighteningly visceral world to the big screen.”
The announcement of the “Dead by Daylight” feature-length film comes just days after Blumhouse announced its plans to launch a video game division devoted to creating horror-themed projects for consoles, PCs and mobile devices.
