If you’re an avid consumer of horror media, Dead by Daylight might be the most fun you can have in one evening short of the time your mom thought she could handle Lake Mungo (she could not). The asymmetrical multiplayer horror game has been active since 2016 and is full of an honest man’s worst fears. Grisly serial killers hunting for sport; legends and dark Gods made manifest; a Prestige 100 Steve who loops you like he was abandoned by his parents as a baby and raised by wild pallets in the woods, put on this earth specifically to thwart your happiness. A match of Dead by Daylight is either thrilling up until the last, blood-drenched moment, or so deeply unsatisfying it leaves you in a state of post-hook clarity so intense you abandon the game for several months. Perhaps the only experience that can match these two extremes, of course, is fantasizing about what horror character will be added to the game next.
It’s enough to sustain a player base through whole matches of Basement Bubba, Forever Freddy, or getting three-genned by Elon Musk if he cosplayed, and I can think of no greater journalistic pursuit than listing 29 characters I’d use my Make-A-Wish on to see join the ranks of Dead by Daylight’s licensed characters. Will Behaviour Interactive ever see this list? That’s up to you. Will these characters ever be added to Dead by Daylight? Not a snowball’s chance in Hell, but last I checked it’s not illegal for a boy to have dreams.
#1: Gabriel from Malignant (AKA The Cancer)
If you’ve seen 2021’s Malignant, you are reading this right now and nodding your head with frightening enthusiasm. Rest assured, I will be here with soft words and affirmations when you come to accept that Behaviour will likely never license anything from a movie this bonkers— which is a shame, because the film’s leather-clad slasher, Gabriel, is a perfect fit for Dead by Daylight. His too-tight black trench coat and the long, dark hair framing his face make him instantly recognizable from a distance, while his jerky, impossibly lithe movements (owing to an outrageous twist I won’t spoil here) give him a unique presence. Can you picture his walking cycle, his window vault animation? I can and did, and I’ve never been the same. His weapon, an important consideration since killers play the game in first-person, is equally iconic: a literal trophy taken from one of his victims and repurposed into a triangular gold dagger. Gabriel’s Dead by Daylight name, “The Cancer”, is so perfect and obvious in the context of the film, it makes the corner the devs wrote themselves into by committing to an increasingly strenuous naming convention look almost livable.
#2: The Gang and the Phantom Virus from Scooby-Doo (AKA The Virus)
Can you imagine approaching the generator in the Killer Shack and suddenly seeing Fred, Daphne, Velma, and Shaggy scattering like ants from all different exits amid a chorus of “Jeepers!” and “Zoinks!”? Does that not feel like gamer cocaine straight to the veins? The mystery crew and iconic monsters from Scooby-Doo are some of the more requested characters on this list, so much so that Behaviour even included them in their 2021 license satisfaction survey asking what IPs players might be interested in. The main obstacle to Mystery Inc’s inclusion isn’t necessarily licensing, though: it’s getting Warner Bros. to sign off on depicting their beloved characters getting impaled on hooks, gored by a thousand weapons, and tea-bagged by Feng mains. That said, the gang did experience bloody violence and existential crises in the animated Supernatural crossover episode, “Scoobynatural”, so maybe there’s someone at Warner Bros. with a kink.
As for the killer, that would obviously be the Phantom Virus, who would come to the game complete with his spiky, lightning blue silhouette, shuddering laugh, and you bet your ass a baseball-themed Mori.
#3: Ginny and Jason Voorhees from Friday the 13th (AKA The Lawsuit)
Some of my best memories are from playing Friday the 13th: The Game and some of my worst memories are from solo-queuing in Dead by Daylight, so this seems like a logical fit. Fan-favorite Final Girl Ginny from Part 2 would be a shoe-in as the new survivor, while the man, the myth, the lawsuit waiting to happen Jason Voorhees would be a milestone killer, whose inclusion would be a genuine triumph for the game and for copyright law professors everywhere.
#4: Esther from Orphan (AKA The Orphan)
Orphan doesn’t seem to be as popular among horror fans these days as it was in 2009, or maybe its importance was just inflated by years of “Top 10 Twists in Movies” lists. Did we all forget how good Isabelle Fuhrman is in the title role? Apparently not all of us, because the film got its first prequel in the form of Orphan: First Kill, albeit more than a decade later, which would have been the perfect time to do an Orphan-themed DLC introducing Esther, the maybe-little girl who worms her way into the lives of a grieving family. Unfortunately, any momentum the property might have had is pretty much evaporated by now, and without a push from someone within Behaviour or one of you mailing this list in an unmarked envelope to their offices, we may never see the polite Estonian girl in a choker smile while she (somehow) grabs you out of a locker, hammer swinging behind her back like a secret you’ll take to the grave.
#5: Ben Shapiro from The Daily Wire (AKA The Pipsqueak)
I can’t tell you how much I do not want this man and his tiny, tiny voice in Dead by Daylight. That said, the DbD community is always complaining about the game’s lack of “actually scary” killers. You want scary? How about over 500K monthly listeners scary? How about ultra-conservative propaganda masquerading as intellectualism scary? How about “your uncle thinks he makes a good point” scary? Granted, the idea of shining a flashlight in his eyes until darkness takes hold and even the light of God recedes from view does have a certain appeal.
#6: The Good Boi from The Hound of the Baskervilles (AKA The Hound)
Is it funny to imagine a big dog as a killer in the world of Dead by Daylight? Yes. Am I joking in even the slightest including it on this list? Hell, no. For those who didn’t have to read it in middle school, The Hound of the Baskervilles is Arthur Conan Doyle’s third Sherlock Holmes novel, and follows the detective duo as they investigate the legend of a supposedly supernatural hellhound that kills Baskerville family heirs. The titular hound is eventually shot by Holmes and Watson and revealed to be a normal dog, albeit quite large (a bloodhound and mastiff mix) and painted with glowing phosphorus. I think we can all agree this loyal, innocent boy deserved better, and since the Entity often takes killers in the moment of their death, sometimes warping and exaggerating their appearances, The Hound could easily return to stalk the moor once again, larger and with glowing jaws no longer in need of phosphorus. Plus, he would obviously carry survivors in his mouth, which is reason enough to add him to the game.
#7: Emma Larsimon, Camille, and Marianne from Marianne (AKA The Witch)
Speaking of dogs, Netflix cancelled the excellent, terrifying Marianne after just one season, but renewed their extended Avatar skit for another two. Marianne—the sinister, ephemeral witch who emerges from the pages to torment her author Emma Larsimon until she agrees to write again—is perfect killer material, and the perfect counterpoint to Dead by Daylight’s more witchy survivors, Mikaela Reid and the recent Sable Ward. Of course, Emma and her level-headed assistant Camille are too good as characters to be denied a seat at the Campfire, so they and Marianne are a package deal. I expect no complaints once players get a look at their faces.
#8: Red Miller and the Bikers from Mandy (AKA The Black Skulls)
The Black Skulls biker gang from Mandy is what you’d get if your DM tried to homebrew a Cenobite. They’re DIY sadomasochists; drug couriers who took a trip so bad they became leather-bound grime angels of pleasure and pain. Their names, according to the film, are Skratch, Scabs, Sis, and F*ck Pig. They rule.
Don’t tell me they should just be a skin for The Legion. I know that. Just like I know Red Miller should be a skin for Nic Cage. I’ll take what I can get.
#9: The Hash-Slinging Slasher from Spongebob Squarepants (AKA The Sash-Ringing– The Flash-Singing– The Bash-Pinging– THE HASH-SLINGING SLASHER)
Talk about a Sloppy Butcher, am I right?
Comes with the most violent, disgusting Mori you’ve ever seen.
#10: Jay and the Entity from It Follows (AKA The Pursuer)
I’ve been dreaming about this collaboration for years. It Follows: My favorite horror movie. Dead by Daylight: My favorite asymmetrical multiplayer horror game with the word “dead” in its name. Unlike other indie darlings on this list, It Follows is actually well-enough established in the horror hall of fame (and it’s got a sequel coming out!) for a proposed DbD chapter to gain traction. It only has three obstacles to overcome. First, the entity following Jay (this chapter’s survivor, how could they deny us Maika Monroe) has no set appearance. Second, it’s usually fully nude, partly nude, or partly nude and pissing itself, and nudity is a sacred line Behaviour has yet to cross. Lastly, its power. What the hell would its power be? Walking slowly, unerringly toward survivors? Welcome to the DbD killers club, buddy.
But these are questions the developers have the pleasure of answering in clever, outside-the-box ways: one of Behaviour’s greatest strengths. Does The Pursuer take the form of other survivors, blending in from a distance and fulfilling The Legion Promise after all these years? Does it have an aura-based power to know where survivors are so it can “follow” them at all times, or a stealth power to get the drop on them? How do you deliver the promise of the movie within the mechanics of the game? That’s the question haunting every new Dead by Daylight chapter, and the day Behaviour adds It Follows to the game is the day I use a more generous word than haunting.
#11: Cocaine Bear from Cocaine Bear (AKA The Bear)
This would make the Dead by Daylight community so mad but it would make me smile like a Cheshire cat. The Creature Feature is a staple genre of horror, and DbD has a severe lack of creatures. Give us an alligator killer, a hungry swarm of ants, a bear so snow blind it killed all of zero people before suffering what Wikipedia refers to as “the black bear equivalent of a drug overdose” and dying unceremoniously in the woods.
#12: The Blob from The Blob (1958) (AKA The Blob)
Aside from being the funniest four-letter word in the English language, The Blob is a horror classic full of surprises. If you’re unaware of the theme song that plays during the opening credits of 1958 film, now is your chance to educate yourself before it inevitably goes viral for a few days on TikTok.
#13: Frankenstein’s Monster from Frankenstein (AKA The Monster)
Did you know Frankenstein is public domain? How cool would it be to get a classic horror monster in Dead by Daylight? I’d be delighted to see how they revamp such an iconic and veteran character. Give Behaviour flack for whatever balancing changes or supposed side they take in the killer vs. survivor main war you want, their character designs are frequently top-notch. Look no further than the last five original killers: Dredge, The Unknown, Singularity, Knight… Dredge again.
#14: M3GAN from M3GAN (AKA The Prototype)
The game would be unplayable for weeks. You couldn’t play a match as survivor without going up against a M3GAN running an Ebony Mori that lets you kill survivors with The Dance while your fellow players engage in synchronized tea-bagging of your corpse.
#15: The Mummy from Jonny Quest (AKA The Mummy)
This cut is so deep it’ll give you Deep Wound, but what can I say: you never forget the first monster that truly, irreparably shattered your view of the world. For me, it was the tattered, unshakeable mummy who pursues our characters across the desert (a proto-It Follows) in “The Curse of Anubis”, the third episode of the 1964 cartoon Jonny Quest. Along with the Vampire and the Evil Child, the Mummy is an untapped horror archetype ripe for Dead by Daylight, and I can’t think of a more quintessential encapsulation of the trope than the one Jonny Quest yeeted unsolicited into my brain when I was six. A fully-wrapped human figure with hints of rot around the eyes and mouth, this mummy is a vengeful shade of humanity, able only to walk as its bandages trail behind, but it doesn’t rest and it doesn’t stop until it gets you. It even grabs and fully lifts the episode’s villain into the air in its final moments, as if it were participating in DbD killer tryouts.
And hey, while we’re capitalizing on my childhood nightmares, Jonny Quest also had an Invisible Monster in episode 20 that would easily put Wraith out of a job.
#16: The Easter Ripper from Murder House (AKA The Ripper)
Make him a skin for The Ghost Face. Easy. Upsides: You get to pay tribute to one of the scariest games I’ve ever played and pretend you’re “just one of the indies”. Downsides: Puppet Combo man will roast you incessantly and fans will demand a nude skin for the killer on day one.
#17: Sam from Trick r’ Treat (AKA The Trick)
A little rough around the edges but an overall treat of an anthology, Michael Dougherty’s Trick ‘R Treat introduced one of horror’s more original, enigmatic mascots: Sam, later revealed to be Samhain, the Spirit of Halloween. Sam embodies both the season’s whimsy and its darkness, with his cute but ominous burlap mask and orange footie pajamas, the archaic but strict “rules of Halloween” he follows, and the half-eaten lollipop that occasionally serves as a weapon (which would look great in first-person). The only problem, as with M3GAN and Esther, is his small size (a big no-no for killers), but with Chucky newly added to the game, it looks like the devs are willing to come up with clever workarounds to finally make our short kings playable.
#18: The Skull Merchant from Dead by Daylight (AKA The Skull Merchant)
They’ll get it right if we just give them a second chance you guys, I feel it in my bones.
#19: Christine from Christine (AKA The Fury)
Dead by Daylight could use some more “out there” killers, if we’re being honest. A good 50% of them are dudes in masks. Now, imagine you’re three gens into a game going for the unhook. You’re almost there and you think you’re safe, when suddenly, from across the map, you hear the roar of an engine. Headlights scythe through the fog, the grasses part, and in barrels Christine, a red 1958 Plymouth Fury with blood on her grille and death on her mind. I know what you’re thinking: How does it fit through doors? Or vault windows? Or open lockers? The answer to all of these questions is actually incredibly obvious: rework the entire game and every map around Christine. You could probably do it in less time than it takes to click through a bloodweb.
#20: Red Guy and Colin the Computer from Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared (AKA The Clevery Guy)
Aren’t the kids into cute mascot horror these days? If Behaviour can’t get the license to Five Nights at Freddy’s or Poppy’s Playtime, why not go for the next best thing: a surreal horror/comedy web series from 2016 (and now, thanks to Channel 4, an actual series). Red Guy is the obvious choice for the survivor, while the computer puppet from the show’s fourth episode is roughly killer height when standing and displays the most… aggressive behavior of the series’ teachers (though Steak guy is a solid choice as well). I imagine him having a sub-realm power similar to The Nightmare, able to transport survivors to The Digital World, where digital dancing will presumably play a large role in their demise.
#21: Sienna, Tara, and Art I Guess from Terrifier (AKA The Terrifier)
Who else remembers when Terrifier 2 Executive Producer Steve Barton spent a week on Twitter begging Behaviour to add Art the Clown to Dead by Daylight and it was the saddest thing you’d ever seen? No disrespect, Steve. I’d probably be just as tie-in thirsty if my hit sequel was having a moment— though I would probably have left out the getting all bitter and dejected on my timeline bit. The truth is, he was going about it the wrong way. You don’t market a Terrifier chapter in DbD through Art. You do it through Sienna.
Sure, Art is fun and has a good shtick, but Final Girl Sienna (embodied perfectly by Lauren LaVera) is our Valkyrie-angel warrior of prophecy; a teenage cosplayer who slowly becomes the mythic antithesis to Evil itself over the course of the second film. Repairing gens and doing skill checks is frankly beneath her, but I’m confident Behaviour will give her at least one absolutely busted perk that changes the face of the meta, as a treat.
#22: Jess and The Masked Killer from Triangle (AKA The Stowaway)
Full transparency: Jess and The Masked Killer from Triangle don’t really have a place in Dead by Daylight that wouldn’t be better served by another original or licensed chapter. They are on this list purely so I can shill for Triangle: a twisty, hyper-smart horror movie set on a derelict ocean liner that would make a perfect double feature with the likes of Coherence or Predestination. Unlike Dead by Daylight, it’s extremely underrated, and can be enjoyed immediately instead of mostly in retrospect.
#23: The Unknown from Willy’s Chocolate Experience (AKA The Unknown)
This is embarrassing. Two weeks ago, Dead by Daylight announced their newest killer The Unknown, but they accidentally made him an original character instead of the classic villain everyone wanted: an evil chocolatier who lives in the walls coveting Willy McDuff’s Anti-Graffiti Gobstopper. It just goes to show that Behaviour cannot be trusted and they should cede development of the game to the loving, soft-spoken community of fans who would never, ever descend upon them like a nest of fire ants dropped from a plane.
#24: The Killer from The Killer (AKA The Killer)
It’s in the name.
#25: Kinsey and the Man in the Mask from The Strangers: Prey at Night (AKA The Stranger)
Forget the first Strangers film (should be easy enough). To me it’s more interesting as a piece of nihilistic horror with one great line: “Why are you doing this to us?” Liv Tyler’s character pleads at the end of the movie to the trio of masked invaders. Dollface’s chilling response: “Because you were home.” They try to recreate the impact of this line in the film’s sequel (“Why are you doing this?” “Why not?”), and then we learn it’s apparently so franchise-defining they put easily the worst version of it in the trailer for the new prequel series (“Because you’re here”?).
But forget that messy history lesson. The Strangers: Prey at Night is an occasionally subversive, frequently stylish film in its own right, elevating its slashers above their origins while also adding strong characters to root for in the form of Final Girl Kinsey and her brother Luke. With the aforementioned prequel trilogy on its way, we may very well see these intruders join the game in a licensed chapter, which would make me and the franchise’s cult following snug as bugs in our respective rugs. The fact the Strangers come packaged as a trio opens up a world of possibilities for their power, too. I imagine you play as the Man in the Mask, while Dollface and Pin-Up Girl either stalk the map as AI, ambush at killer-assigned locations, or give you the option to switch control to them a la The Twins. And of course, their terror radius would play Bonnie Tyler’s “Total Eclipse of the Heart”. If you know you know.
#26: Naru and The Feral Predator from Prey (AKA The Feral)
After the Tools of Torment chapter came out, there was fervent speculation in some parts of the community that The Skull Merchant was a killer scraped together from the corpse of a Predator chapter that never came to fruition. This is obviously untrue, but it also needs to be untrue, because I won’t get a good night’s sleep until we get a Predator in Dead by Daylight. With the release of the jaw-droppingly good Prey in 2022 effectively taking a car battery to the franchise after it flat-lined with 2018’s The Predator, there has arguably never been a better time for a Yautja to join the survivor hunt, with its signature cloaking device and array of sci-fi gadgets and weapons. Predator actually has its own asymmetrical multiplayer game in IllFonic’s underrated Predator: Hunting Grounds, so clearly Disney isn’t stingy with the license. Comanche warrior Naru more than earns her place among DbD’s survivors (I’m sure she could learn to repair a generator, it’s just pressing the same two wires together for 90 seconds), while Prey’s feral, more primitive Predator offers the perfect balance between the new and the familiar. You could animate a hundred different Moris for him and still not run out.
#27: No-Face from Spirited Away (AKA The Imitator)
Is Spirited Away a horror movie? Why don’t you ask the eight year-old who just watched two people get devoured by a giant mouth attached to a wriggling, bulbous black body? No-Face terrified me as a kid. Childhood trauma aside however, the character’s inclusion in Dead by Daylight wouldn’t be totally out of place if you consider his lore. No-Face is a spirit whose sense of self is defined entirely by those around him, which results in his greedy, ravenous rampage through the bathhouse, only becoming docile again once he’s free from its influence. Imagine, if you will, the personality of such a spirit when transported to The Entity’s Realm, surrounded by fear, violence, and flashlight bully squads. That’s right: the most toxic killer ever conceived by God. Face-camping, body-blocking, NOED, hitting survivors on hook, all of it. And players have only themselves to blame.
#28: House Centipede from That One Corner of the Bathroom (AKA The Little Bastard)
Sometimes the greatest horrors come from life.
#29: Griffith from Berserk (AKA The Hawk)
I had a vision before starting this list. The Hawk of Light, traversing the map astride a white house in full battle armor, cutting down survivors with his saber. Dismounting to perform a Mori that starts with a close-up of his piercing gaze and ends with him sacrificing you to the gathered Apostles in a mini-Eclipse, as the God Hand looms beyond. No survivors this chapter; seeing Guts or Casca crouched over a generator would put me in a permanent dissociative state. “Hai Yo” as the terror radius. The survivor hook scream being replaced with an enraged, protracted “GRRRIIIIIFFIIIIIIIIIIIITHHHH!!!!”
Would a Griffith chapter in DbD be blasphemous to Berserk and the late Kentaro Miura’s vision? Yes. Would it make little practical, financial, or narrative sense? Yes. Would it still, for reasons unfathomable to all but the most remote transcendental entity or law, bring unspeakable joy to my heart? Yes. It is my dream, and I do not betray my dream. Just like an anime adaptation of the Lost Children arc, I know it will never happen, but that doesn’t stop me from waiting. Hoping. Like a dog nestled against its owner’s grave.
