This Dead By Daylight fan film nails what makes the game great
This Dead By Daylight fan film nails what makes the game great
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This Dead By Daylight fan film nails what makes the game great

🕒︎ 2025-10-21

Copyright Polygon

This Dead By Daylight fan film nails what makes the game great

Dead by Daylight, the asymmetrical multiplayer horror from Canadian developer Behavior Interactive, has a deliciously simple premise. One Killer is pitted against four Survivors in a sick, twisted game of cat and mouse. The Survivors must power up generators to escape. If Survivors are caught, they’re put on a hook and sacrificed to the Entity, a malevolent spider-god that controls the purgatory landscape they're trapped in. Ever since the game’s release in June 2016, the community and achievements surrounding it have continued to grow, with horror icons like the Halloween movies' Michael Myers and the Scream movies' Ghostface filling its expanding roster of playable characters. Yet even without the addition of these iconic horror legends, Dead by Daylight has been successful enough to launch plenty of supplemental media. Beyond the original game, there have been animated shorts, in-depth YouTube explorations of its universe, and even a spin-off game that focuses entirely on delving into the lore of that vicious spider-god. Jared Cline's 17-minute film The Trapper goes further. It doesn't just sum up the Dead by Daylight experience, it captures what makes it so special in the first place. This fan-made short follows the game’s original Killer, whose giant, hulking frame is silhouetted in the game's iconic key art. From the get-go, Cline establishes an intimate understanding of the world the characters inhabit by including all the little details and Easter eggs fans know and love, from the way the Survivor Dwight (played here by Eric Hanson) bites his fingernails in the exact same way his character does in the character select menu to the familiar sound effect of a bear trap slamming shut. This is Dead by Daylight through and through. Even Dead by Daylight's in-game mechanics are expertly conveyed in well-thought-out ways in the short. The film establishes that this is the first run-through for Claudette (Nikki Dixon). Not knowing what to do, she relies on her teammate Meg (Crystal Cook) for guidance in a way that feels remarkably similar to the in-game tutorial. A flashlight is used to stun the Killer, allowing the Survivors to escape. Cline even includes a nod to the game's health kit, which helps Survivors heal each other. However, nothing quite strikes fear into the heart of Survivors like the meat hook, just waiting for The Trapper to impale a Survivor on as a sacrifice, and Cline delivers a terrifying close-up shot. For a fan-made short film, Trapper is gorgeously lit and shot well. Cline knows when to linger on hard-hitting reveals, such as Dwight's broken glasses and the pieces of metal embedded in The Trapper's bloodied skin, while also pulling back to reveal the full surroundings of the desolate hellscape where they're trapped. If you're a Dead by Daylight fan, this is the love letter you didn't know you needed. Where to watch: YouTube

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