Dead by Daylight Is Bringing Immersive Thrills to Dead Northern 2026

Something is waiting beneath City Screen Picturehouse this September. Dead Northern Horror Film Festival is taking its 2026 partnership with Dead by Daylight beyond conventional sponsorship, turning part of its York venue into an interactive extension of the multiplayer horror game while putting James Cameron’s Aliens back on the big screen for its 40th anniversary.

Behaviour Interactive’s Dead by Daylight has been confirmed as Dead Northern’s headline partner for this year’s festival, which runs from 25 to 27 September. The collaboration also arrives during the game’s 10th anniversary year, with events and activations planned across the three-day festival.

Among the first confirmed additions is a special late-night screening of Cameron’s Aliens on Friday. Released in 1986, the science-fiction horror sequel celebrates four decades this year and will form part of a wider late-night event. Exactly what else that event involves has yet to be disclosed.

The more unusual element of the partnership will be found downstairs. The basement at City Screen Picturehouse is being transformed into a Dead by Daylight-inspired immersive experience, developed with Behaviour Interactive and open to festivalgoers throughout the weekend.

Organisers are deliberately keeping much of what happens inside under wraps, although challenges and interactive elements have been promised. Further information will arrive closer to the festival. It sounds ominous enough on paper, though what that means once people actually start heading into a cinema basement is another matter.

Festival Director Josh Lawson said the organisers were keen to avoid a partnership that amounted simply to branding.

‘When Behaviour first approached us about working together, we knew we wanted to do something that felt like more than a traditional sponsorship,’ Lawson said. ‘Dead Northern has always been about creating experiences for horror fans, so the opportunity to bring Dead by Daylight into the physical festival was incredibly exciting.’

He added that the anniversary screening was particularly suited to the communal atmosphere of the event. ‘We’re particularly excited about Aliens as our Friday night screening. It’s exactly the sort of film that works brilliantly with a festival audience, and celebrating its 40th anniversary gives us another great reason to put it on the big screen.’

Developed and published by Behaviour Interactive, Dead by Daylight is an asymmetrical multiplayer horror game built around matches in which four survivors face a single killer. During its decade-long run, the game has combined its own characters and settings with figures drawn from established horror properties, helping it build an audience spanning gaming and genre cinema. More Dead by Daylight activations and other surprises are due to be announced in the coming weeks.

They will sit alongside Dead Northern’s existing mix of independent horror, premieres, cult screenings, talks and live events. The festival’s full 2026 programme is due to be unveiled tomorrow, 27 August (watch this space).

Dead Northern Horror Film Festival takes place at City Screen Picturehouse in York from 25 to 27 September 2026, with the full programme going live on 27 August and tickets and further information available through Dead Northern: deadnorthern.co.uk/