What are the Killers of Dead by Daylight Based On?



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Hey everyone, today we’re looking at the inspirations for the characters, and what they could be based on. This is a video I wanted to revisit, in part because of all the new characters, but also because I would say I have a bit more knowledge than the first-time round. I also want to try and be more concise and more specific hopefully.

Credit to the Villains, For Honor, Silent Hill wikis for some of the images used. All images are used here under fair use:
https://villains.fandom.com/wiki/Main_Page

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Dead by Daylight Wiki (very helpful and a ton of cool stuff and secrets on there): https://deadbydaylight.fandom.com/wiki/Dead_by_Daylight_Wiki

Tiger Tank image By Hohum – Own work, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=7305322

William Shatner image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:William_Shatner_Photo_Op_GalaxyCon_Richmond_2020.jpg#/media/File:William_Shatner_Photo_Op_GalaxyCon_Richmond_2020.jpg

Music used from YouTube Audio Library:
The Emperor’s Army – Jeremy Blake
Clean and Dance – An Jone
Night Run Away – An Jone

Intro 0:00
Trapper 0:18
Wraith 0:46
Billy 1:09
Nurse 1:21
Shape 1:31
Hag 1:52
Doctor 2:05
Huntress 2:25
Bubba 2:56
Nightmare 3:03
Pig 3:18
Clown 3:38
Spirit 3:52
Legion 4:09
Plague 4:33
Ghost Face 4:49
Demogorgon 5:04
Oni 5:21
Deathslinger 5:29
Executioner 5:56
Blight 6:30
Twins 6:52
Trickster 7:17
Nemesis 7:38
Cenobite 8:09
Artist 8:24
Onryō 8:43
Dredge 8:53
Mastermind 9:13
Knight 9:34
Skull Merchant 10:04
Singularity 10:45
Outro 11:16

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43 thoughts on “What are the Killers of Dead by Daylight Based On?”

  1. The Huntress isn't based at Baba Yaga at all. The only thing that connects them is that they both live in forest. In slavic folklore Baba Yaga is an old, ugly and hunched witch that eats people, which has nothing to do with our big and strong woman in shes prime, also I don't remember any mentions that Huntress is a cannibal or wields a magic of some sort xd

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  2. The Clown is based off of John Wayne Gacy a pedophile who kills children, and The Legion is not like Ghostface at all, I'd say he's more like a killer from The Purge, Wesker is nothing like Neo from The Matrix I can't believe you said that! Skull Merchant is based off of Predator and The Wraith I can say is to, The Knight to me is based off of For Honor he's a mix of Warden&Kilmonger. Singularity to me is based off of Alien&Meet Your Maker I can see it being a little similar

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  3. 7:00 the twins could be based on the horror movie basket case which is about seperated joined twins and one of the brothers is a small deformed blob of flesh that looks like viktor if he moved via claymation.

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  4. Wouldn't wraiths bell also be either a funeral bell or a reference to For Whom The Bell Tolls as his lore was not even a twinkle in behaviours eyes at the time

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  5. The doctor you said tried to cure internet addiction. Pretty sure he still is using electro shock therapy to cure gaming and internet addiction today

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  6. I think for skull merchant, she takes some inspiration from killers like Chromeskull (laid to rest). A rich, affluent person who secretly kills others for their advantages. I rhink her mask kinda takes inspiration from Chromeskull (although his mask is more chrome and hers is more of a diamond covered mask.) It could just be me being a weird horror movie fan

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  7. The Pig’s outfit has a few different sources. And they all come from the first Saw movie!
    The outfit and mask is from when Adam is abducted from his apartment. Amanda is wearing a pig mask and a red cloak when she takes him.
    The hidden blade is from when Detective David Tapp and Detective Steven Sing infiltrate Jigsaw’s lair and Jigsaw is wearing a black cloak and has a hidden blade which he uses to slit Tapp’s throat before he escapes. Tapp survives and even has a scar on his neck on his in game model!

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  8. I also think Singularity is inspired by many similar stories in film and television. The setting and atmosphere of the future feels very Alien. The way they describe Hux’s previous form reminds me of androids from the alien franchise like Ash from the first Alien or also the Working Joes from Alien Isolation. Also his whole MO and design reminds me of the 1999 movie Virus. In that movie a space lightning bolt strikes a Russian ship, quickly taking over the computer systems and gaining sentience. It also constructs crude physical bodies that are made of both machine parts and organic matter.

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  9. Also, the lore of Legion is like a dark version of I Know What You Did Last Summer. Same case with a murder and same narrative with "it's OUR secret, and we will take it to our graves"

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  10. The Legion, rather than being visually inspired by the purge, seems to be inspired by a scrapped idea for Scream 2. In this scrapped script, Stu the original killer survived and was leading an army or “legion” of Ghostfaces.

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  11. I wouldnt be surprised in the inspiration for the twins could be the film Basket Case. Little gremlin thing in an older siblings body and also screams very loud

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  12. Deathslinger is based off of tbe Saint of Killers from Preacher. Clown is based off John Wayne Gacy. Skull Merchant is extremely similar to Scandal Savage (an obscure DC supervillian), the daughter of Vandal Savage and taking inspiration from him. She is a competent businesswoman, she is rich, she is Brazilian, she has the exact same weapon and look.

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  13. The names Hux and Soma remind me of "Brave new world" by Aldous Huxley. Its a dystopion book in which a drug called soma is used.
    Also Twins remind me of a gothic horror short story i've read years ago, taking place in france and containing a pair of conjoined twins (both male and grown up but one of them died so its kinda similar..).

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  14. Some also notes for specific killers;

    The Nurse actually shares a good bit of her backstory and themes with, ironically, Lisa Garland from Silent Hill 1 specifically. With both being withered down over years of working in hospital/asylums and dying/snapping.

    Freddy in general is also inspired by real life deaths of the Mong people, it's too much to go into but there are a good amount of videos going into it.

    Ghostface is heavily based of his Scream counterpart's real life inspiration, Danny Rolling. His "Classic" robe is also not the one from the film but based on it, being non sparkled and different drapes.

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