Despite leaks ahead of the announcement of the Nicolas Cage half-chapter, it was still still news that totally blindsided the Dead by Daylight community. To some, the crossover even seemed like a hoax. But while Nic Cage joining the trials may not have been on anyone’s bingo card, his appearance in DBD amounts to such an unexpectedly perfect partnership.
Chapter 28.5’s promotional content emphasizes Cage taking his rightful place within the ‘museum of horror’ that is DBD’s library of licensed content. Cage has undoubtedly made some stellar contributions to the horror genre in recent years with films like Color Out of Space and Mandy, yet the cult following the actor has developed over the years draws significantly from his early work in action movies. I would instead argue it’s his place in meme culture that makes his debut in DBD such an effective meeting of worlds. To quote director Jordan Peele: “The difference between comedy and horror is the music.”
Comedy and horror are two genres which aim to produce two totally contrasting visceral reactions from their audiences. However, their conventions are more similar than you would initially think. Just as a comedy establishes its set-up and punchlines, its horror counterpart offers suspense and scares. Their respective content is linked by their willingness to transgress. As both the most riotous laughs and the most nail biting scares are achieved through playing on the uncanny, the unexpected, and the plain ol’ excessive.
Dead by Daylight’s most obvious push into comedy prior to Chapter 28.5 was the inclusion of Ashley J. Williams in Chapter 11.5: Ash vs Evil Dead back in 2019. The Evil Dead franchise offers a masterclass of the horror comedy subgenre, swinging dizzyingly between slapstick and outlandish gore at the drop of a severed hand. In-game, Ash maintains this spirit of humor with his voice lines, offering goofy little quips upon idling or being selected.
Beyond straightforward comedy, Dead by Daylight and the world of horror in general is infused with campness. An aesthetic sensibility originating with queer artists and activists in the 1960s, the exact definition of camp is pretty hotly debated, it’s a sort of know-it-when-you-see-it concept. I would argue camp refers to the post-ironic embrace of the artistic value of bad taste: everything that is gaudy, boldly executed, and unsubtle. Campness is the lifeblood of so much of 1980s/1990s horror and that legacy emanates through to the present-day media inspired by it.
Nicolas Cage’s backlog of so-bad-they’re-good classics is similarly attuned to the element of camp. He is an actor that is unafraid to take on a wide variety of roles and deliver them with such earnestly exaggerated embodiment. Cage has adopted the term “thespian” to describe himself and he’s really onto something there. Through his nouveau shamanic method, he brings a stage-appropriate level of intensity to his on-screen performances. The moments of his career that have been so frequently memed upon are not an example of clumsy amateurish acting, they are flashes of pure, calculated camp.
Crucially, the Nicolas Cage chapter offers much-needed levity for a community which can become overly preoccupied by the current ‘meta’ build. Nic’s base perks – Dramaturgy, Scene Partner, and Plot Twist – are wonderfully weird and suitably theatrical. They present a roll of the dice between a chase-winning hail mary and a blunder that’ll bring you one step closer to being hooked. Their use may pay off in spades or wind up getting you killed. But at least after the catharsis of a scream, you can properly bask in a laugh.
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