Phasmophobia creator Kinetic Games will be creatively involved in the recently announced film, and, the studio has told Eurogamer, it will begin seeding lore across the game in order to develop a story for it.
“Yeah, we are involved in the creative side of it as well,” the game’s creator, Daniel Knight, told me as part of a longer Phasmophobia interview. “We do want to make sure it is a Phasmophobia film and it’s what everybody will expect going in. We’re not just making a ghost-hunting film. It will be a Phasmophobia-themed film, and it’s our job to make sure it’s what everybody wants.”
But as people pointed out in reaction to the film’s announcement, the game doesn’t really have a story. It follows a series of procedurally generated ghost hunts that take place across apparently unconnected properties. How does that translate into a film?
“There’s some very minor story parts in the game right now,” Knight responded. “We do have a lore update planned as well. We were planning on doing that before the whole film stuff came about.
“We’ll do our own lore and story for the game and design it in a way where it’s a puzzle for people to figure out,” he added. “There’s not going to be any story mode or campaign or anything like that. You’re just going to be poking around in different locations. And that will be used for the film stuff as well.”
The Phasmophobia film was announced in June as a collaboration between Kinetic and Blumhouse (M3gan, Five Nights at Freddy’s), and production company Atomic Monster (Annabelle, The Nun, The Conjuring). But apparently Blumhouse wasn’t the first film studio to express interest.
“We had a few different studios reach out,” Knight told me. “We had quite a lot of interest. Even shortly after release, we had quite a big studio reach out,” he said. I asked him who this was but he couldn’t remember; I pursued this and genuinely seemed unable to recall the name. “We had quite a few over the years,” he added, “and then Blumhouse reached out and we’re all fans of all their horror films, and they were the perfect fit.
“A lot of them all play the game as well,” he said. “I think it’ll be like they will take the game stuff into the film, rather than the other way around.”
It’s been an extraordinary five years for Knight and Kinetic Games since Phasmophobia was released. Still only in Early Access, the game has sold more than 25 million copies – a new grand total Knight gave me when we spoke. The recent console releases and major Chronicle update have rejuvenated player activity in the game, and now all eyes turn to 2026 and the major 1.0 release, which is so significant, Knight said you should feel like you’re playing a new game. The full story of Phasmophobia, from near-miss to extraordinary success, is live elsewhere on Eurogamer now.