Focus Features and director Robert Eggers have released the first trailer for the upcoming historical horror film "Werwulf."
The movie is scheduled to hit theaters on December 25, 2026.
Aaron Taylor-Johnson stars as a haunted 13th-century farmer undergoing a bestial metamorphosis. The film marks a reunion for the creative team behind Eggers' previous release "Nosferatu."
Inspired by Medieval Texts
The narrative draws from medieval sources, including the 13th-century encyclopedia Otia Imperialia by English cleric Gervase of Tillbury.
A section on lycanthropy, translated as "Of Men Who Were Wolves," documents historical accounts of individuals afflicted with a transformative malady that caused violence across remote European villages.
Eggers used these archaic records to create a realistic, dark atmosphere.
"This is my first Werwulf interview and my first interview in a while, so let's see how it goes," he said.
He explained that pursuing a werewolf project followed his work on "Nosferatu" as a deliberate return to horror.
The setting around the year 1300 aligns with the historical eradication of wolves in England due to wool trade protections.
"Yeah, obviously this stuff is all part of my DNA and part of my childhood interests, but I wanted to follow up Nosferatu with another horror movie," Eggers said.
"I had written something that was a bit too obscure. So I thought, Let me be sensible and make a werewolf movie."
Historical Research and Mythology
Eggers conducted extensive historical research, eventually expanding his scope to continental Europe due to scanty British records from the Dark Ages.
The mythology strips away modern cinematic tropes, focusing on psychological and historical dread recorded by medieval populations.
"I learned that basically because of protections for the wool trade, there was a big effort to get rid of all the wolves in England," Eggers said.
"It was pretty successful.
So the movie takes place around 1300, and that's as late as it could be because once there were no wolves in England, there was no more werewolf lore in England."
He noted that early Christian mythologies associated lycanthropy with satanic elements, diverging from older Viking concepts of wolf warriors like the Berserkirs or the Úlfhéðnar.
The film bypasses traditional tropes such as silver bullets or infectious bites to reset the genre's standard imagery.
"The cool thing about going back into the past is that you can kind of hit a reset button," Eggers said.
"So all the clichés of being bitten by a werewolf and silver bullets and a lot of the stuff that has become almost campy doesn't exist in the mythology of this movie."
The cast includes Lily-Rose Depp and Willem Dafoe alongside Taylor-Johnson.
The trailer emphasizes an atmospheric, low-color palette and antiquated language, reminiscent of Eggers' earlier historical horror film "The Witch."
"He's a farmer. He's a man who is cursed," Eggers said of the protagonist.
"It's a story about a man who is cursed and is trying to find salvation through love. He's a character who is haunted and in great pain."
