Horror king Robert Eggers is back with another creature feature, which got a special sneak peek at CinemaCon on Wednesday.
Following the success of vampire flick Nosferatu, Eggers has moved onto werewolves with Werwulf, which he co-wrote and directed. During Universal’s presentation to theater owners and distributors in Las Vegas, the first footage was shown with the declaration that it would be “his most terrifying motion picture yet.”
The film is largely black and white, with hints of color; the clips showed Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Lily Rose Depp as a villager couple, trudging along in dirty clothes and dragging a few kids behind. “Do not dread the darkness,” says a husky voiceover, with a supercut of violent images and horses running the forest. The footage ended on a close-up of Taylor-Johnson’s face screaming in horror — and no reveal of the titular monster, much like how Nosferatu‘s monster was hidden in promotional materials.
Taylor-Johnson, Depp and Willem Dafoe star in the movie, which like Nosferatu is set for a Christmas Day (2026) release in an act of counter-programming. It’s set in 13th-century England, where a mysterious creature stalks the foggy countryside, transforming local folklore into terrifying reality for its villagers.
Eggers has a particularly affinity for medieval projects, having said around the release of Nosferatu that “the idea of having to photograph a car makes me ill. And the idea of photographing a cellphone is just death. And to make a contemporary story you have to photograph a cellphone — it’s just how life is” so he did not plan to make any modern-set movies.
Both Eggers and co-writer Sjón are producing alongside Focus Features. Chris and Eleanor Columbus, who worked with Eggers on Nosferatu, serve as executive produce. Nosferatu brought in more than $180 million worldwide, becoming Eggers’ highest-grossing movie to date, and was nominated in four craft categories at the Oscars.
