The full moon is here, and it’s bringing a Werwulf with it. Focus Features has released the first trailer for Robert Eggers’ highly anticipated creature feature, putting his signature grim spin on the classic monster movie as he travels back in time for his latest film.
Directed by Eggers from a script he co-wrote with Icelandic poet Sjón, the film stars Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Willem Dafoe, Ralph Ineson, and Lily-Rose Depp, all of whom featured in his last film, Nosferatu. Described in its logline as “a harrowing tale of devotion, damnation, and the devil within,” Werwulf is set in a 13th century English village plagued by a mysterious beast — as the tale goes in almost all werewolf stories — with local folklore becoming gruesome reality for its inhabitants.
Billed by Focus as Eggers’ “most visceral and haunting experience yet,” and touted by the man himself as the darkest thing he’s ever written, the film focuses on Taylor-Johnson’s unnamed farmer protagonist, described by Eggers to Esquire as “haunted and in great pain,” and “trying to find salvation through love.” Sounds like a similar throughline to the one in Nosferatu, only this time with a lot more dirt and grime, according to the director:
It's a really brutal, unforgiving, merciless, grotesque world. More than ever, it's mud and blood and dung and rain and pain and suffering. Aaron's performance is incredibly harrowing. We'll say without a doubt that it's his best performance, and the stuff that he does physically in the transformation scenes are incredibly extreme. The emotional intensity he brings to the role is equally as extreme.
Werwulf is produced by Eggers, Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Garrett Bird, and Sjón, with executive producers Chris and Eleanor Columbus and Bernard Bellew.
Werwulf hits theaters on Christmas Day.
