The Witch, The Lighthouse, The Northman, and Nosferatu writer/director Robert Eggers has dealt with some dark subject matter over the course of his career – but the darkest story is yet to come. No, not in his Labyrinth sequel or his adaptation of A Christmas Carol, but in the project we’ll be seeing before those two: the creature feature Werwulf, which he’s making for Focus Features, aiming for a Christmas Day 2026 theatrical release. We’ve heard that a trailer might drop on June 29th, but while we wait for that to happen, Focus Features chairman Peter Kujawski has taken an opportunity to hype the film up as being on “a whole other level.”
13th Century Terror
Werwulf is a Nosferatu reunion, as Ineson is joined in the cast by Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Lily-Rose Depp, and Willem Dafoe. Teen actress Bodhi Rae Breathnach, who just made her feature debut in Hamnet, is also in there.
Eggers has written the screenplay for Werwulf with Sjón, his co-writer on the Viking saga The Northman. Details are being kept under wraps, but The Hollywood Reporter’s sources told them “the story is set in 13th century England. The script also features dialogue that was true to the time period and has translations and annotations for those uninitiated to Old English. Initially, Eggers was planning on shooting the feature in black and white, but that is no longer the case. Suffice to say that considering the setting and the dialect, Eggers is promising another deep dive into a muddy, costumed, and violent time period consistent with his oeuvre which has earned him a loyal film following.“ Screen Daily adds that the story centers on a mysterious creature who stalks a foggy countryside as local folklore becomes a terrifying reality for the villagers.
Eggers and Sjón are producing Werwulf with Focus Features. Chris and Eleanor Columbus, who worked with Eggers on Nosferatu, will serve as executive producers.
During a recent Q&A event, Eggers told the audience that his “medieval werewolf movie” is, “the darkest thing I’ve ever written, by far.”
Making a dark vampire movie with Nosferatu turned out quite well for Eggers. The film stirred up a lot of positive reactions, with JoBlo’s own Chris Bumbray even describing the film as a new horror classic in his 10/10 review. It also managed to earn almost $182 million at the global box office during its theatrical run. So it will be interesting to see if Eggers can replicate or exceed that success with his dark medieval werewolf movie.
What did Peter Kujawski say about Werwulf?
Speaking with Letterboxd, Kujawski said Eggers has “such a specific and unique vision, and he has found a way to balance truly horrifying images with deep, singular aesthetics. Like all of his films, this has high-level terror and anxiety, but it’s done in a way that gives you these weird shafts of light and hope. For example, in Nosferatu, you don’t necessarily expect that you’re going to have a pretty deeply emotional experience by the end, right?“
When the interviewer acknowledged that Nosferatu was a horrific journey that ended “in a spot where the character needs to be,” Kujawski added, “Exactly. He’s really calibrated that extremely well. But I promise you, Werwulf is on a whole other level. No one has seen a movie that looks or feels like this movie does. To deliver the scares that this movie does, but also deliver a really, really intimate portrait of the experience of a werewolf—the emotional experience of a man going through that curse. It’s not just a plot device for Rob. It is a question of the foundational nature of man in the world. That monsters can exist, and the horror of living is so felt and present in this movie, that I really think audiences are gonna respond on a whole other level when they discover what he’s made. We’re just lucky to have the relationship we do with him, where we get to keep making these movies and letting him get out there and do exactly the version that he wants to make.“
Are you looking forward to Werwulf? What do you think of what Peter Kujawski had to say about the film? Share your thoughts on this one by leaving a comment below.
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