Having revisited the vampire myth with Nosferatu in 2024, Robert Eggers is now taking on another cornerstone of folklore with Werwulf. The American director has just dropped the second trailer for his new film, and these fresh images reveal a little more about this tale set in 14th-century England. Aaron Taylor-Johnson plays a farmer struck by a terrible curse, while Lily-Rose Depp, Willem Dafoe and Ralph Ineson round out a cast that regulars of Eggers' cinema will know well by now. Only this time, they've all got wonderfully battered faces. Above all, though, this new trailer shows just how little Werwulf will resemble the werewolf films cinema has accustomed us to.
It's not the transformation that matters
The story unfolds in the 14th century, at a time when wolves still roamed parts of England. Aaron Taylor-Johnson plays a farmer struck by a mysterious curse who seeks some form of salvation through love. But his plight quickly draws the attention of a hunter, played here by Willem Dafoe, who is out to put an end to that very curse. Robert Eggers' film shouldn't simply tell the story of a man turning into a werewolf, but rather how such a transformation might be perceived in a world where religion, superstition and popular belief take centre stage. Eggers wanted to go back to a period when these stories still belonged to folklore and could be told as tales of damnation. The fear comes as much from the characters' beliefs (ignorance, basically) as from the creature itself.
The official synopsis duly bills Werwulf as Robert Eggers' "most visceral and haunted experience" to date, with a story revolving around devotion and the evil that can dwell in any of us. And you can certainly feel it in the images of this second trailer.
A film shot entirely in Middle English
As with his previous historical films, Robert Eggers hasn't merely recreated the sets and costumes of the period: the filmmaker also wanted to recover the language spoken by the inhabitants of medieval England. All of Werwulf's dialogue has been written and performed in Middle English, the language used between the 11th and 15th centuries. Which means even English-speaking audiences will probably need the subtitles to follow certain exchanges. To pull it off, Eggers worked with two Oxford professors to reconstruct the dialogue and the pronunciation of the period. It may sound like a radical choice, but it fits perfectly with the director's approach — ever since The Witch, he has done everything possible to avoid anachronisms in his films.
And to take the whole thing to its logical extreme, Eggers also decided that not a single character in the film would have a name, with the exception of the dog. In short, nobody is called by their first name for the entire runtime. Here again, the idea is to strip away as many modern reference points as possible and drop the viewer straight into this harsh, filthy 14th-century England. And the footage certainly isn't about to prove me wrong...
It has to look filthy
The second Werwulf trailer also gives a better sense of the work done on the cinematography, given that the film was shot on 35 mm, in a near-square aspect ratio (4:3) that further heightens the sense of an old film. The photography leans heavily on contrast, shadow and natural light, with a colour image that at times evokes old black-and-white pictures. The film grain is deliberately visible, lending the landscapes, faces and sets a very particular texture. Personally, I'm already sold.
But this choice obviously isn't purely aesthetic: the aim is also to give the impression that the viewer is watching a story that genuinely belongs to that era, rather than a contemporary production that has simply parked its characters in medieval sets. The footage shows barely lit locations shot with a very organic look (I know you love it when I use that word). The film also seems to give plenty of room to darkness and natural light sources, which suits the director's sensibility rather well. Shooting took place in England, of course, partly at Sky Studios Elstree, in Bourne Wood in Surrey, and in Devon. Once again, Robert Eggers favoured real locations and environments capable of reinforcing the film's historical feel.
A cast with faces that stop you dead
Robert Eggers is also reuniting with several of his regular collaborators, and the director once again seems to have taken a mischievous delight in putting them through some fairly radical physical transformations. Aaron Taylor-Johnson takes the lead role, and while he's still recognisable, he appears with a battered face and a deliberately haggard look designed to show that he's the hunted beast. Lily-Rose Depp undergoes an equally radical transformation. The actress, usually associated with a far more glamorous image, turns up here with a deliberately hardened appearance and a pronounced cleft lip that completely alters her face. The contrast with her usually very polished on-screen look is quite striking.
But the prize for most unsettling character probably goes to Willem Dafoe. The actor has always had a particularly cinegenic face, all angles and instantly recognisable, and it has carried a good part of his career. In Werwulf, Eggers makes the most of that face, to the point where Dafoe comes across as more frightening than the creature itself. His angular, weathered features, his stare and his general bearing sometimes suggest you're looking at the werewolf rather than the man meant to be hunting it.
It's a constant with Robert Eggers, who never shies away from making his actors filthy, exhausted, wounded or unrecognisable when the story calls for it. And that's part of why we love his films. Werwulf La Bête Maudite opens on 25 December 2026 in the United States, then on 6 January 2027 in French cinemas.
