Following the release of the first official image from Werwulf, Focus Features has also unveiled the first official description of the new horror film written and directed by Robert Eggers (The Witch, The Lighthouse, Nosferatu).
The film is being presented as Robert Eggers' most visceral and haunting work to date: a tale of devotion, damnation, and the devil lurking within.
Werwulf opens in theaters on December 25 through Focus Features.
In an interview with Esquire, Robert Eggers also revealed that the film will move away from the best-known werewolf movie clichés.
Eggers added: "The cool thing about going back into the past is that you can kind of hit a reset button... 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." He continued: "So you don't need to have seen Lon Chaney Jr.'s The Wolf Man or An American Werewolf in London to get what's going on here."
Eggers explained "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. 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”.
Set in 13th-century England around the year 1300, Werwulf follows a mysterious creature that stalks the land as local folklore becomes a terrifying reality.
The cast includes Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Nosferatu), Lily-Rose Depp (Nosferatu), Willem Dafoe (The Lighthouse), Ralph Ineson (The Witch), and Bodhi Rae Breathnach (Hamnet).
