Writer/director Robert Eggers has become a leading light in the world of folk horror, and his next film, Werewolf, features an “incredibly harrowing” lead performance from Aaron Taylor-Johnson.
Johnson was part of the ensemble in Eggers’ last film, Nosferatu, a wildly successful exploration of the classical vampire tale.
Film News Blitz’s Dan Lawrence reports on what Eggers has had to say about his take on werewolves.
What is ‘Werwulf’ about?
Taylor-Johnson stars as a mute medieval farmer, haunted by trauma, who tries to save his soul and his family’s fate from the evil that lurks within.
That’s the synopsis provided by Working Title, one of the studios behind Werwulf, which, along with Focus Features, shared a first look at Taylor-Johnson in the film this week.
It shows Taylor-Johnson in the woods, spear in hand, flanked by dogs while sporting a stern expression.
Further intrigue comes via the orthochromatic presentation, which brings a bleakness to Eggers’ image just a few shades away from full black and white.
Eggers praises Taylor-Johnson
Eggers couldn’t be happier with his leading man, telling Esquire, “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 role is equally as extreme.”
The performance, according to Eggers, is central to the tone of Werwulf, which is poised to be the director’s most intense film to date.
“It’s a really brutal, unforgiving, merciless, grotesque world,” he explains.
“More than ever, it’s mud and blood and dung and rain and pain and suffering.”
Lily-Rose Depp plays a vital role in ‘Werwulf’
Equally crucial to Werwulf is the role being played by Lily-Rose Depp, another scene-stealer from Eggers’ Nosferatu.
Continuing his conversation with Esquire, Egger explains that Depp “is the heart of the movie.
“There’s a very clear physical change in her body and her makeup, but she inhabits a very different person that’s very different from her and very different from any character she’s ever played,” he adds.
“She’s Aaron’s wife, and she’s a mother of several children and also a farmer. She’s sort of the most gracious person in the film.”
A career-best performance from Taylor-Johnson and “the heart of the movie” from Depp is certainly a strong tease.
Those two ingredients are the perfect recipe to whet the appetite before Werwulf roars into cinemas on Christmas Day 2026.
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