A Desperate Aaron Taylor-Johnson Cries Out in New ‘Werwulf’ Image
Robert Eggers has spent his career pulling audiences into the mud, superstition and dread of centuries past. He has built a run of historically rooted horror with ‘The Witch,’ ‘The Lighthouse,’ ‘The Northman’ and ‘Nosferatu.’ Few filmmakers make the past feel this unwelcoming.
His latest project keeps that streak going. ‘Nosferatu’ became a critical and commercial hit, earning around $181 million worldwide. ‘Werwulf’ is also set to open on Christmas Day, just as that film did.
Now fans have another glimpse of what that holiday release holds. On Nov. 1, DiscussingFilm shared a new look at Aaron Taylor-Johnson in ‘Werwulf,’ credited to a Screen Rant exclusive. The image shows the actor with long, wind-whipped hair and a heavy beard, mouth wide open in a raw scream. He stands in a drab, heavy tunic on a gray, fog-draped moor, and the stills so far have promised little comfort.
It is a sharp contrast to the first image the studio released. That earlier still showed Taylor-Johnson on a mossy fallen tree, gripping a spear and staring into a dark forest at something off-camera. This new frame trades that quiet standoff for something far more anguished.
The character himself remains a bit of a mystery. Eggers revealed in an interview with Esquire that nobody in the film has a name, and that Taylor-Johnson plays a farmer under a curse who is trying to find salvation through love. The only named character is reportedly a dog. Focus Features has described him as a 13th-century man haunted by his bestial metamorphosis.
The story unfolds in a world primed for folklore to turn deadly. The official logline places the film in 13th-century England, where a mysterious creature stalks a foggy countryside and local legend becomes a terrifying reality for the villagers. Willem Dafoe plays a hunter, while Lily-Rose Depp plays a farmer’s wife.
Footage has so far teased the horror without fully delivering it. The CinemaCon trailer showed a nude Taylor-Johnson convulsing as he transforms, though his full monstrous look was never revealed. A later poster leaned into a grainy black, white and gray aesthetic, with the tagline ‘Devoureth All Mankynde.’
That texture is no accident. Eggers said the team shot on 35mm, blending black-and-white grain into color film for a distinctive look. Select theaters will even host 35mm screenings when the movie arrives.
Expectations for sheer bleakness are already high. Eggers has called ‘Werwulf’ the darkest thing he has ever written, and a member of his sound team joked online that they needed a hug after reading the script. That is quite a warning from the director behind some of the grimmest films of the past decade.
With a reunion cast, a creature at the center and a director in full command of his gothic style, ‘Werwulf’ is shaping up as a seasonal counterprogramming dream. It is scheduled for release in the United States on Dec. 25, 2026. If this latest image is any indication, the wait will end in a scream.
