Robert Eggers showed the first footage of Werwulf on Wednesday at CinemaCon, and the clip closed on Aaron Taylor-Johnson screaming in horror as the film kept its monster hidden. The filmmaker’s latest project, set for Christmas Day 2026, was introduced as his most terrifying motion picture yet.
The footage showed Taylor-Johnson and Lily-Rose Depp as a villager couple in 13th-century England, with Willem Dafoe also in the cast. The film looked largely black and white, with hints of color, as an unknown voiceover warned, “Do not dread the darkness,” while a mysterious creature stalked the foggy countryside.
That first look matters because Eggers is following Nosferatu with another period horror film built around atmosphere and restraint. Nosferatu brought in more than $180 million worldwide, became his highest-grossing movie to date and landed Oscar nominations in four craft categories, giving Werwulf an audience that will already know what he does with shadows, dread and old-world settings.
Eggers has said he does not plan to make modern-set movies and prefers medieval projects, and Werwulf fits that pattern exactly. The new footage also suggests the studio is hiding the creature’s appearance ahead of release, the same basic playbook that helped turn Nosferatu into a slow-burn marketing event. The question now is whether Eggers can repeat that mix of mystery and scale when Werwulf opens on Christmas Day 2026.
