‘Werwulf’ Tease: Robert Eggers’ 13th-Century Horror Movie Haunts CinemaCon with First Footage

Robert Eggers‘ “Werwulf” is readying to stalk the winter movie season.

The Universal Pictures and Focus Features presentation during CinemaCon 2026 highlighted the companies’ slate of upcoming films — including Eggers’ horror movie, and his third at Focus after “The Northman” and “Nosferatu.”

Like those films, and his entire filmography before him, the “Witch” and “Lighthouse” director is keeping with his period roots for this latest gothic chiller starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Lily-Rose Depp, Willem Dafoe, and Ralph Ineson — all part of his regular company of actors dating back, in Ineson’s case, to his breakout feature “The Witch.”

CinemaCon attendees got a first look at the horror film — which, like 2024’s “Nosferatu” ($95 million domestic), will open on Christmas Day. Eggers is again working in a very classical aspect ratio, some black and white sequences, and some truly demonic, monstrous material, including some disturbing body horror as we see glimpses of a man becoming a werewolf.

Eggers again reteams with the Icelandic poet Sjón (“The Northman”) as co-writer on a film that draws on early folklore about lycanthropy to set it in 13th-century England. As the title suggests, the screenplay also incorporates Middle English to transport the audience to a foggy village stalked by the titular beast. Production wrapped in the U.K. at the top of this year.

Werewolves have been a source of fascination in movies dating back to Henry McRae’s 1913 silent film “The Werewolf” — and you can expect Eggers to reach into the canon of Universal monster movies like 1941’s “The Wolf Man” for inspiration.