Esquire has revealed a first-look at Aaron Taylor-Johnson (28 Years Later) in Werwulf, the hotly-anticipated monster movie from The Witch and Nosferatu director Robert Eggers that's set to hit theaters on December 25 via Focus Features.
Eggers directed Werwulf from a script he co-wrote with Icelandic poet and screenwriter Sjón, who he previously worked with on The Northman. The 35mm creature feature, which Eggers describes as “the darkest thing [he's] ever written” takes place in 13th-century England in which a mysterious beast stalks a foggy countryside as local folklore becomes a terrifying reality for the villagers. Here's a better look at Taylor-Johnson in all his gritty glory:
Starring alongside Taylor-Johnson are Lily-Rose Depp, Ralph Ineson and Willem Dafoe, making Werwulf a Nosferatu reunion if ever we saw one.
Speaking with Esquire, Eggers revealed that nobody in Werwulf has a name, and that Taylor-Johnson's character is a farmer ‘who is cursed':
It's a story about a man who is cursed and is trying to find salvation through love. He's a character who is haunted and in great pain.
The Lighthouse director teased more about Taylor-Johnson's performance and the world his character inhabits, saying:
It's a really brutal, unforgiving, merciless, grotesque world. More than ever, it's mud and blood and dung and rain and pain and suffering. 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.
Don't expect to see the titular wolfy beast for a good while, as Eggers and Focus Features are going for the Nosferatu approach of keeping the creature under wraps. Stay tuned for more as we get it.
