Werwulf by Robert Eggers is one of the most eagerly awaited movies of the year. Will its release spark a revival in the horror genre, as werewolves start to roam our screens again?
The History of Werewolves in Horror Movies and Popular Culture
Werewolf stories can be traced back to ancient Greek and Roman mythology, with the medieval period then proving to be a particularly fertile period for tales of people turning into wolves. In the movie industry, 1935’s Werewolf of London and 1941’s The Wolf Man were among the early influential films that helped to widely establish many of the genre’s rules and tropes that we now take for granted.
These movies helped make the werewolf character one of the most easily recognisable in popular culture, appearing in TV shows, music videos and more. Yet, the genre has lost ground in recent years, bearing relatively few new iterations. In iGaming, if you browse Sky Vegas welcome offers for new players, you’ll quickly find many horror slots, including Big Bass Halloween, Mummy’s Millions, Immortal Romance, and Ghost Slider, but there appears to be a gap in the market for more werewolf-themed slots, suggesting that game creators don’t recognise that there is sufficient demand. The same is true of literature, where vampires, zombies and ghosts take precedence over their furry compatriots on today’s bookshelves.
Many of the early films were based on Gothic European tales, which were built around earlier folklore. By the 1950s, werewolf movies transformed into different areas, including modern concerns such as the Cold War and scientific exploration gone wrong. After a lull, 1981’s An American Werewolf in London updated the genre by incorporating dark humour and eye-catching makeup effects.
Full Details of Werwulf
The new movie is set to be released at the end of the year, following on from the success of Eggers’ Nosferatu in 2024. Werwulf stars Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Willem Dafoe, and Lily-Rose Depp, and has been described as a period gothic folk horror movie. This description suggests a return to the aesthetic of the earliest werewolf movies.
It’s set in England in the 14th century, in a town which is being terrorised by a beast. Taylor-Johnson is a cursed farmer, with Depp as his wife and Dafoe playing the role of a hunter. Variety’s look at the first trailer makes particular mention of the dark, atmospheric setting Eggers has created, although the trailer doesn’t give away too many of the most important plot details.
This isn’t the only werewolf adventure we can expect to see in the next year or so. Dead Howling, a dark, post-apocalyptic fantasy film concerns a world where humans are at risk of disappearing when a zombie virus threatens to cause devastation. However, Carter (played by Joel Jackson) turns into a werewolf at night in order to hunt the zombies.
Release dates are yet to be provided for Pierce Brosnan’s Wolfland and Claire McCarthy’s Shiver. While Wolfland is described as an epic odyssey, Shiver is more of a romantic fantasy movie. In this way, we can look forward to a variety of different approaches to the werewolf mythology.
The next few months could prove to be important for werewolf movies, as Werwulf and the other upcoming films we’ve looked at may spark a much-needed revival.