Werwulf Director Robert Eggers Learned An Important Lesson From His Biggest Flop

Robert Eggers is one of those filmmakers whose work is so well-crafted and unique that both it and his name have made a big impact on the horror genre and pop culture. This is why it's eye-opening to realize that he's only helmed four features to date. His fifth, "Werwulf," is due to hit theaters this winter, and judging by its trailers, it'll likely be another landmark horror film. 

Of course, not every movie can be a hit, and Eggers has succumbed to that fate before. The dark fantasy action epic "The Northman" is his most ambitious movie yet, and thus far, it's the only one he's directed that's almost entirely removed from the horror genre. Mind you, it still features some of the gnarliest gore of his career, as well as some eerie visual elements.

Sadly, "The Northman" did not thrive financially when it reached theaters in April 2022, and, due to its sizable budget, ultimately went down as one of the year's biggest box office flops. Cut to now, and Eggers himself still seems to harbor reservations about how it all turned out. Nothing in life is a total waste, though, and while discussing the film at a retrospective of his work at Beyond Fest in Los Angeles (which I attended), the director revealed that an experience on "The Northman" taught him an important lesson.

Indeed, at the beginning of "The Northman," King Aurvandill War-Raven (Ethan Hawke) returns to the island of Hrafnsey after years away at battle. For this arrival, Eggers wanted Aurvandill to be flanked by numerous imposing warriors, only to find that he was short on folks who could actually ride horses on the day of filming. Luckily, however, this awkward incident prepared him to avoid a similar one while shooting "Werwulf."

As Robert Eggers recalled at the Egyptian theater:

"[...] When Ethan Hawke comes in, riding into town in the beginning of the movie, I was like, 'Where the hell are all the extras that I cast as his generals, and his elite soldiers, [that] looked amazing next to him?,' and it's like, 'Oh, well, those guys, they can't ride horses.' I was like, 'Okay, but I cast them because they look the best, because they need to be by him.; 'Yeah, yeah, yeah, but they aren't the horse guys. Like these [others] are the horse guys.'"

Naturally, Eggers made due with what he was given, but he came away from the whole experience understanding that he needed to be more cognizant of the people he picked for non-speaking roles in his films going forward. So, when it came time to shoot a scene for "Werwulf" in which the character known as Old Hunter (Willem Dafoe) brings a posse to hunt for the titular creature, Eggers was more prepared. As he explained:

"So, then, for 'Werwulf,' when later in the film Willem Dafoe brings more hunters [...] I was like, 'Okay, show me only guys who can ride horses.'"

It's humbling to realize that even a filmmaker as studied and meticulous as Eggers can run into little hurdles like this, just as it's educational to learn how he can adapt and grow from it. It's why his films have only continued to get bigger and better.

"Werwulf" will claw its way into theaters on December 25, 2026.