Focus Features just gave us our best look yet at Werwulf, the new Robert Eggers werewolf picture landing in theaters this December, and yes, the trailer is doing exactly what you'd expect an Eggers trailer to do. Candlelight. Mud. Somebody whispering in a way that feels like a threat. You can watch it over at MSN's coverage, and I'd watch it twice, because half the good stuff is hiding in the shadows.

I've been on the Eggers train since The Witch, and what keeps me there is how he treats horror like folklore instead of spectacle. His monsters don't burst out at you. They seep in. The Lighthouse was two men losing their minds to a light bulb and some seagulls, and it was scarier than most movies with twenty jump scares. So a full-blown werewolf movie from this guy, with Focus backing it and a December release slot? That's a Christmas present for those of us who like our holiday season grim.

The trailer doesn't give away much plot, which is the correct move. We get atmosphere, we get a few frames of something that is very much not a friendly dog, and we get the sense that whatever village this is set in is doomed. Eggers shoots period detail like nobody else working right now, and even in two minutes you can feel the texture of the thing. The fabric, the filth, the dread sitting on everybody's faces.

December is an interesting play for it too. That corridor is usually either awards bait or family fare, and a straight-up horror entry in the middle of it feels like a counterprogramming swing. It's worked for plenty of genre films before, and I'll admit it: sitting in a dark theater in the dead of winter watching people get torn apart by a wolf creature sounds like my kind of Friday. Jess Wingo already texted me that the trailer "looks like a smell," which, if you know Eggers, is a compliment.

No full plot breakdown from me until I've actually seen it. But the pieces are all there: a filmmaker who never wastes a frame, a monster mythology that has been waiting for the prestige treatment, a release date that practically begs you to bring a coat. I'll be there opening weekend, ideally with a crowd, because a horror crowd in a dark room can't be replicated on a laptop and I stand by that.

If you missed the trailer, go watch it. Then check back here in December, when I'll have actual thoughts instead of just vibes and enthusiasm.