Werwulf Filming Locations
Werwulf was shot on Dartmoor, in a Surrey wood, in Wales and Gloucestershire, and at Sky Studios Elstree. Here is what is confirmed, what is only reported and what you can visit.
Robert Eggers shot Werwulf in the United Kingdom between October 2025 and late January 2026. The confirmed filming locations are Dartmoor in Devon, Bourne Wood in Surrey, forests in Wales, an unnamed part of Gloucestershire and Sky Studios Elstree in Hertfordshire. None of the buildings is a surviving medieval one. Eggers says every structure was built for the film.
The horror film stars Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Lily-Rose Depp and Willem Dafoe, with Ralph Ineson also in the cast, and is set in 13th-century England. Focus Features lists the US release for December 25, 2026. Film Devon gives January 1, 2027, for the UK.
Werwulf filming locations at a glance
- Dartmoor, Devon: confirmed. Two temporary sets, one near Widecombe in the Moor and one near Postbridge.
- Bourne Wood, Surrey: confirmed. Planning papers describe a village and churchyard set, and night shoots were planned.
- Wales: confirmed by Eggers and by Film Devon. No forest has been named officially.
- Gloucestershire: confirmed by Film Devon at county level only.
- Sky Studios Elstree, Hertfordshire: confirmed as the production base.
Dartmoor, Devon
Dartmoor is the location the production has been most open about. Screen Daily reported on October 22, 2025, that filming was under way, with the production based at Sky Studios Elstree and location work on Dartmoor. Eggers later named Dartmoor himself when Esquire asked where he had shot.
The fine detail comes from a planning meeting. Filming is usually allowed without a planning application, under what are called permitted development rights, but not in national parks. So the production had to ask the Dartmoor National Park Authority. On October 3, 2025, its development management committee unanimously supported the temporary use of two pieces of land, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service account carried by Greatest Hits Radio Devon:
- land north of Sharp Tor, near Widecombe in the Moor, reached by a temporary aluminum track from the B3357 Ashburton to Two Bridges road
- Assycombe Hill, south of Fernworthy Forest near Postbridge, with cast and crew parking at the Fernworthy Reservoir car park
The same report says the sets were temporary medieval-style buildings and farmsteads, and that cast and crew were expected on the moor for eleven weeks. The applicant, Mirage Pictures Ltd, had to return the land to its former condition within six months. The Sharp Tor area is described as being of Middle Bronze Age archaeological importance and as a site of special scientific interest. Officers said the land would not be disturbed and that archaeologists would keep a watching brief. The approval, they said, was a departure from policy, acceptable because the use was temporary and came with conditions. Devon County Council’s highways team objected and asked for different access arrangements at Sharp Tor.
Film Devon’s wrap report from January 2026 places the two sets between Widecombe and Postbridge, near Sharp Tor. It says walkers and residents could see them from outside, but the sites were closed off during construction and filming.
Can you visit the Dartmoor sets?
Not as sets. The permission was temporary and the land had to be restored within six months, so the buildings were never meant to stay. What remains is the moor itself and the footpaths near both sites. The planning report said those paths would stay open during the shoot, with walkers sometimes asked to wait a few minutes while the cameras ran.
Bourne Wood, Surrey
Bourne Wood, a Forestry England wood just south of Farnham, is the second named location. The Filming in England website lists it beside Dartmoor and Elstree in its round-up of shoots between October and December 2025.
Local reporting adds the rest. Surrey Live reported on November 24, 2025, that planning documents sent to Waverley Borough Council described a village and churchyard set in woodland off The Reeds Road, at the south end of the wood, with 70 to 80 cars expected. The same report says Lily-Rose Depp was photographed there in costume.
The Alton Herald covered the neighbors’ side. People in Tilford and The Bourne were worried about bright lights, traffic and noise from night shoots, and the production company met them in a Tilford café to talk about an application to change the conditions on night filming. Its case for the extra hours after dark was short: the film is about a werewolf.
Can you visit Bourne Wood?
Yes. Forestry England says the wood is open from 5 a.m. to 8 p.m. every day and that parking charges apply. It is about 2 km south of Farnham, on the right as you head toward Tilford. The same page says films, commercials and television programs have been shot here since 1999, and the Alton Herald names Gladiator, Napoleon and The Witcher among them. Do not count on finding any trace of the Werwulf village.
Wales and Gloucestershire
Here the official trail gets thin. Film Devon says Werwulf was filmed in Devon, Gloucestershire, Surrey, across Wales and at Elstree. In his first-look interview with Esquire, Eggers said there are forests in the south of England but that some of the most spectacular ones are in Wales. Neither source names a Welsh forest or a place in Gloucestershire.
Other pages go further. Wikipedia’s entry says production took place in the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire in early December 2025, and cites a BBC Gloucestershire social media post for it. At least one movie site names Crychan Forest in Wales. Neither has been confirmed by the production, so both are listed here as unconfirmed.
- Forest of Dean: it would fit Film Devon’s mention of Gloucestershire, but the county is as far as the confirmed record goes.
- Crychan Forest: the Crychan Forest Association posted a notice about activities in the forest between November 24 and December 19, 2025, with the event itself running from December 8 to 18. The page’s web address still describes it as filming at Crychan Forest. The notice does not name a production.
Sky Studios Elstree
The production was based at Sky Studios Elstree in Hertfordshire, according to Screen Daily, and Filming in England lists the studio as well.
Were any real medieval buildings used?
No. Asked by Esquire whether he had shot in any real medieval places, Eggers said everything was built new. He said several churches in the film are based on real ones, but that even very old English churches no longer look the way they did. As he put it, every structure “was built for the film.”
When was Werwulf filmed?
- October 2025: filming starts on Dartmoor and at Elstree, according to Filming in England. The Dartmoor permission dates from October 3.
- Late October and November 2025: local papers report the Bourne Wood shoot and the plans for night work.
- Late January 2026: filming ends. Fangoria reported on January 26 that cinematographer Jarin Blaschke had confirmed the shoot was over after 77 days.
Eggers told Esquire the film was shot on 35mm. He also said the dialogue is in Middle English and was worked out with two Oxford professors.
More guides: FilmiFeed filming locations.
