Ethel Cain Joins Robin Carolan for Robert Eggers’s Werwulf Score

By Marcus Bennett

Ethel Cain and Robin Carolan created “Wynter Waxeth” for the 37-track Werwulf (Original Soundtrack), due digitally on December 18, with vinyl to follow on January 29 via Sacred Bones. Robert Eggers’s gothic folk horror film is due on Christmas Day. Carolan’s title-track contribution, “Werwulf,” is available now.

Eggers directed Werwulf and co-wrote it with Sjón. The film reworks the classic werewolf tale: a 14th-century English town is haunted by a beast that threatens the safety of a man and his family. Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Willem Dafoe and Lily-Rose Depp star.

Eggers’s former collaborator Robin Carolan wrote the bulk of the score. Cain partnered with Carolan on the complete song “Wynter Waxeth,” performed in Middle English.

Cain’s 2025 album Perverts was a dark ambient turn after Preacher’s Daughter that unsettled fans. Eggers appeared to appreciate that shift. Her most recent album, Willoughby Tucker, I’ll Always Love You, also came out in 2025.

Medieval music, shared vocals

Carolan said:

“I’d send [Cain] medieval music, prayers, weird ambient stuff, and we’d talk through it all. It was one of those rare collaborations where we just seemed to be on the same page about everything.”

“Initially we’d talked about her contributing vocals to the score in a more textural way, but it wasn’t long until we started discussing a full blown song. Her talent and open mindedness to try different things is honestly incredible.”

“She sang the song in Middle English, and with Rob’s help she mastered the pronunciation on the hop, practically in one session. She brought so much earthy, feral, haunted beauty to the score, and it’s hard to imagine it without her presence.”

The exchange began with Carolan sending medieval music, prayers and ambient material. It developed from proposed textural vocals into a complete song, according to Carolan. “Wynter Waxeth” closes the soundtrack at track 37. Its earlier relation, “Wynter Waxeth I,” appears at No. 24.

Carolan has steadily scored films for Eggers, including the 2022 Viking epic The Northman and the 2024 silent horror Nosferatu. Madison Bloom also interviewed Carolan for “How The Northman’s Composers Dreamed Up a Different Kind of Viking Movie Score.”

The complete soundtrack

The complete sequence runs from “Werwulf” at No. 1 through “Wynter Waxeth” at No. 37, with Carolan’s title piece opening and the Cain-Carolan collaboration closing.

• 01 — Werwulf
• 02 — Huntere Moone
• 03 — A Gyft
• 04 — Swere
• 05 — Delven
• 06 — A Child of God
• 07 — Delivere Me Fro My Synnes
• 08 — Persecucioun
• 09 — Come to Me My Child
• 10 — Hunteres
• 11 — Kepeth Thee Sauf
• 12 — Englonde
• 13 — Y Swer
• 14 — Fenden Thee From Evel
• 15 — Nyghtmare
• 16 — Funeral
• 17 — Amen
• 18 — Cursid Kinde
• 19 — Transformen
• 20 — Dark Moone
• 21 — One More Moone
• 22 — The Hangynge Oak
• 23 — Hovel
• 24 — Wynter Waxeth I
• 25 — Is Not This Love?
• 26 — Cold Moone
• 27 — Wicches
• 28 — Trappes
• 29 — Slaughtre
• 30 — Kille, Kille
• 31 — Uncurseth Me
• 32 — Uncursid
• 33 — Wulf Moone
• 34 — Dore
• 35 — Fader!
• 36 — Evermore
• 37 — Wynter Waxeth

What does this change for Werwulf?

The practical change reaches listeners in a fixed release sequence: Carolan’s title track is available now, the full digital score follows on December 18, the film is due on December 25, and vinyl arrives on January 29 via Sacred Bones.

For Eggers, the collaboration gives a largely Carolan-written score a distinct vocal center. For listeners, the release order puts the music first: the title track now, the complete album on December 18, and the film on December 25.

December 18 will reveal the complete soundtrack one week before Cain’s voice enters Eggers’s story of a threatened family and a town-haunting beast. The January 29 vinyl issue through Sacred Bones will follow the film’s Christmas Day release.