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Liv Ullmann, Max von Sydow, Erland Josephson, Gertrud Fridh, Bertil Anderberg ... see more see more... , Georg Rydeberg , Ulf Johansson , Naima Wifstrand , Lenn Hjortzberg , Gudrun Brost , Agda Helin , Mikael Rundquist , Mona Seilitz , Folke Sundquist , Ingrid Thulin

The Hour of the Wolf (original Swedish title: Vargtimmen) is Ingmar Bergman's spin on the demons that plague his fellow creative artists. Max von Sydow plays a painter who, while spending a summer in ... read more read more...seclusion with his pregnant wife Liv Ullmann, is visited by bizarre and disturbing visions. Before long, Ullmann is also experiencing her husband's hallucinations; one of these, an old, faceless woman, advises Ullmann to read Von Sydow's diary. Doing so, Ullmann discovers that her husband has been cheating on her with Ingrid Thulin. In the subsequent domestic squabble, Von Sydow shoots and wounds his wife. The artist's punishment for this behavior is to have his lover, now dead, spring back to life and humiliate him in full view of Ullmann. Hour of the Wolf has something to say about the dangers of artists becoming too self-centered and self-involved; one hopes that most artists are not as thoroughly punished (or punishable) as Max Von Sydow. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

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6,082 ratings

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88% liked it

17 critics

Unrated, 1 hr. 29 min.

Directed by: Ingmar Bergman

Release Date: April 9, 1968

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DVD Release Date: April 27, 2004

Stats: 391 reviews

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Liv Ullmann Hour of the Wolf (Vargtimmen)
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Flixster Reviews (391)

  • SirPant
    October 24, 2011
    SirPant
    Hour of the Wolf deals with the haunting of creatives and artists and the effect it has on others. Indeed, the film has a very haunting quality about it too which Bergman has opened up to the audience in a way that only a master film maker can do. Max von Sydow plays the aloof pa... read moreinter well but it's Liv Ullmann as his suffering wife who really steals the show. Shot, like much of his work around this time, in the cold desolate coastline to great effect. Not my favourite Bergman film at all but a great horror film and a huge influence on the generation of film makers to come. I wonder if Rosemary's Baby was influenced by Hour of the Wolf?
  • sanjurosamurai
    November 22, 2010
    sanjurosamurai
    as with many bergman films, i toiled for some time to find a worthwhile and redeemable interpretation, but thankfully, this one gained a slight amount of clarity by the end. not in line with bergman's more masterful works, but not as bad as his overdone floundering films either.... read more some of the dialogue was interesting and max von sydow was convincing as usual.
  • JonathanHutchings
    March 30, 2010
    JonathanHutchings
    Hour of the Wolf is the only horror film Ingmar Bergman ever made. And it's amazing. Clearly influenced here by German Expressionism, Bergman and cinematographer Sven Nykvist use exaggerated and stylized light and shadow and deliberately disorienting camera angles to full affect.... read more Bergman's penchant for intense, unblinking close-ups compliments this style of shooting well, and adds a sense of the surreal to the already bizarre happenings. The performances of the castle apparitions -- by actors such as Erland Josephson, Bertil Anderberg, and Ingrid Thulin -- certainly have a definite expressionist, stylized feel to them as well. This expressionist sensibility also calls for the dramatic externalization of the internal; this fits the subject matter of the film in two ways. First and most obvious, the expression of Johan's inner turmoil breaks the psychological barriers between self and other and between reality and unreality (and later, between life and death) necessary for Bergman to create true horror. Second, and a bit less obvious on the surface, is Bergman's own expression here of the internal realities of his own life. It may seem a bit too on-the-nose, but is there any doubt that Von Sydow's Johan is a stand-in for the writer/director himself? The character is a troubled, brilliant artist whose creative visions and past both interfere with his relationship with his pregnant wife. It is certainly no coincidence that the wife in question is played by Liv Ullmann, who at the time was herself pregnant with Bergman's child; the demands of Bergman's art and personality had threatened for a while to tear the two of them apart. There is clearly a dark side to the creative impulse, and its obsessions can impair life in the real world, whether for fictitious artist Johan Borg or real-life Ingmar Bergman. Perhaps that's why this film strikes such a chord: it feels personal, while at the same time fiercely artistic. A must-see for psychological horror fans.
  • ceWEBrity
    January 2, 2010
    ceWEBrity
    A difficult sit to be sure, but Ingmar Bergman's stab at surrealist horror is a delight. It's thematically sort of fuzzy, barely frightening at all, and maybe a bit underconfident (Liv Ullmann's bookend monologues are interesting to see but ultimately unnecessary), both of which ... read moreare acceptable losses when you consider that this is a genre Bergman had never attempted. I'm sure the movie's brooding isolationism and pervasive sense of danger were much scarier forty years ago sitting in a theater...I think that, more than a lot of movies, this gets garroted a bit by a home viewing. Still, it's mysterious and well-acted and spare in the best way, and definitely worth a watch if you like unconventional horror films.
  • matertenebraum
    December 13, 2009
    matertenebraum
    "The Hour of the Wolf" is the hour between night and dawn. It is the hour when most people die. It is the hour when the sleepless are haunted by their deepest fear, when ghosts and demons are most powerful.

    This seems to be one that divides fans of the master, but I loved it. I... read moret's easy to see why people see this as being a bit of an odd-one-out in Bergman's output: it's very direct in it's depiction of disturbed states of mind, directly illustrating hallucinatory states rather than just hinting at them. Others have pointed to references to other films of the horror genre, which seem undeniable.

    Not that you'd mistake this for a film by anyone but Bergman. It's rich in connections with other of his films and autobiographical references (such as the terrifying description of being locked in a cupboard as a child). It can be reasonably thought of as Bergman's 'horror film' but he takes on the genre very much on his own terms.

    It's a film that lingers long in the mind, with many unforgettable scenes (including the amazing Magic Flute scene) aided by Sven Nykvist's wonderful chiaroscuro photography. The use of music is (as ever with Bergman, the most musical of directors) extremely intelligent: the scene with the boy is set apart from the rest as much by the music as the photography.

    Given the quality of the cast, you'd expect superb performances. As ever, von Sydow and Ullmann are excellent, with equally good supporting performances.

    At times I was reminded of Rilke's only novel, The Notebook of Malte Laurids Brigge. If you don't know this, I urge you to seek out a copy: there's a distinctly Bergmanesque atmosphere to the whole work, but there are specific images that seem to link to this film.

    This is a film that repays repeated viewings. Despite it's extremely disturbing subject matter, to me it's not as emotionally draining as many of Bergman's other films (such as Shame or Winter Light), in spite of (or perhaps because of) the visual horrors on display. Still, I recommend it very highly.
  • pier007
    October 17, 2008
    pier007
    Max Von Sydow is a painter, attacked by demons he created out of existential guilt. Liv Ullman plays his faithful spouse.
    An unreal, nightmarish parade of phantasmagorical visions conceived by Sven Nykvist and his expressionistic, tantalizing photography; and Bergman's introspe... read morective and deliberately misleading narration.
    Possibly his most enigmatic and obscure film.
  • kenstachnik
    December 24, 2007
    kenstachnik
    Bergman's Horror Film
  • harrycaul
    December 2, 2007
    harrycaul
    An unfathomable but fascinating psychological horror movie about an artist's mental disintegration. The line between fantasy and reality is so blurred that it becomes impossible to tell where one ends and the other begins. Though difficult, frustrating even, there are remarkable ... read morescenes and individual shots which reverberate long afterwards in the memory; the murdered child/demon bobbing up and down in the sea is particularly haunting.
  • drago25
    March 3, 2007
    drago25
    This totally strange, and very disturbing, "horror" film by Ingmar Bergman plays out much like an Edgar Allan Poe tale (that's a good thing, by the way). There's just something about a story set on an isolated island that is inherently scary, so that helps - but besides that this... read more movie really is very scary (beautiful at the same time), just not in any obvious way. The utterly dark world Bergman creates places us right in there with the characters played Max von Sydow and Liv Ullmann as they face a series of strange encounters with a group of people (ostensibly human) who live in a sprawling, shadowy mansion on the other side of the island. The work of both actors is phenomenal, and the actors playing the antagonists are all very good at being subtly very frightening. Definitely worth checking out.
  • smootysveen
    October 13, 2008
    smootysveen
    Ho hum. Just one more spellbinding, worldview-bending Bergman flick.

View All Hour of the Wolf (Vargtimmen) Reviews

Critic Reviews

Renata Adler
May 9, 2005
Renata Adler, New York Times

Hour of the Wolf is not one of Bergman's great films but it is unthinkable for anyone seriously interested in movies not to see it. Full Review

Roger Ebert
October 23, 2004
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

If we allow the images to slip past the gates of logic and enter the deeper levels of our mind, and if we accept Bergman's horror story instead of questioning it, Hour of the Wolf works magnificently. Full Review

Don Druker
January 1, 2000
Don Druker, Chicago Reader

This 1967 effort is one of Bergman's most outlandish, with its pack of ghouls and its heavy suggestions of exhibitionism, necrophilia, and homosexuality -- a magnificent failure. Full Review

Fernando F. Croce
October 26, 2009
Fernando F. Croce, CinePassion

Bergman shakes his head and intuitive horrors cascade out, all he has to do is collect image after fulminating image Full Review

Jeffrey M. Anderson
August 11, 2007
Jeffrey M. Anderson, Combustible Celluloid

Some of the images, such as one of a young boy staring at Von Sydow as he's fishing, will haunt you long afterwards. Full Review

Dennis Schwartz
August 9, 2007
Dennis Schwartz, Ozus' World Movie Reviews

One of the typical bleak psychological dramas of Ingmar Bergman. Full Review

Michael W. Phillips, Jr.
January 27, 2007
Michael W. Phillips, Jr., Goatdog's Movies

Only partly successful. Full Review

August 29, 2006
TV Guide's Movie Guide

This Bergman discourse on the nature of art and the artist's relation to society is shrouded in the trappings of gothic horror. Full Review

Derek Adams
February 9, 2006
Derek Adams, Time Out

A brilliant Gothic fantasy. Full Review

Kim Newman
August 5, 2004
Kim Newman, Empire Magazine

A must for fans of horror and of Bergman. So good it makes you wish he had dabbled in the genre that bit more often. Full Review

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