Hellen I like the storyline of this show,it attract me so much

Tacticalin An absolute waste of money

Dotbankey A lot of fun.

Tayyab Torres Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

Antonius Block Dark, surreal, and not for everybody. What starts out with an artist's wife (Liv Ullman) talking to the camera about the disappearance of her husband (Max von Sydow), transitions to flashbacks about their life on an island, and his increasing angst and depression. The scenes that director Ingmar Bergman gives us from the middle of the movie on, after the intertitle 'Vargtimmen', are bizarre and nightmarish. The fact that they're subject to interpretation makes it interesting, but be forewarned, there is a brooding heaviness to the film, and in crawling through the artist's mind, the images are sometimes disturbing.Whether the scenes are nightmares, hallucinations, or insanity, it's clear that the man has many demons - beatings from childhood, forbidden desires, and constantly being misunderstood or compartmentalized as an artist. With the exception of his wife, who is a stabilizing force, the others on the island seem like demons incarnate. The scenes where he's in the mansion, at a dinner party and later trying to meet an old lover (Ingrid Thulin), feel claustrophobic and warped. We feel his social awkwardness, the outrage of critics commenting on his work, and the violation of women trying to possess a piece of him via sex or hanging a painting of his on the wall. The reduction of it all, and all while smirking or laughing at him. We feel for him as he's been silent but then exclaims "I call myself an artist for lack of a better name. In my creative work there is nothing implicit except compulsion. Through no fault of mine, I've been pointed out as something quite extraordinary, a calf with five legs, a monster. I have never fought to attain that position and I shall not fight to keep it."My interpretation, for whatever it's worth, is that husband and wife are all alone on the island, and that all of the other characters in the movie are memories or demons haunting his troubled mind. (and in the case of the woman who magically knows where his diary is kept, the intuition in his wife's mind). Both times when asked to the mansion he doesn't even reply, which could be because his perspective is to feel voiceless and powerless in society, or it could be because it's an inner dialogue. Perhaps this view is a little extreme and 'reality' is shown in the first half (before the intertitle), through the artist's perspective (especially at the party), but I have to believe the visions of the second half are all in his mind, and often symbolic. For example, we're not actually seeing the murder of a child in that oh-so-disturbing scene, we're seeing him attempt to stifle his latent homosexual desires. The wife seems to think they're close, and yet, he has a secret world revealed in his diary, and is a man ultimately tortured and alone. His insomnia has him up in the wee hours of the night, during the "hour of the wolf", which legend says is "when most people die, when most children are born. Now is when nightmares come to us. And if we are awake, we're afraid." He's slipping into insanity, thus losing himself, and his wife also is in danger of losing her mind, as she wonders whether it's true that "a woman who lives a long time with a man, eventually winds up being like that man." I suppose therein lies further horror.The film has strong performances from Max von Sydow, who really puts himself out there for the film, as well as Liv Ullman, who expresses such fear with her eyes. The legend of vargtimmen feels like an homage to the slightly different legend that director Victor Sjöström referred to in "The Phantom Carriage" (1921), which was one of Bergman's favorite films. Bergman is artistic in this film, with interesting shots, camera angles, and the use of high contrast to amplify the dreamlike feel to his scenes. It seems he's speaking some of his own truth as an artist here. The film may remind some of 1965's "Persona" in its themes of mental health and because all may not be as it seems, but weirdly enough it also reminded me of 1964's "All These Women". That film is the polar opposite in its tone (comedy/light vs horror/dark), but also expresses the difficulty of an artist amidst everything surrounding him (though that film is also external vs internal, if that makes sense). This film is far better, but also a bit of an extreme, and Bergman borders a bit on pretentiousness at times here. That may be a controversial view, but regardless, the film is just a bit too dark for me to give a higher review score, or to recommend without reservations.

kapelusznik18 ***SPOILERS*** Said to be Ingman Bergmans most confusing as well as personal project "Hour of the Wolf" has to do with this Swedish painter Johan Borg, Max Von Sydow, who's losing it because of things real and imaginary that he did in his past that are now catching up with him. These things that Johan did manifests themselves to him in a series of dreams that he writes down, in words and drawings, in his secret diary that he keeps from even his wife Alma,Liv Ullmann, who's pregnant with the couples first child. It was in fact Alma who was tuned in on her husband's diary by this 216 year old senior citizen, Niama Wifstrand who showed up at the couples house with the good or better yet bad, for Johan, news.With Johan's cover as a paranoid as well as homicidal lunatic being blown he goes into a deep depression where he cuts himself off from all humanity. We get to see Johan slowly turning into a zombie like individual in a number of episodes where he attends parties and orgies with the local population as well as him reunites with his old flame, said to be dead, Veronica Volger, Ingrid Thulin, whom he meets in what looks like the county morgue. The shock of Volgar coming back to life was what really drove poor Johan nuts as well, from what I could make out in the films final scene, to his death or murder by the locals who in fact were at times more crazier then he was. Were also shown where Johan admitted to his shocked wife Alma that the bite he has on his neck was not that of a snake but by a little boy, possibly a vampire, who attacked him while he was fishing by the shore whom he in return brutally murdered by smashing his skull in with a rock!****SPOILERS**** We finally get to see Johan get what's coming to him when the village people hunt him down and work him over for the crimes that he committed on and off the island where he spent most of his time painting. Alma for her part didn't seem to miss her husband in not only feeling that he got what he deserved but that now with him out of the way she can go on with her, as well as soon to be born child's, life without any fear of him freaking out and making both their lives miserable. Only worth watching as well as suffering through if your a die in the wool Ingmar Bergman fan and willing to put up with his manic depression that he puts into almost all the films that he wrote and directed: If not watch at your own risk!

Tim Kidner The quote in the film that I mention does lead onto other 'happenings', as Max von Sydow recounts the Hour in question - as he fumbles to light candles in the dark.With such, it does sound like this film's going to be about werewolves and vampires and such, but this is all human, the area of darkness that Bergman often visited and probably no more so here than with any other film. It's like he's made a feature of all the ghostly and demonic thoughts and dreams he's ever had and stuffed them all into one movie.Which is actually no bad thing but I would suggest that so many ripe and vivid nightmares make for a great chilling horror chiller and less his usual area of excellence, the study of human psyche and persona. At one point, our troubled artist with lots of history to block out describes being locked in a wardrobe as a child where a little monster that ate children's toes lived and from which he couldn't escape. Since watching Hour Of the first time round I read in an autobiography that Bergman's profound sense of doom and depression stemmed from being accidentally locked in a mortuary as a boy. My skin crawled in recognition of this scenario when von Sydow describes the story about the wardrobe....is there a lot more in Hour Of that's biographical?Whichever way you want to take it, the beginning has more relationship and personal drama going on whilst from 45 mins on, when 'The Hour of the Wolf' is flashed up, it's hallucinatory hell, much really quite absurd but also really rather effective at being chilling and scary.Liv Ullman, as the artist's wife, who discovers these dark secrets in his diaries is intense and excellent, as always, but I would still stand by saying that Hour Of isn't as deeply profound as some say - and possibly, if one tried to dissect it all too much, you'd be starting to experience some of those nightmares too!My slimline DVD is part of the 4 disc The Ingmar Bergman Collection.

Patryk Czekaj Undeniably, this is the most haunting of all films directed by Ingmar Bergman. While it's not as greatly appreciated as his other hit titles, Hour of the Wolf proves to have an overpowering energy, which easily allows the film's core substance to reflect on the connexion between mental illness and demons that haunt us within. Through the utterly surreal story about Johan, a painter possessed by evil illusions, Bergman wanted to make the viewer realize what it really means to be a self-centered artistic persona in the ever-changing world. Johan isn't able to sleep. While awake, he imagines all the strange and despicable people, who glorify him at first, only to ridicule him just a few hours later. Johan later introduces those creatures as emotionless and cruel demons to his frightened wife Alma. She, on the other hand, contemplates on one specific possibility: when two people love each other very much, they can actually share the same dreams and thoughts, ultimately merging their deepest fears and needs and becoming a somewhat single entity.Max von Sydow and Liv Ullmann give truly believable and positively eerie performances, as the pair bound for a forthcoming psychological downfall. The film creates a very nightmarish and sombre atmosphere, assaulting the viewer with perfectly horrifying and distressing images. Even though Hour of the Wolf won't necessarily attract a broader audience, it's still a fantastic and refreshing twist to an exemplary Gothic horror tale.