Hour of the Wolf

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Dani G As always, Bergman ahead of its time Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 03/18/25 Full Review Pierre G A fascinating, terrifying film. Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 06/14/24 Full Review Wayne K In a filmography as extensive and acclaimed as Ingmar Bergman's, there's going to be a lot of gems and a few lumps of coal, and for me, Hour Of The Wolf is definitely the latter. It wasn't so long ago that I watched Persona, one of Bergman's best know films, and I loved it. A psychological study of 2 individuals isolated together, finding their very essences becoming crossed and intertwined. HOTW tries to do psychology too, but to much lesser effect. The film does 2 things I've always hated in filmmaking. First of all, the characters, by and large, don't have conversations. Instead, they simply exchange monologues. So one character will prattle on about something, then another will do the same. It feels less like you're watching human beings interacting and more like you're stuck in a lecture with a bunch of smug intellectuals desperately trying to outsmart each other, a similar experience I had with I'm Thinking Of Ending Things. The second problem is our lead character and how his struggle is presented. I don't know why, but some films, or maybe some actors, have a difficult time trying to portray the feeling of being disturbed on screen, and they often just come across as mopey and boring. The film has some powerful scenes but little forward momentum, and the scenes at the castle with the intelligentsia are just tedious and irritating. I wanted to know more about our lead and why he's losing his mind. I wanted to see him being disturbed, wracked by fear, isolation and discontent. Instead, I just got a sad, laconic man that doesn't even look like he wants to be there. I'm very keen to visit more of Bergman's work in the future, but Hour Of The Wolf is one I have no problem leaving behind me. Rated 2/5 Stars •  Rated 2 out of 5 stars 03/12/24 Full Review Alec B The autobiographical aspects of the movie are perhaps a little too obvious but the final act is brilliantly surreal. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 01/09/24 Full Review Il B This is an Ingmar Bergman film and one of his best. Acting, direction, dialogue, themes, score, set design - everything is sublime, pure perfection. I absolutely enjoyed this film for its simplicity and its calmness as the tension grows and grows before the ultimate climax unleashes everything it was building. My only issues with this masterpiece, yes it's a masterpiece, is the pacing. Now, Bergman's films aren't known for their fast pacing, in fact the complete opposite and I have no issue with that. However in this film, there were some sequences, especially during the first half, where I thought it could have been a bit faster, just a bit. Now this being Bergman's first-ever horror film, I'm impressed. This was absolutely phenomenal. The slow burn, the themes, the character developments were absolutely astonishing. Everything worked perfectly as a horror film. In the end I felt like Bergman tried out something that is very popular in today's horror films, I do however feel it was out of place in this film. This film is mostly psychological horror, in this scene however it felt a bit like body-horror, it's a very slight point and it's no big deal. Overall this is a masterpiece and one of the best films ever made. Rated 4.5/5 Stars •  Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 07/10/23 Full Review Shioka O Surreal. I wished I understand Swedish. Rated 2.5/5 Stars •  Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 10/01/22 Full Review Read all reviews

Hour of the Wolf

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