Ingmar Bergman's only horror film is Hour of the Wolf, and it's - no surprise - an ambiguous one. Is the artist haunted by horrific visions he feels compelled to paint actually under threat from demons? Or is he at crossroads in his work and life where his personal demons are keeping him awake? Is his wife sharing in the hallucination, or is she proof it is really happening? And so are the vampiric people in the castle merely creepy eccentrics, or are they tempting and humiliating shadows, or all in his/their mind? Can we even trust the artist's diary, and its shocking violence? Or does he talk about his feelings in images, as an artist might and none of it is to be taken at face value? This creates a rich, atmospheric piece which is really about the artist (whose work is never shown because it could never equal what is said of it, good choice) choosing between his art-fueling angst and real life, as represented by his very practical wife. And yet, she's in many ways the main character, playing detective as to what is happening to her husband and feeling him slip away, desperate to understand him, to know a certain osmosis with him. Bergman so often dramatizes one's existentialist inability to truly know the other, so it's difficult to think of her as sharing an illusion with her husband, and so the monsters must be real... Levels and levels and levels...
6/10
I like the absurd, incongruent, surrealistic and mysterious in the film that treats Bergman's own dreams and nightmares, but it never elevates to higher grades. Several things remain unanswered.
Excellent movie. When I watch a movie where I don't know what is real or not, I know the director has taken me to a new experience. Great cinematography. We all have our shadow or dark side.
The visuals were nice and the acting was top notch. Other than that I personally didn't really understand or see the point in this film. A cluster fuck of oddness and confusion that doesn't really grant you any entertainment.
Bergman's foray into true bone chilling horror is exactly that -- BONE CHILLING! Not scary in the traditional sense, but an eerie layer of subversive chills lie beneath the calm exterior of this insanity-driven masterpiece. 8/10
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Siskoid
Ingmar Bergman's only horror film is Hour of the Wolf, and it's - no surprise - an ambiguous one. Is the artist haunted by horrific visions he feels compelled to paint actually under threat from demons? Or is he at crossroads in his work and life where his personal demons are keeping him awake? Is his wife sharing in the hallucination, or is she proof it is really happening? And so are the vampiric people in the castle merely creepy eccentrics, or are they tempting and humiliating shadows, or all in his/their mind? Can we even trust the artist's diary, and its shocking violence? Or does he talk about his feelings in images, as an artist might and none of it is to be taken at face value? This creates a rich, atmospheric piece which is really about the artist (whose work is never shown because it could never equal what is said of it, good choice) choosing between his art-fueling angst and real life, as represented by his very practical wife. And yet, she's in many ways the main character, playing detective as to what is happening to her husband and feeling him slip away, desperate to understand him, to know a certain osmosis with him. Bergman so often dramatizes one's existentialist inability to truly know the other, so it's difficult to think of her as sharing an illusion with her husband, and so the monsters must be real... Levels and levels and levels...Emiam
6/10I like the absurd, incongruent, surrealistic and mysterious in the film that treats Bergman's own dreams and nightmares, but it never elevates to higher grades. Several things remain unanswered.
baraka92
Bergman’s 8 1/2-1flb2-
Excellent movie. When I watch a movie where I don't know what is real or not, I know the director has taken me to a new experience. Great cinematography. We all have our shadow or dark side.Groovy09
Like a gothic nightmare. Wonderful and haunting, but not for everyone.nicolaskrizan
bergman's demons visualized!https://beyond1001movies.wordpress.com/2015/01/15/backtrack-vargtimmen-1968/
lucabott
A piece of art.Persona14
Easily one of his best.krisMovie
JoeMorrissy: +1thestuman101694
No ingenuous criticism needed here. This film is Bergman. That's enough for anyone's appreciation.JoeMorrissy
The visuals were nice and the acting was top notch. Other than that I personally didn't really understand or see the point in this film. A cluster fuck of oddness and confusion that doesn't really grant you any entertainment.MrCarmady
fucking awful apart from a few funny scenes and some nice visualsdeadendjob
Bergman's foray into true bone chilling horror is exactly that -- BONE CHILLING! Not scary in the traditional sense, but an eerie layer of subversive chills lie beneath the calm exterior of this insanity-driven masterpiece. 8/10