The Cinematheque

“Brilliant … A dazzling flow of surrealism, Expressionism, and full-blooded Gothic horror.”

Tom Milne, Time Out

Bergman followed up the masterful ​“modernist horror” of Persona with a horror film proper. Shot on the director’s favourite island of Fårö, and originally titled ​“The Cannibals,” Hour of the Wolf is a harrowing, hallucinatory account of an artist’s descent into madness. Max von Sydow is Johan, a tormented painter overwhelmed by his creative demons. Liv Ullmann is Alma, the loving wife powerless to prevent his decline. An invitation to dinner at a nearby castle turns into a macabre night of terror—rendered with some of Bergman’s (and cameraman Sven Nykvist’s) most startling images. The film’s wealth of references and allusions include Hitchcock, E.T.A. Hoffmann, Tod Browning’s Dracula, and Mozart’s The Magic Flute. David Lynch was an admirer.