Vargtimmen (Hour of the Wolf) (1968)

This film has been mistakenly placed in the Horror category.  I am very disappointed. It is not a horror, it is more of a drama.  What is horror?  Strictly speaking, it has two definitions:

1. An intense feeling of fear, shock, or disgust.

2. A thing causing such a feeling.

There is nothing to shock us. Nothing to disgust us. (Good because I don't like gory horror).  And, above all, nothing to cause fear. Not once did I feel unsafe or uneasy.  It's not a bad film per se, it's just not a horror film. I will therefore tag it as drama.

The main feeling of this film is isolation.  The couple is alone on an island, surrounded by only their imagination, or it is something more?  The man, Johan, mentions that he felt sick and we learn he has a fever. That is when all the weird stuff starts to happen. So there you go. The hallucinations are caused by his fever.  Also, he refuses to sleep, and keeps his poor pregnant wife, Alma, awake all night with his paranoid blabbering. That lady is pregnant! She needs proper sleep, exercise, and a good diet.  That man is keeping her awake to the detriment of her health and her baby's health.  Sleep deprivation has been known to cause many problems, especially visual hallucinations, and a pregnant woman does not deserve that kind of stress.  But as the movie progresses, we learn that he really doesn't care about her at all, so why should he mind keeping her up with his nonsense at 4 in the morning? This movie was obviously written by a man.

Then we see him leaving the cottage to go to the castle, which supposedly is full of people, but certain shots reveal that they are only his hallucinations.  Laying on a slab is a hot naked lady, which we have already learned is his former lover.  So he's going to cheat with her?  I don't care if that is a real lady or not. Cheating on your pregnant wife has got to be the lowest thing a man can do.

After watching this, I immediately went to the comments section to see what others thought. One comment said, "No ingenuous criticism needed here. This film is Bergman. That's enough for anyone's appreciation." Excuse me? I'll criticize any film I want. And what's soo great about Bergman that I should automatically love his films?  I don't care who directs a film. I don't care who writes it.  If I don't like it, I'm going to tell everybody.  I seriously do not get what is so amazing about Bergman and why so many people practically worship him and his boring movies.  I give this film a 5/10.