The Third of Michael Emerson's Five Creepiest Characters of All Time: Johan Borg in Hour of the Wolf - Page 3

And so I saw The Seventh Seal. And then I watched Virgin Spring. And then I watched Wild Strawberries... and Persona... and Through a Glass Darkly... and Winter Light... and The Silence... and Shame... and Hour of the Wolf. I just couldn't get enough. Bergman was nothing like what I expected. Yes, he was full-on art house and full-on tortured, but man was he compelling!

For me, finding Bergman was actually refreshing. Here was somebody making well-crafted movies that asked the big questions, and asked them honestly — not as a chance to pontificate but as an opportunity to explore. It was exciting to see films this courageous and probing—a cinema of ideas. And oddly, Bergman's exploration of the darkness was not nihilistic, but often strangely hopeful.

But there's not much hopefulness in Hour of the Wolf. The darkness of the title (the hour between night and dawn) permeates the fabric of the film. Von Sydow delivers a magnificently tormented performance as the doomed artist, and Liv Ullmann is spectacular in her part of the grief-stricken wife. You could say that this is a "creepy" favorite of mine. And I'm delighted to find that it's also a favorite of Michael Emerson's.

Oh, and congratulations, Mr. Emerson, on your well-deserved Emmy nomination!

Article Author: Cindy Collins Smith

Cindy Collins Smith is a writer/editor with contributions in several Midnight Marquee/Luminary Press books—including the recently published You're Next: Loss of Identity in the Horror Film. She is known in Ripper circles as the owner of the Hollywood …

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