Movies
Weekend Box Office
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
Best / Worst of the Decade
Wide Releases
Now In Theaters
49
2012
41
Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel
84
Avatar![]()
69
Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
53
Blind Side
53
Book of Eli, The
55
Christmas Carol, A
57
Daybreakers
43
Dear John
27
Did You Hear About the Morgans?
55
Edge of Darkness
45
Extraordinary Measures
83
Fantastic Mr. Fox![]()
42
From Paris with Love
65
Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, The
74
Invictus
57
It's Complicated
34
Law Abiding Citizen
33
Leap Year
33
Legion
42
Lovely Bones, The
54
Men Who Stare At Goats, The
34
Ninja Assassin
19
Old Dogs
xx
Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief
39
Planet 51
79
Precious: Based on the Novel by Sapphire
73
Princess & the Frog, The
64
Road, The
57
Sherlock Holmes
27
Spy Next Door, The
36
Tooth Fairy
44
Twilight Saga: New Moon, The
83
Up in the Air![]()
43
Valentine's Day
25
When in Rome
71
Where the Wild Things Are
xx
WolfMan, The
63
Youth in Revolt
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Limited Releases
Now In Theaters
46
44 Inch Chest
83
Ajami![]()
73
Amreeka
xx
Barefoot to Timbuktu
19
Bitch Slap
24
Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day, The
76
Broken Embraces
64
Cloud 9
65
Coco Before Chanel
84
Cove, The![]()
84
Crazy Heart![]()
21
Crazy on the Outside
48
Creation
xx
Daddy Long Legs
81
Damned United, The![]()
68
Departures
62
District 13: Ultimatum
85
Education, An![]()
71
Eyes Wide Open
24
Falling Awake
81
Fish Tank![]()
56
For My Father
xx
From Mexico with Love
43
Frozen
68
Girl on the Train, The
52
Killing Kasztner
74
Last Station, The
43
Little Traitor, The
51
Loss of a Teardrop Diamond, The
73
Me and Orson Welles
76
Messenger, The
57
Missing Person, The
67
Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers, The
xx
My Name is Khan
49
Nine
63
North Face
59
October Country
67
Off and Running
52
Paranoids, The
49
Pop Star on Ice
49
Private Lives of Pippa Lee, The
xx
Promised Lands (Re-release)
69
Red Riding Trilogy, The
29
Saint John of Las Vegas
69
September Issue, The
36
Serious Moonlight
63
Shinjuku Incident, The
77
Single Man, A
xx
Still Bill
76
Terribly Happy
74
That Evening Sun
19
To Save a Life
68
Town Called Panic, A
59
Until the Light Takes Us
57
Videocracy
65
Waiting for Armageddon
82
White Ribbon![]()
43
Women in Trouble
xx
Word is Out
64
Young Victoria, The
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Time of the Wolf, The

Generally favorable reviews
Based on 20 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 5 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Drama | Foreign
Written by: Michael Haneke
Directed by: Michael Haneke
Release Date:
Theatrical: June 25, 2004
DVD: December 14, 2004
Running Time: 114 minutes, Color
Origin: France / Austria / Germany
Language(s): French (with English subtitles)
Summary
RATING: Not Rated
Starring Isabelle Huppert, Béatrice Dalle, Patrice Chéreau, Rona Hartner, Maurice Bénichou, Olivier Gourmet, Brigitte Roüan, and Lucas Biscombe
An apocalyptic calamity has left the people of Europe struggling to survive amidst drastic shortages of food and water. A couple decides to flee the city to their country house with what meager supplies they can find in hopes of protecting their children. To their surprise and horror they find the house already occupied by another equally desperate family. The ensuing confrontation forever changes their -- setting them adrift in a chaotic, often indifferent world in which their survival hinges on the strained compassion of those they encounter. (Palm Pictures)
Also On Metacritic
FILM: 71 Fragments of a Chronology of Chance Cache (Hidden) Code Unknown Funny Games Funny Games The Piano Teacher
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Variety Scott Foundas
Haneke demonstrates profound insight into the essence of human behavior when all humility is pared away, raw panic and despair are the order of the day, and man becomes more like wolf than man.
Read Full Review >Village Voice Michael Atkinson
In today's digital bog of empty light and marketing deceptions, this is what early-millennium Euro art-film masterpieces feel like--lean, qualmish, abstracted to the point of parable but as grounded as a gravedigging.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum
There are no zombies out of ''28 Days Later'' to alleviate the slow creep of realistic doom in this chilly, tense corker.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Manohla Dargis
One of the most harrowing and plausible visions of apocalypse since George A. Romero's 1968 zombie shocker, "Night of the Living Dead."
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Ty Burr
Haneke has become known as a dour modern master of cinematic pain, and in this movie he scrubs civilization down to the root level.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum
Haneke is still a masterful director, and his authority carries this well-acted and attractively shot account of a family from an unnamed city trying to survive in the sticks after an unspecified catastrophe.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias
At its best, the film sustains the heightened tension of great science fiction, dropping in on a frightening new world that's just this side of familiar.
Read Full Review >LA Weekly Scott Foundas
Time of the Wolf is tough medicine, to be sure. Yet, the movie builds to a note of cautious optimism that is as stirring as it is unexpected.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Jami Bernard
Time of the Wolf is grounded so deeply in the reality of society gone awry that the anxiety faced by Isabelle Huppert's character as she struggles to keep her family together transfers onto the audience and never leaves.
Read Full Review >New York Post V.A. Musetto
Haneke's images are so bold and riveting and the characters' emotions are so raw that the lack of a few details doesn't matter.
Read Full Review >Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt
This is one of Haneke's least powerful films, although the excellent cast is interesting to watch.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Dana Stevens
You can feel frightened and disturbed by this movie without being especially moved by it.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Ken Fox
Moviegoers expecting a conventional sci-fi fantasy will be disappointed; Haneke never explains the vague disaster, nor does he offer any definitive solution.
Read Full Review >Dallas Observer Staff (Not credited)
While it's sometimes tedious viewing, the film proves the perfect complement to this year's hyper-explained "The Day After Tomorrow;" it's utterly free of cheap melodrama and visual razzle-dazzle, concentrating instead on the souls of plausibly human sufferers.
Read Full Review >Film Threat Chris Wiegand
In the somewhat muted lead role, Huppert really is a marvel.
Read Full Review >Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold
It's a much more interesting and engrossing film than its somewhat nefarious reputation may indicate -- though, granted, elements of it are very hard to take, and it finally leaves you feeling pretty down and out.
Read Full Review >The New Republic Stanley Kauffmann
Haneke leaves the future of the human race ambiguous. Or would have left it so if his allegory had worked. But the film is such a pat construction, so dingily shot in heavy light, so dependent on our cooperation without earning it, that we are more aware of the exercise than affected by it
Read Full Review >Washington Post Desson Thomson
I would rather have a more interesting group of desperate people to spend my post-apocalyptic time with.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 9.2 (out of 10) based on 5 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Peter A. gave it a9:
A wonderful film, scary, moving, unexplained, inexplicable, showing us the end of civilization as we know it, but with an unexpected note of optimism and beauty at the end. Huppert is marvelous and her two children are superb.
Dan S. gave it a9:
Well, there you have it. Justin has summed it up pretty well. Sure there will be some who'll tear into Haneke and his way with images; though they're probably the same bunch who'll criticize Gaspar Noe or Bruno Dumont for the same. The New French cinema is an incredible movement and the fact is that this Austrian emigre has a special part in it. And if you like this type of fare, you'll love Tarkovsky's The Sacrifice or Bergman's Shame...throw in a little Bela Tarr just for good measure. Or better yet, leave your SUV at home and check out Bruno Dumont's Twenty-Nine Palms, not to be confused with the American version of the same title.
Justin A. gave it a 10:
It often seems that Haneke is attempting to make movies that Adorno would postumously approve of. This film, very much in the tradition of 60's Bergman (Shame) and late Tarkovsky (Stalker, The Silence) seems to almost get there. I think reviewers are wrong who call Time of the Wolf an allegory; indeed, it doesn't seem to provide any symbolism at all. One would be hard-pressed to suggest a determinate political/cultural stance the film takes, unless the depiction of trauma, both individual and collective, is now a stance. But perhaps it serves to make those who arrived at the theater in their SUV's shudder...
