10 Best Apocalyptic Horror Movies You Need To See
3. Time Of The Wolf (Le Temps Du Loup, 2003)
A sobering and thoughtful study of humanity, visionary filmmaker Michael Haneke’s (Funny Games, Caché, The White Ribbon) Time of the Wolf takes place in an unspecified European country after an unspecified event has resulted in the collapse of society.
We follow a French-speaking family fleeing the city to seek refuge in their country home. However, they arrive to find another family has claimed it as their own. An intense confrontation erupts, and the father (Daniel Duval) is killed.
With no aid from anyone around them, the remaining family members venture out alone into the pitch-black darkness of the night to find shelter. Their hopes are eventually answered when they’re able to join an organised community at an old railway station.
In keeping with Haneke’s style, Time of the Wolf is provocative and vicious in its depictions of violence – made all the more effective through the filmmaker’s unwillingness to sensationalise these gruesome acts by keeping them offscreen.
Despite the gloominess of the family’s situation, the film isn’t without hope. Small acts of kindness shine through the darkness of this realistic vision of a post-apocalyptic world.
It takes a filmmaker as skilled as Haneke to find profound beauty in an apocalypse.