In the British Film Institute's 2012 "Sight & Sound" polls, "Hour of the Wolf" received three critics' votes and 11 directors' votes, placing it at 44th in the latter poll. In his "2014 Movie Guide", Leonard Maltin rated the film three out of four, calling it "lesser Bergman" but with "first-rate" performances. "Hour of the Wolf" is listed in the film reference book "1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die", which cited references to the work of E.T.A. Hoffman. IndieWire also named it in 2015 as one of the 15 greatest Bergman films, calling it "not wholly successful" but citing the wall-walking scene (comparing it to the work of David Lynch) and the scene in which Johan murders the boy. Glenn Kenny cited "Hour of the Wolf" and Bergman's 1963 "The Silence" as "mesmerizing nightmares" in "The New York Times" in 2018. Don Druker wrote a negative review for "Chicago Reader", assessing it as "outlandish" and "a magnificent failure".