The pressure mounts and Jones starts to lose his mind. Jones is disturbed by the film he’s working on and even more disturbed by his new partners who keep unreasonable hours, have trouble making payments, and seem to spend a little too much time with their lovely lady starlets. As Jones pulls out a variety of vegetables to makes nauseatingly squishy sound effects and a parade of actresses march through the studio to scream and deliver hilariously stilted dialogue, it’s clear we’re in the delightful realm of vintage Eurotrash.
We never actually see The Equestrian Vortex beyond a lovingly crafted faux-opening credit sequence that’s almost frighteningly perfect to the period.
Turns out he’s working on the latest horror film from sleazy producer Francesco ( Cosmio Fusco) featuring witches, school girls, and “a dangerously aroused goblin” who likes to stick red hot pokers in peculiar places. You see, Jones assumed that he’d be working on a film about horses given the title The Equestrian Vortex. Upon entering the studio where he’ll be working his audio magic he asks the secretary if she speaks English and before the question is even complete she responds, “No.” Things get worse from there. He brings along sounds from his most recent nature documentary and letters from his mother, a dapper gentlemen looking for a good time abroad. The well-crafted narrative and powerful sound use are unfortunately spoilt by an over-ambitious twist ending.Toby Jones (everyone’s favorite rolly-polly British character actor who also played Capote that one year) stars as a British sound man hired to fly over to Italy and lend his skills to the country’s burgeoning 70s film industry. It marks a disappointing end to an otherwise well-crafted piece of cinema.įor the most part, Berberian Sound Studio is a unsettling, brooding psychological horror, boasting a magnificent turn from Toby Jones. This extreme twist is not given the build-up that it deserves only working as a method of shocking the viewer, but lacking any clear explanation or clarity. Unfortunately, a utterly confusing and unnecessary twist ending spoils the foreboding and impact so carefully established throughout Berberian Sound Studio. The more naturalistic, bloodless narrative, in which Gilderoy breaks up as a person, isn’t carried through to the extreme a giallo-inspired film would seem to demand. For an actor, that is traditionally cast in supporting roles, Jones proves to be equally impressive in a leading role. Berberian Sound Studio refuses such a climax: it at once celebrates giallo and takes it apart, disassembling it like Derren Brown explaining an illusion. Jones performance is terrifically understated, managing to capture both his initial coyness to his more extreme infuriation whilst working on the project. Who knew hacking a watermelon or smashing some courgettes on ground could have such a chilling impact.īerberian Sound Studio is at its best when capturing the changing mental state of Gilderoy – most notably one frantic, dream-like sequence where the technician’s life blurs with the Italian horror film as he believes there is an intruder in his apartment. The vibrant and unsettling power of the sound is so strong, that we never see any of the imagery linked to this gruesome horror film (apart from its blood red opening titles) it is simply talked about, yet seeing these sounds created still has a sinister impact. Strickland’s direction immediately emphasises a sense of foreboding, with the distinctive use of the sounds created in the studio capturing Gilderoy’s troubling mental state. This completely absorbing and brooding drama manages to be unsettling, rather than scary. Soon Gilderoy’s work on this dark feature slowly begins to bleed into his everyday life.īerberian Sound Studio is certainly not a horror film, instead more of a psychological thriller reminiscent of Hammer Films “Mini-Hitchcocks”. Set in the 1970s, Berberian Sound Studio follows British sound technician, Gilderoy, as he works in Italy on a gruesome horror film.
Director, Peter Strickland (Katalin Varga) presents us with the truly unsettling look at the power of sound in his latest feature, the Toby Jones lead, Berberian Sound Studio – which makes its world premiere at this years’ Edinburgh International Film Festival.
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