Berberian Sound Studio: 13 of 31 Horror Movies I Have Never Seen

The great thing about the Horror Genre is that it's more of a benchmark for a bunch of tiny other genres.  Thrillers, Gore, Ghost, Monster, Slasher, Murder Mystery: all are considered Horror movies.  It's we, the viewers who determine our own taste and what WE consider a Horror movie.  For the most part, I have always been one to look for a certain amount of gore thrown about in the mix, so I always find it interesting when I'm impressed by something that has a severe lack of gore.  Enter the Psychological Thriller (or PsychoThriller as I like to call it) into the fray.  Often times, this little sub-genre is still tied pretty closely to other sub-genres in the overarching multitude of Horror tropes.  However, sometimes I come across a film that is thoroughly rooted in just one.  Peter Strickland's Berberian Sound Studio is one of those.

Set in the 1970s it stars veteran character actor Toby Jones as Gilderoy, a gifted to the point of genius sound engineer who arrives in Italy to work on a film with a renowned director only to discover the film is a graphic Giallo Horror film.  Nonetheless he goes to work and as each day goes on he begins to become more and more detached from reality until the lines between fact and fiction begin to tear themselves apart at the seams and we are no longer sure if we're watching a film or a film within a film or a film within a film within a film.

The film is not only a PsychoThriller about confrontation, but it is also a love letter to the sound department.  Every trick of the trade is plied here, to the extent of using vegetables and fruits for Foley (sound effects), the lengths of which actors may be pushed for ADR (automatic dialogue replacement), and a myriad of effects applied in post to create what accompanies the image.  You can almost close your eyes and just listen to this film rather than watch it, but then you would lose a bit of the psychological aspect.

Jones was expertly cast as the out of his depth Brit surrounded by some of the most rude and chauvinistic Italian men you will ever have see portrayed on screen.  It's easy to empathize with his plight as he slowly sinks from polite professionalism to the level of an animal, even manipulating outcomes via sound torture at one point.  By the end of the film, we're left wondering what is real and who is the monster?

It's no secret that I have a strange obsession to the Giallo genre.  I'll admit, many of them are utter garbage but there is something seductive about the sleaziness involved in those films.  There's something real among the utter absurdity in the portrayal of typical every day citizens being caught up in outrageous murder mysteries.  They definitely had their Hayday between 1969 and 1978 with the 80s trading in most of the hip style for cheap thrills, sex and gore.  This film gives us a glimpse, perhaps, of what was going on in the background of those strange and seductive films.  Expertly shot, beautifully edited, and the sound mix delivers above and beyond expectation.

4 out of 5 skulls.