Berberian Sound Studio (2012)

A sound engineer's work for an Italian horror studio becomes a terrifying case of life imitating art.

Director:

Peter Strickland

Writer:

Peter Strickland

Stars:

Toby Jones, Antonio Mancino, Guido Adorni

16 wins & 15 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Toby Jones	...	Gilderoy
Cosimo Fusco	...	Francesco Coraggio
Antonio Mancino	...	Giancarlo Santini
Fatma Mohamed	...	Silvia as Teresa
Salvatore LI Causi	...	Fabio (as Salvatore Li Causi)
Chiara D'Anna	...	Elisa as Teresa
Tonia Sotiropoulou	...	Elena
Eugenia Caruso	...	Claudia as Monica / Screamer
Susanna Cappellaro	...	Veronica as Accused Witch
Guido Adorni	...	Lorenzo
Lara Parmiani	...	Chiara as Signora Collatina
Jozef Cseres	...	Massimo
Pal Toth	...	Massimo (as Pál Tóth)
Katalin Ladik	...	Resurrected Witch
Jean-Michael van Schouwburg	...	The Goblin (as Jean-Michel Van Schouwburg)

Storyline

A sound engineer's work for an Italian horror studio becomes a terrifying case of life imitating art.

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Plot Keywords:

foley artist | sound recordist | sound recording | movie studio | casting couch | 

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Genres:

Drama | Horror | Thriller

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook Official Twitter

Country:

UK Germany

Language:

English Italian

Release Date:

31 August 2012 (UK)

Also Known As:

Berberian Sound Studio: La inquisición del sonido

Filming Locations:

Three Mills Studios, Three Mill Lane, Bow, London, England, UK

Box Office

Opening Weekend USA:

$6,605, 16 June 2013

Gross USA:

$38,493

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$312,757

Company Credits

Production Co:

Illuminations Films, Warp X, Film4

Technical Specs

Runtime:

92 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Film debut of Antonio Mancino.

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Goofs

At the very beginning of the film, Elena calls Francesco to announce Gilderoy's arrival at the studio. Although the film is set in Italy, when she picks up the phone a continuous dial tone is heard, which is normal for the US or UK; however, the actual dial tone would have sounded very differently in Italy, a country where the phone system has a very distinctive and non-continuous dial tone (consisting of a 425Hz tone with a duration of 0.6sec followed by a 1 second pause, followed by a 0.2 sec tone then a 0.2 sec pause, repeated in a loop until the first digit is dialed).

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Quotes

Giancarlo Santini: Gilderoy, this is going to be a fantastic film. Brutal and honest. Nobody has seen this horror before.

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Crazy Credits

The opening credits are actually put together of those from The Equestrian Vortex, the fictional horror flick that's going to be post-dubbed in the movie, with fast-cut animations, medieval depictions of hell, demons, naves, animal skeletons and tortured female faces, mostly red and black colored.

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Connections

References Evil Ed (1995)

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Soundtracks

Trance & Bilocation
Performed by Roj
Written by Richard Stevens

User Reviews

A giallo twist on "Barton Fink," derailed by geekiness

Analog audio nerds and Fangoria contributing editors will love it, but for everybody else the surrealistic-horror-to-comedy balance is out of whack. Instead of being darkly amusing it's more often awkwardly dark -- with all their scrupulous attention to period detail and vintage equipment they should've sought some input on pacing and editing. The concept depends on a bunch of stereotypical Italians, specifically Italian exploitation movie folks, who straddle the line between fearsome and ridiculous, in a culture clash with the nebbishy unnerved Brit they've brought on to their diabolical mission. The trouble is that the protagonist just isn't comically fluent, so that even the rare bits of humor make him seem disturbing instead of disturbed. He's hilariously awkward when stabbing into fresh produce to make sound effects but dissonant for the purpose of obvious jokes such as the mundane letters he's shown reading from his mother. Nevertheless I was enjoying the first 60 minutes or so, before they went film school and gave up the ironic detachment for a psychedelic collage project (for that I could've just watched the real thing from Mario Bava or Dario Argento instead). Rather than restraining itself to the flavor of the genre this one wanders too deep into homage.