‎Berberian Sound Studio (2012) directed by Peter Strickland • Reviews, film + cast • Letterboxd

Berberian Sound Studio

2012 Directed by Peter Strickland

In the 1970s, a British sound technician is brought to Italy to work on the sound effects for a gruesome horror film. His nightmarish task slowly takes over his psyche, driving him to confront his own past.

Toby Jones Tonia Sotiropoulou Susanna Capellaro Cosimo Fusco Hilda Péter Layla Amir Eugenia Caruso Antonio Mancino Fatma Mohamed Chiara D'Anna Kata Bartsch Lara Parmiani Suzy Kendall Salvatore LI Causi Guido Adorni

92 mins More details at IMDb TMDb Report this film

Popular reviews

Review by Mark Cunliffe ★★★★½ 15

My word.

What an amazing film.

Firstly if you're a nerd for the aesthetics of film, you'll love it. The 70s setting, the Giallo references are all perfect that you don't think of it as a present day film set in the 70s, this could be a lost forgotten 70s film.

Secondly, if you're a nerd for the mechanics of film, the technology, you'll REALLY love it.

I belong in the former camp really but this film has really given me a greater appreciation of the use of sound in movies. It certainly makes you think.

Sound as alchemy. Sound as tangible. Sound as something that can distort you, take over your mind and lose reality.

But what the hell…
Review by Todd Gaines ★★★ 9

A tall Leprechaun goes to work at an Italian giallo sound studio. A proper greeting. A Gallagher moment. Acting all Enya like. Yummy chocolate! Reimbursement. Language barriers. Fuckin' dubbing. Spiders are icky. Demonic moaning. A cool-as-fuck doggy. Silenzo. A thing-a-ma-jig. Mario's brother. A red-hot poker. Blowing bubbles. Always swallow the seeds. Twigs. Sometimes you just need to scream. A lit candle. Fuckin' curses. Reelz of film. Tickling is fun. The line-up. Ding-dong. Lights, camera, action! Cows like to graze. The letter from Mum. Serpent semen. Unending screams. Eerie, without a money-shot. Unique, with fuckin' fantastic audio stimulation of the mind. However, a film I couldn't quite become fully invested in and therefore I can't fully recommend it.
Review by Adam Cook ★★★ 3

Having greatly admired Peter Strickland’s debut feature, Katalin Varga, and been intrigued by the synopsis for this unusual follow-up I’m sad to say I left feeling a little disappointed by Berberian Sound Studio. It is undoubtedly clever and meticulously crafted but it is also frustratingly boring for large passages as it aimlessly shuffles towards a perplexing, but not all that interesting, climax.

Toby Jones stars as Gilderoy, a stuffy and uptight English sound engineer who is hired to edit the audio for a giallo horror film in Italy. Working in a claustrophobic and windowless studio (the studio of the title) the placid Englishman succumbs to the horrifying violence he is paid to work on. Although steeped in gialli references from…
Review by Steve G ★★★★½ 17

Ever since I saw a review of it in Empire and Sight & Sound and was enticed by adverts for screenings of it at the fabulous Cornerhouse every time I went by on the 50 bus for a couple of weeks, I have been counting down the days until I saw Berberian Sound Studio.

It's odd, really. I've not seen Peter Strickland's previous film, Katalin Varga. I'm not especially knowledgeable about Toby Jones' work. Plus, I'm not someone who has a massive amount of background knowledge about giallo and Italian horror films. So as I started to watch it, I was trying to figure out exactly what about it had pulled me in to wanting to see it as much as…
Review by Jonathan White ★★★★½ 42

Lise and Jonnie's What A Wonderful World 2015

30, 15, maybe 7 and a half IPS, but no slower. Quarter inch; at least half track, but probably full track, save for that narrow band reserved for the almighty pilottone.

The grand Revox turning over the split-flange NAB hub reels hypnotically; the silent Nagra with its always naked head stack; its glowing VU eye dances, visualizing the sound of a macheted melon as a decapitated head drops; the Nagra, appreciatively, gobbles it all up.

Are the reels turning slower, or am I just moving farther and farther away?

I’m on the tape; I’m in the board; I’m gone.
Review by Hollie Horror ★★★★★ 11

"Sound is alchemy." -Peter Strickland, director/writer.

For the longest time there was so much praise given to the French film Amer which is supposedly a homage to gialli of the 1970s (specifically the third segment). What Amer attempted aesthetically, Berberian Sound Studio achieved audibly AND aesthetically.

"The world of sound awaits you."

Really, it goes without saying that I have a strong connection with Italian gialli and horror cinema. In ways, sometimes it feels as though it is my lifeblood. While the stories have almost always lacked something (something being cohesive, sensical plots), it was because we were being blown away by the imagery and the sound. It isn't all in the [fantastic] music either, from the sound of the…

Recent reviews

Review by MovieTalkDude ★★½

Kann ein Film nahezu ohne Spannungsbogen und ohne eine wirkliche Handlung auskommen, diesem Experiment sich Regisseur und Drehbuchautor Peter Strickland bei Berberian Sound Studio, vielleicht mit voller Absicht, aber womöglich auch unbewusst. Die Frage kann man aber wohl Fall klar verneinen, zwar ist die Prämisse in jedem Fall höhst interessant, in die Welt eines italienischen Sound Studios der 70er Jahre einzutauchen und auch Hauptdarsteller Toby Jones passt außerordentlich gut in die Rolle des britischen Tontechnikers, aber das reicht eben noch lange nicht für einen guten Film.
Für einen Horrorfilm passiert hier einfach viel zu wenig, wenn in jeder neuen Szene eben nur eine neue Szene des Films eingesprochen wird und sonst keine Handlung vorhanden ist. Für ein Drama sind einem…
Review by Sidharth Nair ★★★½

a masterpiece of atmosphere.
Review by filmstocheckout ★★★½

Strange & unsettling psychodrama with piercing sound design & stylish homage aesthetic.
Review by Van ★

Some fun scenes (the increasingly violent ADR sessions are priceless) but doesn't go anywhere.
Review by AlasdairBayman ★★★½

Death> When you fall asleep half way through a film and finish the last half hour the day after.

Pure Lynchian vibes from Strickland‘s second feature with a fine performance from a fellow University of Manchester alumni member- the one and only Toby Jones
Review by Udo Fischer ★★★★

Wer das Medium Film liebt, findet hier ein stimmungsvolles kleines audivisuelles Gesamtkunstwerk über das man viel nachdenken, reden und philosophieren kann. Offenblendig, farbenfroh, verstörend, laut. Großartig! 8/10
Review by Miles Jackson ★★★★★

good LORD did i underrate this film when i was 14
Review by Damien Riley ★★★★½

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

As an aside, I have changed my podcast name to "Why This Movie Works." I explain why as an intreo to this podcast. You can listen here.

Sound effects to me are so cool. I've always been interested in them. I recall they used to show how they made movie sounds in a pre-trailer ad for the Times. That was awesome, it made me realize that sound effects are cool. "The Berberian Sound Studio" is about sound effects in movies. There is also an underlying story that bridges horror with drama and a psychological twist.

I see a common theme in this film with "The Shining" where the protagonist is spiraling down into madness. You also see this in the…
Review by Armando Sanchez ★★★★★

BERBERIAN SOUND STUDIO is the type of horror film that after viewing, you just want to sit down with other film lovers and discuss the film like crazy. Why? Because this is a disturbing and eerie film that will not only get under your skin, but will make you think after you are done watching the film, you will keep pondering and wondering of what you just witnessed and gone through. BERBERIAN SOUND STUDIO is about an Englishman, who heads to 1970's Rome to create sound effects for a horror film. That is all I can say about the film, as It's one that demands your full attention. The film benefits from having a very strong and very competent filmmaker…