Berberian Sound Studio

There is an early scene in Berberian Sound Studio in which newly hired sound mixer Gilderoy (a fantastically nuanced Toby Jones) sits uncomfortably in the studio with Italian film producer Francesco (played with gusto by Cosimo Fusco).

They watch a scene from The Equestrian Vortex (the fictional film within the film which the audience never sees), whilst two foley artists slice and chop up watermelons providing the sound effects for a particularly gory sounding scene. In a horrified whisper Gilderoy asks “What are they doing to her?” The genius of this line is that it isn’t clear whether he’s referring to whatever is happening on screen or the men smashing the watermelons.

Peter Strickland’s second feature, following 2009 revenge thriller Katalin Varga, sees Gilderoy hired to work on a new Italian horror film by celebrated film-maker Santini (Antonio Mancino). The rest of the film takes place entirely within the eponymous sound studio, an air of horror slowly building, allowing the film to play out like a murder mystery except for (seemingly) without the murder.

{{ quote Berberian Sound Studio isn’t a horror film because there is no monster, but it is exactly this that in many ways makes it one of the scariest horror films ever made.}}

In this respect the film performs admirably. This is partly due to the brilliant cast, with Toby Jones’ polite and ever-so-English sound-mixing genius under-playing opposite the sleazy Italian film company, who are presented as almost more grotesque than the unseen monsters of The Equestrian Vortex. This contrast between the characters is also where the films unlikely comedy comes from; Gilderoy’s reactions when working on scene featuring an “aroused goblin”, for example, or his timid attempt at an angry phone call when he’s trying to get a reimbursement for his flight.

But the spine-chilling atmosphere is mostly down to the meta-cinematic soundtrack, which Gilderoy is mixing throughout the film, making diegetic and non-diegetic sounds become indistinguishable.

A common criticism of horror films is to say that a film is only truly scary until they show the monster and after that it becomes a farce, because nothing is scarier than what you’re imagining. Berberian Sound Studio isn’t a horror film because there is no monster, but it is exactly this that in many ways makes it one of the scariest horror films ever made.

But it is in the scene described above that that the film approaches the area in which it is most successful. In creating and mixing the sound effects for the on screen torture that is occurring, Gilderoy begins to feel a part of it to the extent that he feels he has become the torturer. Indeed, in a film where the audience does not actually see any of these scenes, it is the sound mixer who produces the violence.

This places the soundtrack into the spotlight and shows that, in cinema, sound is so much more than simply functional; it is an art. It is as much an act of creation as writing the script or filming the scenes, and, in producing the soundtrack for a film in which a woman is violated using a hot iron this begins to take it’s psychological on Gilderoy.

For me however, this is where the film begins to fall apart. The film starts playing with Gilderoy’s reality and it becomes muddled in what it is trying to say. The ending is as confused as it is confusing, and it very suddenly feels like a lot of suspense for an unsatisfactory resolution.

That said, I do want to see the film again. People often say that there are certain films where a second viewing reveals things you didn’t see the first time round. Maybe a second viewing of Berberian Sound Studio would prove to be more enlightening and perhaps a little more disturbing.