Something unusual, a love letter to the sounds of Italian horror cinema. One for curious and open minded cult movie fans who like a bit of art on the side and all the Shameless/Arrow collectors, who can enjoy a tribute to the Giallo and pasta horror they love so much...
“One of the year’s very best films, a great, rumbling thunderclap of genius.”
★★★★★ Robbie Collin, The Telegraph
On DVD & Blu-Ray 31 Dec 2012
Dazzling Argento style and haunting Lynchian atmosphere are combined in Peter Strickland’s brilliantly original and hugely acclaimed homage to 1970s Italian horror.
Writer-director Peter Strickland (Katalin Varga) and stars Toby Jones (The Girl; Snow White And The Huntsman; The Hunger Games; Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy), Tonia Sotiropoulou (Skyfall) and Cosimo Fusco (Angels And Demons; The Card Player).
It’s 1976 and timid, Dorking-based sound engineer, Gilderoy, has been transplanted to Italy’s run-down Berberian Sound Studio to work on “The Equestrian Vortex”, the latest low-budget horror movie by notorious exploitation maestro Giancarlo Santini. Gilderoy’s task is a seemingly simple one: to create, record and mix the sounds of bloodcurdling screams, limbs being severed and the insertion of red hot pokers into human orifices, mostly using a variety of everyday household items such as old vegetables and a hammer. But Gilderoy is totally unprepared for the graphically grotesque images on show, the effect they have on him and for the unusual working practices of his employers. As he becomes more deeply involved in his work, the line between fantasy and reality becomes blurred and, very subtly, Gilderoy’s life begins to imitate art in a nightmare scenario from which he may never escape.
Winner of the Best Film, Best Director and Best Actor awards at the 2012 Film 4 Frightfest, Peter Strickland’s disturbing, eerie chiller is a must-see for fans of the work of Dario Argento, Roman Polanski and David Lynch and features a revelatory central performance by Toby Jones and a superb soundtrack by British indie electronic band, Broadcast.