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Berberian Sound Studio

Play trailer Poster for Berberian Sound Studio 2013 1h 28m Horror Play Trailer Watchlist
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85% Tomatometer 94 Reviews 53% Popcornmeter 2,500+ Ratings
A sound engineer tortures people to get the sounds he needs for his work in an Italian horror studio.

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Berberian Sound Studio

Berberian Sound Studio

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Critics Consensus

Its reach may exceed its grasp, but with Berberian Sound Studio, director Peter Strickland assembles a suitably twisted, creepy tribute to the Italian Giallo horror movies of the '70s that benefits from a strong central performance by Toby Jones.

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Critics Reviews

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Deborah Ross The Spectator 09/01/2018
I have never encountered anything quite so auditorily menacing... I promise you have never seen, or heard, anything like it, and Toby Jones's performance is fantastically gripping. Go to Full Review
Jonathan Romney Independent (UK) 12/31/2013
If you're open to films that fearlessly twist the conventions, and that mine the language of sound and image for their own strange potential, you'll get a kick from this rivetingly inventive, abrasively un-British piece of nightmare cinema. Go to Full Review
Sam Davies Sight & Sound 12/31/2013
Berberian Sound Studio refuses such a climax: it at once celebrates giallo and takes it apart, disassembling it like Derren Brown explaining an illusion. Go to Full Review
Erick Estrada Cinegarage 07/26/2023
Satanism, blood and bewitched screams... We are in the sonorous heart of a horror movie where nothing is what it seems. [Full review in Spanish] Go to Full Review
C.J. Prince Way Too Indie 07/02/2019
7/10
Berberian Sound Studio is definitely unique with some wonderful moments that nail what Strickland is going for, but it's too uneven to be something truly great. Go to Full Review
Naila Scargill Exquisite Terror 02/28/2019
Strangely accessible for a giallo come art-house film; a pleasure from beginning to end, with lavish attention to detail. Go to Full Review
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Audience Reviews

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Ross L Nov 24 It’s a visual medium about a horror film’s violence reduced purely to its auditory component. It is almost brilliant in the pursuit of this unique presentation. See more Gary K Jun 29 Oh dear, let me see. First, I'll begin with a resounding meh. Then possibly, what the hell did I just watch? And frankly, and probably most importantly, who really cares? What an abject waste of time. See more Vítor Pimentel de Oliveira V Mar 25 It's not by far an orthodox picture, and for the regular viewers it can be tricky to bear with it. Nevertheless, this story about a sound mixer doing a Giallo movie unfolds in a compelling way and it's centered in a tour-de-force perfomance by Toby Jones. See more Ben W @Username618 08/25/2024 No option to delete. Just put stars in middle, sorry. 14th Sept 2024ce. See more Miguel M 03/30/2024 Esta pelicula me demuestra la dedicación que hay para ser un actor de post producción. See more Nina E 11/15/2023 If watching pretty brunettes screaming their heads off turns you on then you'll love this movie. If raw Italian machismo turns you on then there's something in this for you too. We experience it from the point of view of a meek Englishman who inadvertently landed himself in the raunchy world of B rated horror films, ahem, Santini films. The meek man is pretty much beating lettuce for sound effects until he is pushed into a Milgram experiment like task of torturing a scream actress with high pitch noise, but the actress walks out, so nothing much really happens but the general discomfort and awkwardness of watching a small man be bullied by his alpha bosses and pushed to madness is telling of how we end up with so much workplace violence. Please don't be a jerk at work. See more Read all reviews
Berberian Sound Studio

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Movie Info

Synopsis A sound engineer tortures people to get the sounds he needs for his work in an Italian horror studio.
Director
Peter Strickland
Producer
Mary Burke, Keith Griffiths, Hans Geissendoerfer
Screenwriter
Peter Strickland
Distributor
IFC Films
Production Co
Illumination Films, Film4, Warp X
Genre
Horror
Original Language
British English
Release Date (Theaters)
Jun 4, 2013, Limited
Release Date (Streaming)
Mar 29, 2017
Box Office (Gross USA)
$24.3K
Runtime
1h 28m
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