"Berberian Sound Studio" (2013)

Some people just can't tolerate horror films. The scares, the blood and the apparent tastlessness of the genre turn off more than a few. Even the staunchest cinephiles have objections. Sound designer Gilderoy (Toby jones) seems like exactly the type of person who should not be working on the production of a horror film no matter the circumstances. He's a mild-mannered, soft-spoken Brit, and he's completely out of his element as he works at Berberian Sound Studio on one of Italy's infamous, fantastically ludicrous exploitations films, the giallo.

Berberian Sound Studio is set in the heyday of the giallo's peak popularity, in the 1970's. At first it seems like the film is taking on the path of a homage to the genre. The film has the look and feel of the giallo, taking on its sumptuous imagery and sexy stars. The film slowly drops hints of something more insidious just around the edges of the film's production and a growing sense of dread kicks in.

However, the film takes on a less bloody and less giallo-esque route. The film treats itself more like an unhinged psychological drama. In due time, the film resembles Muholland Drive more than Bird with the Crystal Plumage. Director Peter Strickland creates a hypnotically dreamlike state where reality and fiction begin to blur.

The sound designer is used to working on prestigious dramas not trashy horror flicks. The more he works on the film, the more uneasy he becomes working on such an exploitative film. Though the exploitation at hand appears to be over the young actresses degrading themselves to make a break in the industry, perhaps the greater exploitation is of the sound designer, whose fragile psyche can barely withstand this environment. He stabs melons and to him it's wickedly close to stabbing an actual person. And it is: it's a shiny knife piercing his own constitution.      

 Grade: ★★★