The horror and giallo films produced in Italy in the 70's are possibly more respected now than at any time before. Their unique combination of salacious content with cinematic style, outstanding musical arrangements and Italian chic is truly a thing of wonder and a type of film-making we may never see again. These are the kinds of movies that belong to a specific era, indeed the décor, fashions and look of the women from early 70's Italy are significant factors in the pleasure of watching them. It seems that any film nowadays that tries to capture the essence of these movies has to do it in a slightly post-modern or retro way rather than as a straight copy. Amer (2009) was a movie that adopted the former approach with many references to films from the time. Berberian Sound Studio does the same but with the addition of the film itself being set in Italy in the early 70's and, moreover, it is explicitly about the making of such films. However, neither Amer nor Berberian Sound Studio could exactly be called a giallo. They are films constructed from the motifs of the genre. They are both highly original films in their own rights.

Berberian Sound Studio is almost a deconstruction of the giallo. The film is set in a sound recording studio for movie audio effects and dubbing. Italian genre pictures from the time were always shot soundless and then post-dubbed into a plethora of languages in order to maximise international sales; so for this reason it's obvious that the sound recording part of the process was even more important in these films than normal. So we have bizarre scenes where the sound engineer 'murders' various vegetables in order to get just the right noise. Similarly music plays an important part. The music throughout the picture recalls the early 70's Italian prototype. There are haunting female wordless vocals that recall the work of the one and only Edda Dell'Orso who was the vocalist on countless Italian soundtracks from the time and almost something of a muse for the legendary Ennio Morricone. Indeed, the excellent score from post-rock outfit Broadcast also has nods to Morricone as well as Bruno Nicolai, Goblin and others.

A film set almost entirely within the confines of a sound studio needs something to ensure it's cinematic. Director Peter Strickland maintains a stylish look and feel, combining sound and image in consistently interesting ways. Little details are magnified and treated with visual flair such as the close-ups of the rotting vegetables discarded after being 'killed' for sound effects or the detailed scanning shots of the sound engineer's chronological notes. We never see the film in question but we are given a tantalising intro to it that certainly resembles movies from the time period. It's a Warholesque pop art intro with lots of black, lots of red and cool music. Instead of seeing the clips of the movie we have instead voice-over descriptions of gloriously ridiculous scenes that any fan of the genre will immediately relate to. Within these there are references to some cult genre flicks such as Suspiria (witches) and Death Laid an Egg (poultry),while throughout the movie an unseen black leather gloved figure flicks various switches which of course is a fetishtic detail that relates to countless gialli.

The central character is British. So on another level this movie is about an Englishman in Rome. The culture clash is evident throughout, where the Italians just do things in a different way. They have unorthodox ideas on paying money and utter ambivalence to the violence in their film. Their Latin sensibilities are constantly at odds with the English sound engineer, who is more used to recording sounds of cows in fields. With time he becomes psychologically warped by his constant exposure to the movie he is dubbing and his reality starts to become intertwined with it. In one trippy scene he sees himself on the cinematic screen dubbed into Italian being terrorised by a sexy giallo killer-witch. In another his mundane letter from his mother becomes part of the film dialogue. One of his amateur films even becomes spliced into the middle of the horror film, creating a bizarre contrast. By the end, the protagonist's psyche is inextricably mixed up with that of the film he immerses himself in. It's a pretty Lynchian conclusion to a loving homage to Italian horror-thrillers of the 70's.

Gilderoy (Toby Jones) is a sound engineer hired to work at an Italian studio. He is shocked at the material as he begins to work on The Equestrian Vortex. It's witchcraft movie in an all girl riding school. He's a quiet reserved English speaker and he's not making fast friends among his Italian co-workers. The boss Santini refuses to call it a horror movie. He becomes a paranoid mess as he falls further and further into his work.

This is a movie filled with moodiness. Toby Jones is terrific. However, I want more creepiness and some scares. It definitely needs something more. It doesn't have enough weirdness. It doesn't have any shock. It is just a long tense tease that doesn't pay off. The story needs to be about something. This film wants to be The Shining but it doesn't reach anywhere close to it.

Man alive, BERBERIAN SOUND STUDIO is a strange little film. It stars the hapless Toby Jones as a mild-mannered sound engineer who travels to Rome to work on the soundtrack of a sinister giallo film and soon finds himself getting sucked into the movie's mystique and repellent atmosphere.

Technically, this film is a gem, with excellent sound design and good visuals; for a film set almost entirely in a sound studio, it's atmospheric and engaging, and it helps that the underrated Jones gives an excellent turn in a rare leading role. The problem with BERBERIAN SOUND STUDIO, then, is that it's one of those 'style over substance' movies where there's very little meat behind what's up on screen.

This feels almost like one of those films that's made up as it goes along. It starts off strongly, with a decent first half hour setting up the story, and what follows is oddly disturbing despite a lack of explicitness. However, around the halfway mark it starts to get heavy going, and the ending is particularly disappointing, failing to tie up or rationalise what's happened. I hate it when a film reaches this level of ambiguity; a bit of ambiguity works fine, but to this degree it's just a cop out, unfortunately.