BERBERIAN SOUND STUDIO World Cinema

From the screams of ingénues to the splitting of skulls, a cacophony of tones echoes through the hallways of BERBERIAN SOUND STUDIO, showcasing the work of a quiet Englishman with an unquiet mind.  Having accepted a job as sound designer on an Italian horror film, he quickly finds himself conscripted without pay by an absentee director and a tyrannical producer.  Drawn in equal parts from the works of Argento and the Coen brothers this ‘70s set film from British director Peter Strickland trumpets a base note of existential horror while keening a treble trill of dry, cross-cultural wit.  With its period-rich art direction and haunting soundtrack, the film draws us into the lurid world of the giallo (Italian pulp fiction), while building exquisite moments of tension from the most mundane moments of film production until we, too, are lost in the mix, our hearts pounding at the sound of footsteps drawing closer in the dark.