Berberian Sound Studio (15)

Horror

A sound engineer's work for an Italian horror studio becomes a terrifying case of life imitating art.

The critical consensus

Painstakingly recreating an era of full-blooded Italian horror, this niche-sounding yet accessible thriller confirms Strickland as a major talent.

(*) Jamie Graham, Total Film, 31/07/2012

Ingenious, inventive and very funny at times, it’s a technical treat for fanboys and Jones is astutely cast. If only it had focus as well, because in the end what some might regard as complexity is actually just incoherence.

(*) (*) Siobhan Synnot, The Scotsman, 26/08/2012

With a debut film, Katalin Varga, shot entirely in Hungarian, Strickland isn't one for the easy option. This excellent follow-up plunges into equally unusual terrain with similarly pleasing results.

(*) David Hughes, Empire Online, 27/08/2012

any will term it Lynchian, but unlike Mulholland Drive this lacks the depth of its twisting narrative. It does, however, show a technical master at work with Strickland delivering the bloodless horror of a dissolving mind with genuine verve and panache.

(*) Alan Bett, The Skinny, 27/08/2012

As soon as Gilderoy begins to lose the plot the film follows suit, resulting in a grand muddle.

(*) (*) Alison Rowat, The Herald, 30/08/2012

A filmmaking puzzle that reveals the magic of movies to be something of a black art.

(*) Alistair Harkness, The Scotsman, 30/08/2012

Over-rated.

(*) (*) (*) Chris Tookey, Daily Mail, 30/08/2012

(*) (*) Antonia Quirke, Financial Times, 30/08/2012

(*) Anthony Quinn, The Independent, 31/08/2012

Nothing much happens and when it does (possibly in Gilderoy’s head) it’s completely bemusing.

(*) (*) (*) Henry Fitzherbert, Daily Express, 31/08/2012

Its vision, ingenuity and sheer gobsmacking audacity have blown me ten feet out of my seat. It is one of the year’s very best films, a great, rumbling thunderclap of genius.

Robbie Collin, The Telegraph, 31/08/2012

Toby Jones gives the performance of his career, and Peter Strickland has emerged as a key British film-maker of his generation.

Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian, 30/08/2012

One of the most remarkable British movies of the past couple of years.

Philip French, The Observer, 02/09/2012

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.

Jonathan Romney, The Independent on Sunday, 02/09/2012