jon croker – Horror Ghouls

We’re in the 70’s, and Gilderoy is a sound engineer traveling all the way from Britain to the Berberian Film Studio in Italy. He’s going to work on a film about horses…or so he thinks. When he arrives, the film producer Francesco tells him that the film is actually an Italian giallo film, called The Equestrian Vortex. Well, this wasn’t what Gilderoy signed up for, but he still decides to work at the studio to add the sound effects, or do “Foley work“ as it’s also called. Using inventive ways to add sounds to the film’s gory scenes (which we actually never see) he uses vegetables and mixes voiceovers from the session artists. At the same time, Gilderoy is struggling with colleagues who pretty much treat him like shit (but then again they also do so to each other), feeling increasingly uncomfortable with the work he’s doing, and he starts to detach from reality.

Berberian Sound Studio is a British psychological horror film from 2012, directed by Peter Strickland and co-written with Jon Croker. Strickland made a short film of it in 2005, where he said that he wanted to “make a film where everything that is usually hidden in cinema, the mechanics of film itself, is made visible. Berberian… turns this on its head. Here, the film is out of view, and you only see the mechanics behind it.“

This is one of those films where the tired-out phrase “isn’t for everyone“ truly fits. I’d think you’d have to inhabit at least a tiny interest to the art of sound editing, old-school moviemaking and Italian giallo in order to get the most out of a movie like this. It starts off on a somewhat comedic level, where the timid Gilderoy is struggling to set boundaries and voice his opinions, surrounded by the typical 70’s “Italian machismo“ culture. Then it gets increasingly bizarre as Gilderoy’s mental state starts deteriorating.

The sound effect making, where watermelons are smashed and cabbages are split in half, sometimes showing pieces of damaged and rotting vegetables all over the place, made me imagine an alternative universe where this would be a Terrifier-level horror movie for vegetables. There’s something about not seeing the actual scenes Gilderoy is making the sounds for, but just hearing the sounds, seeing the descriptions, and hearing the actresses screaming. It certainly leaves a lot to the imagination! And if The Equestrian Vortex was an actual film, I wouldn’t hesitate giving it a watch.

Eventually, the movie ventures pretty far into cuckoo-land and what really happens and what happens only in Gilderoy’s head isn’t all that clear. The ending is somewhat ambiguous, and if you’d think there would be some kind of Evil Ed development here you’ll be sorely disappointed. It’s more like a surrealistic, dark dream without much of a conclusion.

Berberian Sound Studio is an amusing and strange film, and while the ending didn’t quite land with me I found the overall experience to be enjoyable.

Director: Peter Strickland
Writers: Peter Strickland, Jon Croker
Country & year: UK/Germany, 2012
Actors: Toby Jones, Cosimo Fusco, Antonio Mancino, Fatma Mohamed, Salvatore Li Causi, Chiara D’Anna, Tonia Sotiropoulou, Eugenia Caruso, Susanna Cappellaro, Guido Adorni
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1833844/

Ambar is a young woman who tries to move from Mexico and settle in Cleveland, Ohio, after her mother passes away. Unfortunately, she’s an undocumented immigrant, which makes it incredibly hard to find a job and a place to live. She works at an “under the table” job, with an asshole boss who treats her like shit because he knows she doesn’t have much of a choice. In a desperate search for some place to stay, she finds a dilapidated boarding house where the owner, Red, doesn’t care about asking any questions as long as one month’s rent is paid up front. Shortly after she moves in, she starts experiencing strange things and sees ghostly figures. Some of the rooms in the house is also filled with strange artifacts, as Red’s parents were archaeologists. And to top it all, Red’s got a mentally disturbed brother who acts in a threatening manner. And while she isn’t the only woman in the house as there’s also two other young women renting a room there, Ambar soon feel that the supernatural visions and the overall threatening atmosphere in the house is becoming a bit too much…

No One Gets Out Alive is a supernatural horror film from 2021, directed by Santiago Menghini and based on an Adam Nevill novel by the same name. It premiered on Netflix on 29 September 2021. Now, while I have read some of Adam Nevill’s books I haven’t read this one, so on that part I’m unable to make any comparisons. I think this movie is a little bit of a modern gothic horror, set in a gloomy mansion-like boarding house where ghostly apparitions fit well in with the interior, so to speak. It’s atmospheric and offers mysteries and tension, which are not all caused by the supernatural affairs. Ambar’s experience as a lost, lonely and desperate young woman in a place where she basically has no value, and constantly in a situation where others might take advantage of her without repercussions, adds to the feeling if despair and tension. Even when Ambar befriends one of her colleagues who promises to get her a fake ID, she just ends up getting robbed by this woman whom she thought would help her. If Ambar hadn’t been in a very despairing situation, I don’t think the underlying tension would have been quite as effective.

The movie also hints that it exists in the same universe as The Ritual, as a newscaster mentions the four lost hikers in the Swedish woods. The Ritual is another book by Nevill which had a movie adaption released in 2017, and is currently also available on Netflix. Just like in The Ritual, there’s a god-like monster here. It isn’t particularly well explained, but it is some kind of Aztec goodess named Itzpapaloyl, which actually means “clawed butterfly” or “obsidian butterfly”. In Aztec religion, Itzpapaloyl is a fearsome skeletal death goddess. And just like in The Ritual, the monster design and effects are neat and otherworldly to the max, even if their display time is minimal.

Overall, No One Gets Out Alive is gloomy and creepy, where the heroine’s problems are just as much related to financial and social problems than just the supernatural ones. While it certainly isn’t fast paced I didn’t ever find it boring, and consider it a pretty enjoyable watch.

Director: Santiago Menghini
Writers: Jon Croker, Fernanda Coppel
Country & year: UK, 2021
Actors: Cristina Rodlo, Marc Menchaca, Vala Noren, Claudia Coulter, Teresa Banham, David Barrera, Alejandro Akara, David Figlioli, Cosmina Stratan
IMDb: www.imdb.com/title/tt13056008/

Tag: jon croker

Berberian Sound Studio (2012)

No One Gets Out Alive (2021)