Movies
[BD Review] ‘Berberian Sound Studio’ Is Punishing, Self-Indulgent Art
Boy, was I excited to see this film. I’d heard great things. I love the world – the concept of a sound designer working with an iconic Italian horror director during the 1970s, a time when all Italian genre films were shot without sound and designed with different spoken languages during post-production, is brilliant. Great cast. Obviously quality production values. So know that if I say I hated this movie, I went into it with more than an open mind. And I HATED this movie.
Berberian Sound Studio is self indulgent filmmaking that’s so arrogant, and so self consumed that it completely forgets about the audience. It’s a pretentious art piece solely made for film snobs – I can’t even imagine a single Bloody reader making it through its entirety. Collective sighs and groans littered the theater between each obnoxious transition (where “Silencio” flashes across the screen), and each moment of on screen silence was interrupted by the sounds of people shuffling to rush out of the theater.
Only one word is needed to describe Berberian Sound Studio: “exhausting”.
By the time the end credits roll the audience will be emotionally exhausted – especially after watching countless scenes go nowhere; it’s not just boring, it’s punishing. Toby Jones is incredibly underused (it’s insulting to cast such a talent and then castrate him), being that his character also never evolves by the final frame. If anything, the movie never progresses past the first act as the final hour just continually repeats itself – It’s like fighting in circles with your ex-girl/boyfriend for an hour (remember how much fun that was?).
Berberian Sound Studio is a calling card for Peter Strickland. It’s an incredibly well shot piece of art that puts on display how talented he is as a director – but not as a storyteller. And while beautifully crafted, it’s impossible to recommend this to anyone who hopes to have an entertaining movie-going experience.
Movies
‘Abigail’ on Track for a Better Opening Weekend Than Universal’s Previous Two Vampire Attempts
In the wake of Leigh Whannell’s Invisible Man back in 2020, Universal has been struggling to achieve further box office success with their Universal Monsters brand. Even in the early days of the pandemic, Invisible Man scared up $144 million at the worldwide box office, while last year’s Universal Monsters: Dracula movies The Last Voyage of the Demeter and Renfield didn’t even approach that number when you COMBINE their individual box office hauls.
The horror-comedy Renfield came along first in April 2023, ending its run with just $26 million. The period piece Last Voyage of the Demeter ended its own run with a mere $21 million.
But Universal is trying again with their ballerina vampire movie Abigail this weekend, the latest bloodbath directed by the filmmakers known as Radio Silence (Ready or Not, Scream).
Unlike Demeter and Renfield, the early reviews for Abigail are incredibly strong, with our own Meagan Navarro calling the film “savagely inventive in terms of its vampiric gore,” ultimately “offering a thrill ride with sharp, pointy teeth.” Read her full review here.
That early buzz – coupled with some excellent trailers – should drive Abigail to moderate box office success, the film already scaring up $1 million in Thursday previews last night. Variety notes that Abigail is currently on track to enjoy a $12 million – $15 million opening weekend, which would smash Renfield ($8 million) and Demeter’s ($6 million) opening weekends.
Working to Abigail‘s advantage is the film’s reported $28 million production budget, making it a more affordable box office bet for Universal than the two aforementioned movies.
Stay tuned for more box office reporting in the coming days.
In Abigail, “After a group of would-be criminals kidnap the 12-year-old ballerina daughter of a powerful underworld figure, all they have to do to collect a $50 million ransom is watch the girl overnight. In an isolated mansion, the captors start to dwindle, one by one, and they discover, to their mounting horror, that they’re locked inside with no normal little girl.”
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