By the time he's creating sound for a scene he refused to work on, he makes his foley work seem like the murder he is witnessing. Jones is simply perfect as the introverted sound engineer becoming more and more disturbed by the film he's working on. We see a segment of his sylvan Boxhill nature documentary, the one for which he's been sent a cheque according to the second of mum's letters (and which is artfully created to mirror the real 1970's deal), before a literally soundless scene of darkness and sleep leading to more nightmares. After Silvia rebels against her poor treatment, Strickland throws Gilderoy into yet another film within his film, one in which the man can see himself projected, subtitled, back at the beginning of his studio experience. Then there is the reach from back home as Gilderoy receives the first of three letters from mum describing the chiffchaffs which have nested at his shed and shed a lot of light on Gilderoy's character as they increasingly dovetail with events in Italy. Office politics veer from inferences that one may never get paid (Gilderoy's attempts to get reimbursed for his flight go from frustration to nightmarish implication) to hedonistic gaiety (a set visitor's gifts of Belgian chocolates and champagne) and warnings about Silvia (Fatma Mohamed), an actress to whom Gilderoy has become attached. Vocal performance artists (Suzy Kendall, "The Bird with the Crystal Plumage," "Torso" and Jean-Michael van Schouwburg) arrive to give voice to inhuman sounds. Beautiful actresses are caged in sound booths to articulate reactions to having her hair pulled out or a red hot poker inserted in her vagina. Director Giancarlo Santini is rarely around, producer Francesco (Cosimo Fusco, "Angels & Demons") is his own good-bad cop and secretary Elena (Tonia Sotiropoulou, "Skyfall") can barely be bothered to acknowledge the Englishman's presence. Not only has Gilderoy been thrown into an alien film experience, but a strange environment. If there is a problem to be found here, it is Strickland's soft landing when his film screams to end with a cacophonous assault. We never see anything but the opening credits of the film within the film, but Strickland uses his protagonist's profession, along with some hilariously brutal scene descriptions, to implant horrors in our heads and Toby Jones's subtle descent into madness, whether of his own or the studio's making, complements everything the filmmaker sets out to achieve. The film slowly beings to abandon rationality and logic along with the star, which can either be read as a subjective dive into insanity or a nod to the unpredictably surreal classic Italian horror movies that the film is referencing.This twisty psychological horror yarn from writer/director Peter Strickland is the best kind, one that is open to many interpretations but can be enjoyed on its own creepy and insinuating surface. The pressure mounts and Jones starts to lose his mind. Jones is disturbed by the film he’s working on and even more disturbed by his new partners who keep unreasonable hours, have trouble making payments, and seem to spend a little too much time with their lovely lady starlets. As Jones pulls out a variety of vegetables to makes nauseatingly squishy sound effects and a parade of actresses march through the studio to scream and deliver hilariously stilted dialogue, it’s clear we’re in the delightful realm of vintage Eurotrash. We never actually see The Equestrian Vortex beyond a lovingly crafted faux-opening credit sequence that’s almost frighteningly perfect to the period. Turns out he’s working on the latest horror film from sleazy producer Francesco ( Cosmio Fusco) featuring witches, school girls, and “a dangerously aroused goblin” who likes to stick red hot pokers in peculiar places. You see, Jones assumed that he’d be working on a film about horses given the title The Equestrian Vortex. Upon entering the studio where he’ll be working his audio magic he asks the secretary if she speaks English and before the question is even complete she responds, “No.” Things get worse from there. He brings along sounds from his most recent nature documentary and letters from his mother, a dapper gentlemen looking for a good time abroad. Toby Jones (everyone’s favorite rolly-polly British character actor who also played Capote that one year) stars as a British sound man hired to fly over to Italy and lend his skills to the country’s burgeoning 70s film industry.
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