As Silvia's recording sequences are revisited, and tension grows between Gilderoy and the others, the boundaries between the blood-drenched giallo thriller and real life begin to erode.

Gilderoy imagines he himself is in a film about his life – suddenly fluent in Italian and increasingly detached and vicious.

Instead, she walks out, and it is left ambiguous whether he was attempting to hurt her out of malice or secretly trying to drive her away and prevent history from repeating itself.

In a final shot, during a power cut, Gilderoy witnesses the movie projector spontaneously turning itself on and creating an incandescent light, into which he seemingly disappears.

[3] Berberian Sound Studio premiered on 28 June 2012 at the Edinburgh International Film Festival, where The Daily Telegraph described it as the "stand-out movie".

[3] Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian has described the film as "seriously weird and seriously good" and said that it marks Strickland's emergence as "a key British film-maker of his generation".

The critical consensus states that "Its reach may exceed its grasp, but with Berberian Sound Studio, director Peter Strickland assembles a suitably twisted, creepy tribute to the Italian Giallo horror movies of the '70s that benefits from a strong central performance by Toby Jones.

[12] The screenplay was adapted for the stage by Joel Horwood and Tom Scutt, being first shown in London's Donmar Warehouse in 2019.