Trauma starts on a dark rainy night outside a chiropodist's somewhere in Minnesota, inside Dr. Georgia Jackson (Isabell O'Connor as Isabell Monk) is preparing for a new patient. The patient arrives & subsequently decapitates Jackson with an electric wire noose... As he drives along graphic artist David Parsons (Christopher Rydell) spots a young anorexic woman named Aura Petrescu (Asia Argento) about to commit suicide by jumping off a bridge, he persuades her not to & takes her for some lunch where she steals his wallet & tries to leg it at the first opportunity but is caught by some city youth officers outside & is taken back to her parents. Once back home Aura is locked in her room while her Mother Adriana (Piper Laurie) & Father Stefan (Dominique Serrand) prepare for a séance, Adriana is a bit of a medium & during the séance is supposedly contacted by the spirit of Dr. Jackson who is about to reveal the name of the killer when a window breaks & the lights go out. Adriana & Stefan run outside into the rain & Aura follows them but she quickly discovers their decapitated bodies, with nowhere to go she contacts David for help who offers her a place to stay. Both David & Aura decide to investigate the killings themselves as headless bodies continue to pop up all over the place...
This Italian American co-production was written, produced & directed by Dario Argento who is well known for this type of film, Trauma certainly isn't his best but at the same time it's far from his worst. The script by T.E.D. Klein & Argento is a decent murder mystery as long as you don't think about it too hard. For instance, & this part of my comment is going to contain HUGE SPOILERS, if the killer faked their own death by setting the scene & using someone else's headless body why didn't the police realise the body didn't belong to the supposed victim? Since there was no head wouldn't they have at least checked the corpse's fingerprints? DNA? Scars or birthmarks? I mean wouldn't they have checked that the body belonged to whom it was supposed too or are they that lazy? Maybe they don't have too, maybe they can take the word of a hysterical teenage girl both of whose parents have just been brutally murdered. Also, when Argento throws in a red herring towards the end & implicates Dr. Judd (Frederic Forrest) & the police discover the severed heads from, & I quote, 'all 7 victims' where did the decapitated head of the killer come from who faked their own death & was at that point still classified as a victim? Also, why did David suddenly become a drug addict? Anyway Argento & his films aren't really known for their narrative cohesion & logic are they? Trauma is a bit on the longish side & doesn't contain a huge body count but the story is fairly engaging & I'm sure most people would stick it out to discover the killer's identity & motives. One more thing, I hated the talking decapitated heads & I'm pretty sure that decapitated heads can't speak.
Director Argento is widely known amongst horror fans for his style & visually stunning films like Deep Red (1975), Suspiria (1977), Inferno (1980), Tenebre (1982) & Opera (1987). Unfortunately much of his trademark style & splendour is sadly missing here which could probably be put down to the fact that Trauma was his first American production & therefore had to make a commercial film. Still, there are a few nice sequences here like the opening murder set against classical music or a murder shown as shadows on marble. Even worse the gore seems very toned down & almost non existent which is an absolute waste of special effects make-up man Tom Savini, there are a few decapitated heads & a few brief gory shots of wire digging into a cutting throats & nothing else.
With a supposed budget of about $7,000,000 Argento had a decent amount of money to play with so it comes as even more of a surprise that as a whole Trauma is quite a flat & lifeless film with subdued colours, reduced gore & special effects & rather static cinematography compared with what he usually serves up. The acting wasn't anything special & for some reason Argento makes his real life daughter Asia go topless...
Trauma is a decent murder mystery as long as you just go with it & not pick to many holes in it & ignore the talking decapitated heads. I think it's definitely worth a watch especially if you like Argento or horror films in general.
This Italian American co-production was written, produced & directed by Dario Argento who is well known for this type of film, Trauma certainly isn't his best but at the same time it's far from his worst. The script by T.E.D. Klein & Argento is a decent murder mystery as long as you don't think about it too hard. For instance, & this part of my comment is going to contain HUGE SPOILERS, if the killer faked their own death by setting the scene & using someone else's headless body why didn't the police realise the body didn't belong to the supposed victim? Since there was no head wouldn't they have at least checked the corpse's fingerprints? DNA? Scars or birthmarks? I mean wouldn't they have checked that the body belonged to whom it was supposed too or are they that lazy? Maybe they don't have too, maybe they can take the word of a hysterical teenage girl both of whose parents have just been brutally murdered. Also, when Argento throws in a red herring towards the end & implicates Dr. Judd (Frederic Forrest) & the police discover the severed heads from, & I quote, 'all 7 victims' where did the decapitated head of the killer come from who faked their own death & was at that point still classified as a victim? Also, why did David suddenly become a drug addict? Anyway Argento & his films aren't really known for their narrative cohesion & logic are they? Trauma is a bit on the longish side & doesn't contain a huge body count but the story is fairly engaging & I'm sure most people would stick it out to discover the killer's identity & motives. One more thing, I hated the talking decapitated heads & I'm pretty sure that decapitated heads can't speak.
Director Argento is widely known amongst horror fans for his style & visually stunning films like Deep Red (1975), Suspiria (1977), Inferno (1980), Tenebre (1982) & Opera (1987). Unfortunately much of his trademark style & splendour is sadly missing here which could probably be put down to the fact that Trauma was his first American production & therefore had to make a commercial film. Still, there are a few nice sequences here like the opening murder set against classical music or a murder shown as shadows on marble. Even worse the gore seems very toned down & almost non existent which is an absolute waste of special effects make-up man Tom Savini, there are a few decapitated heads & a few brief gory shots of wire digging into a cutting throats & nothing else.
With a supposed budget of about $7,000,000 Argento had a decent amount of money to play with so it comes as even more of a surprise that as a whole Trauma is quite a flat & lifeless film with subdued colours, reduced gore & special effects & rather static cinematography compared with what he usually serves up. The acting wasn't anything special & for some reason Argento makes his real life daughter Asia go topless...
Trauma is a decent murder mystery as long as you just go with it & not pick to many holes in it & ignore the talking decapitated heads. I think it's definitely worth a watch especially if you like Argento or horror films in general.