Incannerax What a waste of my time!!!

Protraph Lack of good storyline.

SanEat A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

Michelle Ridley The movie is wonderful and true, an act of love in all its contradictions and complexity

morrison-dylan-fan November 2012:Getting ready to watch a pre-cert Video of a fun,teen Horror twist on The Most Dangerous Game called Tag:The Assassination Game,I decided to watch the trailers that played before the main feature.Keeping only half my attention on the trailers as I finished writing a letter,I was shocked to find out,the a trailer that originally looked like it was for an X-Files Video compilation,was actually a trailer for Dario Argento's 1993 Giallo Trauma!.Easter 2013:With having made a decision in early March,that to kick off my Easter season I would watch Argento's Supernatural Giallo Phenomena for the first time,I suddenly changed plans,when I found out that the IMDb Classic Film board was holding a poll for the best movie of 1993,which led to me deciding that I would take a look at Dario's first (solo) trip to the US for the first time:The plot:Pulled from a meeting that she has arranged with TV news investigating journalist David Parsons by police,due to having escaped from a psychiatric ward where she is being treated for anorexia,Aura Petrescu is taken to her parents home.Planning to spend the whole of the night in the bedroom,Petrescu rushes down stairs when she begins to hear weird noises from a séance that her family are holding.Finding the room completely empty,and all of the windows and doors open,Petresch heads to the garden,in the hope of tracking down her now "missing" relatives.Sadly for Aura,when she finally tracks down her mum and dad,Petresch discovers that both of them have been beheaded by a stranger who Aura catches a brief glimpse of,just before the killer disappears into the near by woods.Running away from the murder scene,Aura is given some relief when she locates David,who promises that he will use all of his skills to track down Petresch's family killer.Watching the news on TV, (which reports Aura as being "missing") Petresch and Parsons are horrified to discover,that along with her families killer being given a nickname "The Headhunter",the news presenter also mentions that "The Headhunter" has started to murder doctors and nurses that used to work at a psychiactic hospital,which by a weird coincidence is the same hospital that Aura ran away from,shortly before the stranger's killing spree began.View on the film:Surprisingly keeping away from changing his directing style for his first (and up to now only) solo film to be made in the US,director Dario Argento closely works with cinematography Raffaele Mertes to give the movie an extremely atmospheric wet mist appearance,which helps to create a strong sense that the mysterious killer (and the media reports) are causing the fear temperature of the residents to go up to boiling,scouting hot heat.Along with the wonderful "wet mist" appearance,Argento also shows a real eye in his great stylised directing for claustrophobic,closed off locations,with scenes involving Parsons searching round the killers house/ basement having a very chilling feel,due to it looking like David is inadvertently cornering himself,as the killer prepares to strike.For what is,perhaps his most personal (which includes a rather weird,un intensionally off-putting topless scene featuring Argento's 18 year old daughter Asia,and also a mean spirited swipe against his former,white witch performing partner Daria Nicolodi) film,the screenplay by Dario and co-writer's T.E.D. Klein,Ruth Jessup,Franco Ferrini and Gianni Romoli disappointingly contrasts Argento's confident directing with a script that is far too nervous in deciding which direction it would like to go,which leads to the Giallo element of the movie sadly being left as an separate entity to the rest of the film (something that is also not helped by an oddly comedic score from Pino Donaggio.)Greatly inspired by Dario's step- daughter Anna's (who along with having a cameo in the film,also tragically died from a skiing accident in 1994) long battle with anorexia,Argento seems to be incredibly nervous and unsure over what direction he wants to take the film in,with the very interesting sections dealing with the psychological effects of the illness on Aura,being offset by a need less,and half hearted ending,that sees Dario return to his Supernatural Horror era,which leads to Dario's Giallo trip to the US being a deeply flawed,but a far from traumatic visit.

slayrrr666 "Dario Argento's Trauma" is better than expected, even if it doesn't match his previous works.**SPOILERS**After failing a suicide attempt, Aura Petrescu, (Asia Argento) is captured and returned to the Farraday Clinic, where her mother Adriana, (Piper Laurie) is concerned for her behavior. Following a murder attempt on the clinic by a psychotic killer, she escapes and returns to David Parsons, (Christopher Rydell) who had initially saved her. Concerned for her when it appears that the deranged serial killer is following her, they soon realize that the killer is directly involved in a past incident in her life and is wiping out those that were formerly apart of that, forcing them to find what the connection is and use them to discover the killer's identity and stop them before the killer tracks them down.The Good News: There was some good stuff here that really helped it out. One of the better areas in the film is that there's a series of the usual artistic flair that Argento is known for that shine through, creating brief moments of breath-taking stylistic flourish. One of the better ones is where a little kid can't sleep because a woman keeps staring at him from a window in the house across the way, unaware that the eyes are contained in a decapitated head. Perhaps the most novel one is a scene where the heroine stumbles across a murder scene in the middle of the woods during a heavy rainstorm, and then turns to see the killer making off from the scene carrying two severed heads in front of their face, leading to a round of hysterical screaming, as well as forming the basis for the rest of the film to solve. It's one of the best scenes in the film as well. Also a scene where the freakish sight of a freshly decapitated head utters a few essential words with its death rattle are all vintage Argento. There's more in that woodland-setting scene, as there's an incredibly fun séance witnessed just beforehand that makes it all the better with the visuals and sound gags which really just make the whole scene a stand-out. Another excellent scene is the initial escape from the hospital during a strike by the killer, leading to general pandemonium when the victims are discovered among the residents and the stalking by the killer makes for plenty of great times. Even more fun is at the end, with the confrontation in the basement being quite entertaining. From the revelation about the kills, which is handled by an incredibly well-done flashback scene that certainly scores for how moody and original it is, to the suspense found within to the fun of it all, this is a great way to end off the film. The film also manages to work in one of the greatest weapons in slasher-filmdom, the mechanical noose that the killer uses here. Not only is it an ingenious device that allows for some spectacular kills, but looks realistic and performs well, which is a nice accomplishment. That alone leads to plenty of great kills with it, where the victims are decapitated with it in pretty gruesome ways that are quite fun and exciting. These here provide the film's best qualities.The Bad News: There was a couple problems with this one. One of the bigger flaws is the film's series of scenes that don't really offer up much in the way of suspense, really just making the film longer than it should be. This one has plenty of scenes that feature this part, mainly the subplot with the neighboring child. There's nothing worthwhile about it as it adds nothing to the film beyond the one key scene with the eyes, the different scenes with it don't offer up anything and the one attempt at suspense, the walk-through of the house after the lizard, is just utterly terrible and has no value to the film, and being taken out, as well as most of the scenes involving the kid as well, really should've been taken out of the film. The other flaw is the fact that, as well as the previously-mentioned kid scenes, is that the opening portions of the film concentrating on the numerous attempts to help out with the disease. While important for establishing character, these do nothing for establishing the pace of the film, offer up nothing to help solve the killers' identity and are just part of the attempt to make the film longer than it should be. While not at all detrimental to the film, and is barely noticeable at all, is the film's lack of Argento's style, being really toned down in visual prowess compared to his other efforts, but this isn't anything to hold the film down at all, and is barely noticed at all in most areas.The Final Verdict: With some good stuff here and a couple of minor, mild flaws as well, it has a lot going for it and is better than expected. Really give it a shot if you're an open-minded Argento fan or into these kinds of films, while those looking for more of Argento's Italian-style should stay to those films.Rated R: Graphic Language, Graphic Violence, Brief Nudity and a mild, shadowy Sex Scene

lovecraft231 A young man (Christopher Rydell) finds an bulimic girl (Asia Argento) who has escaped her parents. When returned to them, a killer with a unique mechanical decapitation device strikes. Soon, the two must find out who the killer is, and what they want.Released in 1993, "Trauma" has received some flak from Dario Argento fans, who consider it one of his weaker efforts. In a way, I can agree-the movie has several plot holes, the acting is largely hit and miss (Asia is pretty inexperienced here), and it's not as gory and stylish as his other films.Yet, there's still plenty to recommend in this movie. The movie is Argento's more character and plot oriented films, and it's surprisingly easy to follow. There's also still plenty of Argento's wonderful stylish touches, and while not as gory as his previous movies, there's still some great kills (including a great bit involving an elevator). The score by Pino Donnaggio, while not as good as Argento's past musicians, is still up to task. Finally, the presence of several acting vets (including James Russo, Brad Dourif, Frederic Forrest, and an excellent Piper Laurie) don't hurt at all."Trauma" is not Argento's best movie, and certainly pales in comparison to movies like "Deep Red", "Suspiria", and "Inferno." As it stands though, it's an underrated movie, and worth a look, especially if you are an Argento fan.

BA_Harrison Trauma, Dario Argento's first US production, is often cited as one of the director's weakest movies. This may be, in some part, due to the fact that he 'held back' slightly, for fear that his new American audience might not fully appreciate his more outrageous directorial touches. It may also be because Argento unwisely allowed nepotism get the better of him and unwisely cast his inexperienced daughter Asia in the lead role.Whatever the reason, Trauma is certainly a far cry from the director's classics such as Deep Red or Tenebre, lacking the excellent camera-work (to me, the butterfly-cam felt like he was trying a tad TOO hard), precise editing, stunning soundtrack, and stylish death sequences of these earlier works.The one factor that Argento does retain from his Italian films is a ludicrous plot; unfortunately, without the other outlandish elements to distract the viewer's attention from the dumb story, the film flounders in its own idiocy.In Trauma, Christopher Rydell plays David Parsons, a young man who becomes involved in a deadly mystery after preventing Aura (Asia Argento), an anorexic girl who witnessed the murder of her parents (by a maniac with a hand-held decapitation machine), from committing suicide.Dario Argento, who is often referred to as the 'Italian Hitchcock', has fun referencing both Rear Window (by having a young lad spy on the killer from his bedroom window) and also Psycho (with a shower scene that mimics certain shots from the 1960 horror classic), but on this occasion, however, the director is definitely not worthy of the comparison: he delivers a lacklustre and infuriatingly silly effort that took me three viewings to get through.The pacing of the film is dreadful (for example, David's descent into drug addiction towards the end of the film happens in the blink of an eye), the acting is awful (Piper Laurie overacts; Asia Argento doesn't act) and even the gore FX by the usually reliable Tom Savini do not impress.Moreover, the film is not in the least bit scary, and often elicits laughs rather than screams: in a couple of the film's daftest moment, the just-severed head of a murder victim manages to utter a few words to the hero, and, after a decapitation by an elevator, another head is seen screaming as it falls down the shaft!!Perhaps the most disturbing moment of the whole film, in my mind, was the brief topless shot of buxom Asia: maybe it's just me with my uptight British sensibilities, but filming your own daughter with her norks out just doesn't seem right!