Trauma
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Movie Reviews of Trauma
Movie Review: Not as bad as they say...
Summary: 3 Stars
This Dario Argento movie is not as bad as people say it is. But it's definately not his best film. I think the main reason is the acting. Asia Argento and Piper Laurie are pretty bad in this film. Asia's english wasn't as good as it is now and she seems to mumble her lines which can get pretty annoying at times. Piper Laurie seems to try to capture her amazing performance as the "crazy" mother in the classic "Carrie" film, but she fails. She's just so over the top and it hurts the film. But I'm glad Anchor Bay finally released the Uncut version of this film. The VHS version had a lot of the gore created by the great Tom Savini edited out. I give 3 1/2 stars for the film and 4 for this DVD release. And by the way, "The Stendthal Syndrome" & "Sleepless" aren't bad movies. I think "Sleepless" was his best film since "Suspiria" but the horrible American Pan/Scan release of this film just butchers the film!Movie Review: For fans of Asia Argento or piano wire
Summary: 3 Stars
Dario Argento movies are kinda stupid, but stupid in an interesting way. As with "Suspiria", the best way to approach "Trauma" is as a fairy tale, though here neverland is not a girls' school out of a Brothers Grimm story but rather the early 1990s. Sounds weird, but it works: the general clunkiness adds to the air of mystery. Asia Argento hasn't quite got the charisma to carry her part, but it's still interesting to see her when she was very young. (Though there's a brief gratuitous topless scene during which it's impossible to think of anything other than her father standing behind the camera.) Piper Laurie is, as always, a hoot. But who cares, right? The decapitations are the star of this movie, and they're well done. Plus the final operating room twist is impressively grotesque.Movie Review: Entertaining
Summary: 3 Stars
While not his best work of course, I enjoyed this film. I am an Asia fan and she did a good job here. It's different than his previous work of course, but it really kept my interest and was entertaining. It's worth a watch.Movie Review: For Argento completists
Summary: 2 Stars
Dario Argento's first US feature, Trauma, is a film I'd like to like more, partially because it's obviously so personal for Argento but largely because it's depressing to see how ineffectual most of his later films are. In many ways this feels like the work of an overambitious newbie rather than an experienced director: shots seem clumsily timed, performance styles are all over the place and the script is an undisciplined mess of good and bad ideas. Partially inspired by his stepdaughter's anorexia (she can be seen dancing in the film's end credits) to shock her out of it - an intention that would seem to be somewhat undone by Asia Argento taking dieting tips from her to play the troubled anorexic lead - much of it feels like an awkward reworking of past hits. Like Profondo Rosso/Deep Red the plot is triggered by a séance where a medium identifies a killer among those present, and the film features such Argento favorites as ill-fated lizards, elevator-assisted decapitations and a twist that hinges on a misinterpretation of what you think you see (although in this case the key shot is so badly photographed you literally CAN'T see it).
There are a few very subtle references to Les Miserables and the French Revolution (most pleasingly in a shot of Piper Laurie in front of a window with the curtain drawn aside to look like a guillotine blade) thrown in along with other half-developed ideas, but even the seemingly foolproof sequences are executed in a haphazard and workmanlike fashion, although there is one nicely inspired moment of improvisation when a killer who only strikes during rainstorms has to despatch a victim in a hotel room on a clear day. Argento's former visual prowess is little in evidence, the mastery of color that was such a feature of his earlier films reduced to a bland palette, but unfortunately many of his old weaknesses are all too apparent. Chief among them is a lot of really terrible acting: between Piper Laurie's tiresome histrionics and Frederic Forrest's Dwight Frye School of Overacting mad doctor, this may be one of the few films where Brad Dourif seems comparatively grounded. Neither of the leads, both played by the children of directors, can compensate, with Christopher Rydell faring only slightly better than Asia Argento, whose offscreen commitment to the role never translates onscreen.
If you're an Argento completist there's probably a bit more here than for the casual viewer, but it's thin stuff, though Anchor Bay's Region 1 NTSC DVD is fairly generous on extras, including four scenes deleted from the US version (two of which are minor plot points somewhat confusingly directly referred to in the US version).
Movie Review: An OK movie with a ludicrous ending
Summary: 2 Stars
I feel very indifferent about "Trauma". It's not a great movie, but it's also not so bad that I feel like ripping it apart for 300 words. "Trauma" was made after, what is considered by many to be, the peak period of Dario Argento's career (the period between "Deep Red" and "Opera", which also includes "Suspiria", "Phenomenon" and "Tenebrae" - let's just pretend that "Inferno" doesn't exist), and is the beginning of a period of films that are not so much bad, as simply inferior to their great predecessors.
"Trauma"'s plot is very simple. Anorexic teenager, Aura (played by Argento's teenage daughter, Asia Argento), witnesses the deaths of her psychic parents at the hands of the Head Hunter, a serial killer who, as the names suggests, decapitates his victims. With the help of a news artist (Christopher Rydell), Aura then sets about solving the murders. You can probably fill in the rest. Nothing about this film really stands out: the acting is mediocre, the plot is mediocre; the only exception to this is the ending, which is so ludicrous that it is (unintentionally) laugh-aloud funny. This film is basically of the caliber of your average straight-to-DVD movie or tele-movie, and is only disappointing when you realize just how brilliant some of Argento's previous works truly are.