Dario Argento Month: Trauma (1993) Review by: Ted "Ritualistic" Brown

A young man tries to help a teenage European girl whom escaped from a clinic hospital after witnessing the murder of her parents by a serial killer and they try to find the killer before the killer finds them, in Dario Argento's "Trauma".

As much as I enjoyed this movie I do have one complaint, the pace in "Trauma" seemed excruciating slow at times, to be fair this also may be caused by the fact that I had watched "Sleepless" not too long ago for the site, which is a far more exciting and fast paced serial killer based film from Dario Argento. As far as Argento film's go this is one of the less impressive ones in my opinion, while it's not a bad movie it's also really nothing special at the same time, just you're average serial killer flick with the added bonus of some fun old school make up effects from the master himself Tom Savini.



 
Story wise I really was not a fan of "Trauma" for some reason it just seemed a bit silly to me, once again this may be caused by such a recent viewing of "Sleepless" which I feel is far superior to "Trauma" in every way. A lot of the time things just seemed to drag on, and even though it's not an extra long movie of any sorts it felt like it would never end by the time it all came full circle and in a very sudden way that seemed ultra rushed in my book, which made me think back and try to figure out why it felt so long yet the ending felt so short and tacked on at the last minute.

The special effects has its moments but it's clearly not Mr. Savini's best work, there is a few head decapitations that stand out from the rest but other than that nothing special once again just your average practical effects. After awhile I grew bored of the same old kill over and over again, I guess that is something one has to consider when pigeon holing your killer by giving them a certain method they always use to dispatch their victims with.


 
There's really not much I can say about this one, while I don't think it is a bad movie it is also nothing to get excited about really either on the other hand. If you find yourself bored one night and have yet to see "Trauma" toss it on I'm sure you will enjoy it well enough just don't expect to be blown away or go out of your way to see this one, in all honesty you won't miss much.


 
On behalf of The Liberal Dead I give Dario Argento's "Trauma" a 5 out of 10, and award for most humorous decapitation I've seen in a while involving an elevator.

5 / 10

- Ted "Ritualistic" Brown