Trauma is a 1993 Italian giallo horror film directed by Dario Argento, starring Asia Argento, Piper Laurie, Christopher Rydell and Brad Dourif. Shot in and around Minneapolis, United States in August and September 1992 on a budget of $7 million, Trauma is notable as Italian director Dario Argento’s first feature length American production, following his collaboration with George A. Romero in making Two Evil Eyes in 1990. Adapting the treatment devised by Gianni Romoli and long-time Argento collaborator Franco Ferrini, Argento chose T.E.D. Klein as his co-writer.
Special effects technician Tom Savini, who had previously worked on Two Evil Eyes, was recruited to produce the films extensive gore and prosthetic effects. Savini also created the film’s central murder weapon, dubbed the ‘Noose-o-Matic’ by the crew. Savini devised a number of elaborate effects, but they were scrapped when Argento decided to minimize his trademark gore; according to Savini, “edge-of-the-seat suspense is what he was after”. Savini was also set to appear in a scrapped pre-credits sequence where his character was to be decapitated in an accident, an event that would trigger the killer’s psychosis.
Plot:
An anorexic young woman escapes from a psychiatric clinic and meets a young man who wants to help. She is caught and returned to her parents, who are soon beheaded by a garrotting stranger making the rounds about town, apparently striking only when it rains.The orphaned young woman and her new lover launch their own investigation and are endangered when a link is discovered with the victims and a particular operation performed years before…
Reviews:
“Trauma is definitely worth a look if you’re an Argento fan. The mystery is genuinely intriguing in the true giallo sense and the feeling of uneasiness is suitably enhanced by Pino Donaggio’s intermittently brilliant soundtrack, making Trauma feel at times very Lynchian. It’s quite pacey and doesn’t tend to drag its heels but there’s definitely a sense of something not weighing in as it should. The resolution of the mystery only half-satisfies even though it makes complete sense, while Argento’s throwaway visual flourishes and metaphors can be taken as a matter of individual taste. Patchy yet engrossing, this may make you wonder why Argento has such a dedicated following. You might need to watch one of his earlier films to remind you.” Eat My Brains
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” …Trauma wasn’t well received at the time but I believe it suffered from too much hype on something that a lot of Americans don’t understand…the Giallo. It is a fine thriller and one of the last times a master was in charge of an American horror film. Argento is one of the best and though I am aware that he has been playing variations on a theme for years, so do many others, Hitchcock, Scorsese, the list goes on. It’s not laziness, it’s his style. This Argento film really is a film best decided by personal taste and the hope that yours is in tune with his.” Christopher J. Jimenez, Sinful Celluloid
“In its exposé of American soullessness as a product of a “wound culture” that substitutes pop psychological diagnoses for interrogation of gender inequities and real social lack, Argento’s Trauma makes beheading a metaphor for contemporary life.” Linda Badley, Kinoeye
“Unsurprisingly, the combination of oddball characters, a typically barmy plot and over-the-top visuals meant that Trauma failed to find its intended mainstream audience. But let’s face it, no matter how hard he tried, Dario Argento simply couldn’t deliver a crossover movie and that’s why his attempt to try something a little radical needs to be given another chance.” Adrian Luther-Smith, Art of Darkness: The Cinema of Dario Argento, edited by Chris Gallant, FAB Press, 2001
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