ReaderKenka Let's be realistic.

AshUnow This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Verity Robins Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

Deanna There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

Spikeopath Dario Argento's 1993 Giallo is a mixed bag, it's a film on his CV that his fans readily accept shows the best and worst of the goremeister's bent.Asia Argento plays a troubled young woman with a eating disorder who runs away from a psychiatric hospital. Teaming up with a hero in waiting, she is drawn into the hunt for a serial killer known as "The Headhunter", a hooded killer who has a penchant for decapitation.Backed by American dollars for the first time, Dario Argento is in a mischievous mood here. Pumped by Pino Donaggio's chipper musical compositions, Trauma struggles to get the audience to take it seriously as a horror film. Conversely, it's still a bunch of fun, intentionally or otherwise, with the director blending gore and suspense with his playful peccadilloes.The murder scenes are handled with the customary Argento skill, where we even get introduced to what can only be described as Garrote-O-Vision! His camera work quite often borders on the brilliant, but elsewhere the acting is poor across the board and the uneven tone destabilises the pic as a "horror" film of substance.Roll the dice and take your chance here really. It's fun not scary, bloody yet playful, classy yet amateurish, gotta love those red berries though. 6.5/10

Elliot James I'll invest my time in any Argento, even the gawd-awful Giallo. In the case of Trauma, this is a movie that I avoided watching since it was released and had no interest in. I recently saved an airing on Flix that turned out to be a very nice widescreen print, a big help to inducing me to watch it. Because of personal time constraints, I only watched 15 or 20 minutes at a clip. I mention all this because I'm the first to watch any Dario film straight through. As with most of his films, reality and logic have no real place in his fantasy construct. Trauma is a ridiculous film that makes no sense whatsoever with more holes than a spaghetti strainer. The good points: An atmospheric seance. An unusual decapitation machine that's not well shot during the kill scenes. An atmospheric lake scene and a few other interesting moments. The bad: Bad acting. After the use of leading men like Franciscus, Musante, Hemming and Franciosa in previous classics, Chris Rydell tries but doesn't succeed. He's like a neurotic Judge Reinhold. The cop is REALLY bad. Asia is an acquired taste I don't have although I can appreciate Poppa wanting to give his kid a paycheck. The only redemption in the acting comes from Laurie, Dourif and Forrest. Scenes with the kid are horrendous including what he manages to do at the end. Laura Johnson is completely wasted. The unintentional laughs come from the drugstore scene (hilarious), Rydell's chasing the lesbians, how Rydell finds the killer's house and Rydell accosting Dourif.

Cristi_Ciopron An appropriate way of underscoring Argento's merits as a director is to say that he allowed Dourif make his best in his cameo from Trauma (1993).I felt this,I knew this,but I only understood it fully when I realized how badly manages to treat the character actors in his movies another famous director—Lynch. I was thinking about Lynch and his way of showcasing moral teratology and about the villains he casts; Lynch had Hopper and Stanton in the cast of some of his movies—and look how muddy ,mucky makes Lynch their performances look.Dourif's cameo in Trauma (1993) is one of the most striking and sharp things to be seen in a horror ever—like Spacey in Seven, for the thrillers. Dourif gives an accurate idea of what an electric performance means—the pinnacle of sharpness .There is an electric austerity and limpidity —his small role being played in a straightforward way. His role is simultaneously sharp and electric and impressing and snappy—a snarling and snared man.Moreover, Dourif's cameo fits the movie. Or,the movie is not below this cameo. (For a counterexample ,I will name Robert Picardo in Stargate Atlantis; I enjoy much that series, and I have seen Robert Picardo doing a cameo in its third season—it seemed to me that he did not belong to that set—he was too god, too strong and subtle and vigorous and skilled for the role and for the movie.)A performance much better and more stylish than the movie is not only useless—it is bad. Argento knew how to frame Dourif's role.I would not even like that Dourif's role here was bigger; it is striking at this size.You can see that Dourif does not save himself;on the contrary,he gives himself fully,and with over-measure.He is one of the best living actors. Within the character performances, he has found real universality. "Trauma" is a good movie—despite the lack of success; and the very best thing in it is Dourif's cameo.An authentic B film is not directed to the crowds; it is directed to the genre's fans, or to the director's or the B actors' fans—if there are any. Sometimes, it is directed to no one especially. So, something interesting may be achieved.B movies seem to promise much, because there is the hypothesis that the director will be free to do what he wishes. The B cinema promises this fantastic opportunity. You can publish fine things as pulp; you can film beautiful things as B films, away from the impediments of the mainstream. There is, or at least there seems to be a certain degree of creative freedom. Commercially, these movies are so hopeless that one might find a chance to hit the jackpot in another way—by creativity and intelligence. It may result at least a thing of fun—of unrestricted and unconventional fun. A B movie, an independent one,or sometimes even a TV one may achieve this. On the other hand,the B is, of course, only the chance, the opportunity. One might try to be independent here. Unfortunately, most often the director seems not to wish anything. The greatest B movie is the one we dream about. In the Argento movie here, there are a few strong scenes, the best of this film—those with Dourif.I am a fan of Argento's cinema, and also a fan of this film.

Scarecrow-88 A serial killer, who collects heads from the victims he/she decapitates, "murders" a troubled anorexic teen's "medium" mother(Piper Laurie) and Romanian father(Dominique Serand). David(Chris Rydell), an artist, assists Aura(Asia Argento)in her quest to find out the butcher who claimed the lives of her parents while also trying desperately to remain distant from the clutches of Dr. Judd(Frederic Forrest)who wants to put her back in the Farraday Clinic so that she can get the proper treatment from her illness. Meanwhile, the killer continues killing selected people as David and Aura find out that each person was acquainted with one another and it deals with a tragic accident one rainy night with a Dr. Lloyd(Brad Dourif)playing a major part. As they search for answers, the motive for the headhunter will become clear. The killer lives next door to a boy who studies and collects butterflies. That boy notices the wire-machine that the killer uses to collect his/her head-trophies and will play a specific part at the end.A decent Argento effort is better than a lot of horror directors' really good work and TRAUMA has a visual polish and style(..not to mention ghoulish, sometimes humorous, beheadings)that makes up for a rather tacky ending..an ending I just didn't really buy into. I thought the one beheading, from a female victim David finds out about Lloyd from, is quite inspired as is a head-removal using an elevator shaft. Argento uses POV shots mostly with the camera acting as the eyes of the killer.Perhaps the melodrama concerning anorexia is a tad heavy-handed(..this is a slasher flick after all), but Argento admitted the story regarding the disease was personal(concerning a niece he has that was suffering with it at the time he decided on making a film with a female lead character suffering with the problem). It brings a uniqueness to the character so I have no real qualms with it.