Horror Extreme Movie Catalog

Dario Argento directed "Trauma" as well as the masterpiece "Deep Red," one of the most superior Italian gialli ever made. The most gruesome scene in "Deep Red" is the slow decapitation death of the serial killer when a chain is slowly pulled through his/her neck. This scene is repeated many times in "Trauma" when the black-gloved killer, known in the newspapers as "The Headhunter," leisurely decapitates his/her victims with mechanically operated piano wire. What is the connection between the victims and why is the killer doing it?

Asia Argento (daughter of Dario Argento) is a bulemic who must hunt for the person responsible for beheading her two parents. Laurie Piper (who played Carrie White's mother in "Carrie") is Asia's strange mom who was performing a séance on the night she lost her head. Christopher Rydell is the young man who risks everything in order to help Asia track down the serial killer before he/she can kill the last victims.

"Trauma" takes a serious departure from reality when a decapitated head utters the name of a doctor before "dying" and another head screams as it falls down an elevator shaft. This last scene was almost comical in its implausibility. However, this modern giallo does offer some mystery and suspense even if the murders are repetitious. A nice rock n' roll score would've helped. Perhaps a score from "Talking Heads?"

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.