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.
Review of Trauma
