Lack of good storyline.

Just perfect...

I saw this movie before reading any reviews, and I thought it was very funny. I was very surprised to see the overwhelmingly negative reviews this film received from critics.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

Trauma is a particularly significant horror in that it was the first film to be made by Italian genre master Dario Argento on American soil. Following a string of eye-catching, kaleidoscopic gialli and superior supernatural tales, Argento found himself at the door of Hollywood, an industry which, at the time, was struggling to churn out much in terms of originality in the horror/thriller genre. While he had employed English-speaking actors before, such as Jennifer Connelly, David Hemmings and Karl Malden, their roles were often crudely dubbed, and Trauma offered the director a chance to reach a broader audience with his unique - if obviously Hitchcockian - blend of build-up and terror.Disappointingly, Trauma, if anything, represents the beginning of Argento's drastic career decline. The opening is full of promise, as a familiar black-gloved killer stalks a victim before killing her in a brutal and stylish fashion, here with a device which allows the victim to be garroted with relative ease. Bolstered by a POV style and traditionally great effects work by Tom Savini, it's a scene that could have easily been taken from one of Argento's native works. However, as popular as the giallo craze was, it didn't quite reach the general American audience, and so Trauma gets watered-down and peppered with horror clichés in an attempt to cast a wider audience net. While the tropes are there - an everyman (Christopher Rydell) is forced into sleuthing while dodging the police - it does little but frustrate as you realise that somewhere, deep down, there's probably a great giallo trying to get out.So while the film has it's odd moment, the result is an incoherent, and somehow quite boring, mess of ideas and clashing styles. Starting promisingly, the story goes on to place anorexia sufferer Aura (Asia Argento, the director's then 17 year-old daughter) in the hands of illustrator David (Rydell) after her parents are murdered by the masked killer, and it is during this period that the film does nothing but lay out a string of red herrings, as well as creepily leering at Argento's youthful beauty. The final third is an exhausting conveyor belt of anti-climaxes, before the ludicrous (and not in an entertaining way) reveal that feels like it was made by a sub-par Tobe Hooper or Wes Craven arrives. While it's nowhere near the level of atrociousness that Argento would vomit out in 2009 with Giallo, Trauma feels like it was made by a once-great visionary who had tiredly given in to the producers' voices in his ear.

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

This is Dario Argento's first foray into American film, and for many longtime fans, his departure from the films that made him famous. Nevertheless, it is Argento, and has all the familiar aspects that fans expect.It has 17-year-old Asia Argento as an anorexic teen, who teams with Christopher Rydell to find the slasher who killed her parents.Lots of heads roll especially with the handy dandy head chopper the slasher has developed to make the job quick and easy. At least one of the heads manages to talk after being severed.Worth watching for the fans.

"Dario Argento's Trauma" is better than expected, even if it doesn't match his previous works.**SPOILERS**After failing a suicide attempt, Aura Petrescu, (Asia Argento) is captured and returned to the Farraday Clinic, where her mother Adriana, (Piper Laurie) is concerned for her behavior. Following a murder attempt on the clinic by a psychotic killer, she escapes and returns to David Parsons, (Christopher Rydell) who had initially saved her. Concerned for her when it appears that the deranged serial killer is following her, they soon realize that the killer is directly involved in a past incident in her life and is wiping out those that were formerly apart of that, forcing them to find what the connection is and use them to discover the killer's identity and stop them before the killer tracks them down.The Good News: There was some good stuff here that really helped it out. One of the better areas in the film is that there's a series of the usual artistic flair that Argento is known for that shine through, creating brief moments of breath-taking stylistic flourish. One of the better ones is where a little kid can't sleep because a woman keeps staring at him from a window in the house across the way, unaware that the eyes are contained in a decapitated head. Perhaps the most novel one is a scene where the heroine stumbles across a murder scene in the middle of the woods during a heavy rainstorm, and then turns to see the killer making off from the scene carrying two severed heads in front of their face, leading to a round of hysterical screaming, as well as forming the basis for the rest of the film to solve. It's one of the best scenes in the film as well. Also a scene where the freakish sight of a freshly decapitated head utters a few essential words with its death rattle are all vintage Argento. There's more in that woodland-setting scene, as there's an incredibly fun séance witnessed just beforehand that makes it all the better with the visuals and sound gags which really just make the whole scene a stand-out. Another excellent scene is the initial escape from the hospital during a strike by the killer, leading to general pandemonium when the victims are discovered among the residents and the stalking by the killer makes for plenty of great times. Even more fun is at the end, with the confrontation in the basement being quite entertaining. From the revelation about the kills, which is handled by an incredibly well-done flashback scene that certainly scores for how moody and original it is, to the suspense found within to the fun of it all, this is a great way to end off the film. The film also manages to work in one of the greatest weapons in slasher-filmdom, the mechanical noose that the killer uses here. Not only is it an ingenious device that allows for some spectacular kills, but looks realistic and performs well, which is a nice accomplishment. That alone leads to plenty of great kills with it, where the victims are decapitated with it in pretty gruesome ways that are quite fun and exciting. These here provide the film's best qualities.The Bad News: There was a couple problems with this one. One of the bigger flaws is the film's series of scenes that don't really offer up much in the way of suspense, really just making the film longer than it should be. This one has plenty of scenes that feature this part, mainly the subplot with the neighboring child. There's nothing worthwhile about it as it adds nothing to the film beyond the one key scene with the eyes, the different scenes with it don't offer up anything and the one attempt at suspense, the walk-through of the house after the lizard, is just utterly terrible and has no value to the film, and being taken out, as well as most of the scenes involving the kid as well, really should've been taken out of the film. The other flaw is the fact that, as well as the previously-mentioned kid scenes, is that the opening portions of the film concentrating on the numerous attempts to help out with the disease. While important for establishing character, these do nothing for establishing the pace of the film, offer up nothing to help solve the killers' identity and are just part of the attempt to make the film longer than it should be. While not at all detrimental to the film, and is barely noticeable at all, is the film's lack of Argento's style, being really toned down in visual prowess compared to his other efforts, but this isn't anything to hold the film down at all, and is barely noticed at all in most areas.The Final Verdict: With some good stuff here and a couple of minor, mild flaws as well, it has a lot going for it and is better than expected. Really give it a shot if you're an open-minded Argento fan or into these kinds of films, while those looking for more of Argento's Italian-style should stay to those films.Rated R: Graphic Language, Graphic Violence, Brief Nudity and a mild, shadowy Sex Scene