Trauma

April. 20,1994      R
Rating:
5.8
Subscription
Rent / Buy
Subscription
Trailer Synopsis Cast

A young Romanian woman and a recovering drug addict launch an unlikely investigation after her parents are murdered by a vicious serial killer known as The Headhunter.

Christopher Rydell as  David Parsons
Asia Argento as  Aura Petrescu
Piper Laurie as  Adriana Petrescu
Frederic Forrest as  Dr. Judd
Laura Johnson as  Grace Harrington
Dominique Serrand as  Stefan Petrescu
James Russo as  Capt. Travis
Brad Dourif as  Dr. Lloyd
Sharon Barr as  Hilda Volkman
Hope Alexander-Willis as  Linda Quirk

Similar titles

College Scandal
College Scandal
Julie Fresnel is a co-ed at Redgate University and her father, Dr. Henri Fresnel, is the new French professor. Julie attraction from the make students drops a bit when two of her admirers are found murdered. When an attempt on the life of a third one is made. Seth Dunlap, an instructor at the school, decides to turn detective and find the killer. Assisted by his sister, who is in love with the third student, Dunlap begins to follow the the small trail of clues left by the killer.
College Scandal 1935
Sledgehammer
AMC+
Sledgehammer
A young boy murders his mother and her lover with a hammer. Ten years later, a wave of teenage murders plagues the same area.
Sledgehammer 1983
Killer Workout
Prime Video
Killer Workout
Two years ago, a young woman named Valerie was burned after entering a tanning salon. Now, Rhonda runs a local gym where all of a sudden, people are being murdered.
Killer Workout 1987
Non-Stop New York
Prime Video
Non-Stop New York
A young woman finds herself as the intended victim of a murder plot on a transatlantic flight from London to New York.
Non-Stop New York 1937
Diagnosis Murder: A Twist of the Knife
Diagnosis Murder: A Twist of the Knife
Dr Sloan suspects that his flame of long ago, famous heart surgeon Dr Rachel Walters, has murdered US Senator Cabot on the occasion of a guest operation at the community hospital. After a long investigation, Sloan and fellow detectives Dr Bentley and Dr Parker discover her motive: Years ago, Cabot had caused a hit-and-run accident that put her daughter into coma. But how did Dr Walters manage to pass the deadly bacteria on to the senator in front of TV cameras?
Diagnosis Murder: A Twist of the Knife 1993
Just Cause
Max
Just Cause
A Harvard professor is lured back into the courtroom after twenty-five years to take the case of a young black man condemned to death for the horrific murder of a child.
Just Cause 1995
Buffalo Soldiers
Prime Video
Buffalo Soldiers
A criminal subculture operates among U.S. soldiers stationed in West Germany just before the fall of the Berlin wall.
Buffalo Soldiers 2003
Brick
Prime Video
Brick
After a phone call from his ex-girlfriend, teenage loner Brendan Frye learns that her dead body was found. Vowing to solve her murder himself, he must infiltrate high-school cliques that he previously avoided. His search for the truth brings him before some of the school’s roughest characters.
Brick 2006
Virtuosity
Prime Video
Virtuosity
The Law Enforcement Technology Advancement Centre (LETAC) has developed SID version 6.7: a Sadistic, Intelligent, and Dangerous virtual reality entity which is synthesized from the personalities of more than 150 serial killers, and only one man can stop him.
Virtuosity 1995
The Good Son
Prime Video
The Good Son
A young boy stays with his aunt and uncle, and befriends his cousin who's the same age. But his cousin begins showing increasing signs of psychotic behavior.
The Good Son 1993

You May Also Like

The Phantom of the Opera
The Phantom of the Opera
A series of terrifying accidents and brutal murders leave a bloody trail into the subterranean caverns of an Opera house. Below the theatre stalks a man raised by creatures of the underworld.
The Phantom of the Opera 1999
Phenomena
Prime Video
Phenomena
A young girl, with an amazing ability to communicate with insects, is transferred to an exclusive Swiss boarding school, where her unusual capability might help solve a string of murders.
Phenomena 1985
Suspiria
Prime Video
Suspiria
Young American dancer Susie Bannion arrives in 1970s Berlin to audition for the world-renowned Helena Markos Dance Company. When she vaults to the role of lead dancer, the woman she replaces breaks down and accuses the company's female directors of witchcraft. Meanwhile, an inquisitive psychotherapist and a member of the troupe uncover dark and sinister secrets as they probe the depths of the studio's hidden underground chambers.
Suspiria 2018
The Other Woman
Max
The Other Woman
After discovering her boyfriend is married, Carly soon meets the wife he's been cheating on. And when yet another affair is discovered, all three women team up to plot mutual revenge on the three-timing SOB.
The Other Woman 2014
The Fabelmans
Paramount+
The Fabelmans
Growing up in post-World War II era Arizona, young Sammy Fabelman aspires to become a filmmaker as he reaches adolescence, but soon discovers a shattering family secret and explores how the power of films can help him see the truth.
The Fabelmans 2022
Back to the Future
Prime Video
Back to the Future
Eighties teenager Marty McFly is accidentally sent back in time to 1955, inadvertently disrupting his parents' first meeting and attracting his mother's romantic interest. Marty must repair the damage to history by rekindling his parents' romance and - with the help of his eccentric inventor friend Doc Brown - return to 1985.
Back to the Future 2023
Troy
Max
Troy
In year 1250 B.C. during the late Bronze age, two emerging nations begin to clash. Paris, the Trojan prince, convinces Helen, Queen of Sparta, to leave her husband Menelaus, and sail with him back to Troy. After Menelaus finds out that his wife was taken by the Trojans, he asks his brother Agamemnon to help him get her back. Agamemnon sees this as an opportunity for power. They set off with 1,000 ships holding 50,000 Greeks to Troy.
Troy 2004
Grave Encounters
Prime Video
Grave Encounters
A crew from a paranormal reality television show lock themselves in a haunted psychiatric hospital. They search for evidence of paranormal activity as they shoot what ends up becoming their final episode.
Grave Encounters 2011
Dumb Money
Dumb Money
Vlogger Keith Gill sinks his life savings into GameStop stock and posts about it. When social media starts blowing up, so do his life and the lives of everyone following him. As a stock tip becomes a movement, everyone gets rich—until the billionaires fight back, and both sides find their worlds turned upside down.
Dumb Money 2023
Murder by Death
Murder by Death
Lionel Twain invites the world's five greatest detectives to a 'dinner and murder'. Included are a blind butler, a deaf-mute maid, screams, spinning rooms, secret passages, false identities and more plot turns and twists than are decently allowed.
Murder by Death 1976

Reviews

Evengyny
1994/04/20

Thanks for the memories!

... more
Exoticalot
1994/04/21

People are voting emotionally.

... more
ShangLuda
1994/04/22

Admirable film.

... more
Odelecol
1994/04/23

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

... more
beholder23
1994/04/24

Somehow, after Argento's real masterpieces in the seventies and eighties he fully lost his genius. All his movies after Opera in 1987 cannot be taken fully seriously. Shure, Trauma includes all the classical Argento-tropes and cinematographic techniques his is know (and loved) for. But still, Trauma is not on the same top level like his earlier work. And I am not sure where actually the real contribution of Tom Savini was. The gore scenes are too clean and stay below expectation if you are familiar with Tom's and Dario's earlier work. So obviously Argento interfered in a negative way with Savini's Special-FX contribution. The solution to the who-dunnit-aspect of the movies is also - although weird enough - not really effective.

... more
tomgillespie2002
1994/04/25

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.

... more
Tender-Flesh
1994/04/26

First and foremost, if you plan to watch this movie because you see Tom Savini's name under special effects, prepare to be underwhelmed to the point of coma-inducement. As we might expect of Fearless Leader, he had great plans for the gore in this movie. He created the electric garrote, and there is no shortage of head removals for him to play with. Unfortunately, Dario Argento must have been high or half-asleep when he decided to hire Savini. Anyone familiar with Argento's previous work(and maybe Argento himself had briefly forgotten what were his trademarks) will know that while the films can have some intense bloody moments, they aren't filled with the supreme gorefests that Savini is know to deliver. Argento wanted a suspenseful film, not a bloodbath, so it is very surprising, probably most of all to Tom, that Savini was hired. There is almost no gore in this picture. You will see a very small amount of blood, the wire slightly beginning to cut into tender flesh, and a few rolling heads with lips moving, but this is kid's stuff. Any amateur FX team could pull that off(and have, sadly). I feel bad for Savini that he was so hamstrung on this project.Piper Laurie also appears in this movie, as Asia Argento's nutty mom. While she almost plays it to the hilt like her role in Carrie, and she is a bit of alright, she is hardly seen at all in the movie, which is a disappointment. Brad Dourif basically has a walk-on role, so his insane antics are also wasted. Asia Argento struggles to carry the lead role and the notion that her dad had her perform a scene topless is not artistic and beautiful(no thank you, Thora Birch) it's just disturbing.Now that I've sliced and diced on the film, let me give it a bit of praise. The pace of the film is pretty good, and there are several POV shots from the killer's perspective which I love, of course. Also, another of Argento's trademarks, the use of color, is subtle and masterful. If you don't know much about him, or film study in general for that matter, you probably won't catch it. But I was looking specifically for his control of color in the film. The killer only murders when there is a rainstorm, and as most people often associate water with blue, that color is quietly present in more scenes that I can count. More often than not, the blue color comes from lighting a scene as opposed to an item specifically colored blue. Also of note, there are a few strange scenes that remind me of some early morning forest. It will probably sound strange, but a few scenes take place indoors where walls are paneled with thick wood and plenty of plain wooden furniture adorns the rooms, while a dreamlike, dusty, foggy hue softens the entire shot and the characters, as if they are wondering in some strange forest. Very unusual. I never noticed it on previous viewings.Argento's last decent work to date. Recommended only for fans.

... more
Witchfinder General 666
1994/04/27

Dario Argento's "Trauma" of 1993 is definitely one of this great director's lesser films, but it is nevertheless a more than decent Thriller and better than most 90s Horror films. The 90s were a bad decade for Horror in general, and definitely also the worst decade in Dario Argento's career, with his doubtlessly worst movie "Il Fantasma Dell' Opera" in 1998. "Two Evil Eyes" of 1990 which he made with George A. Romero, was also a good Horror film, but not nearly as great as a film by Romero and Argento could have been. "Trauma" is definitely not comparable to Argento's masterpieces from the 70s and 80s. As far as I am considered, however, Argento is one of the greatest Horror directors of all-time, and films like "Suspiria", "Profondo Rosso" or "Phenomena" range high in my personal all-time favorite list. Even Argento's weaker films are usually above average, and "Trauma" is a more than decent film that easily outshines the majority of 90s Horror efforts.Director Argento's daughter, then 18-year-old Asia Argento stars as Aura, a teenage Romanian girl who has escaped from a mental hospital where her parents sent her, supposedly to cure her anorexia. What Aura is really fleeing from, however, is a serial killer who only operates when it rains. Journalist David (Christopher Rydell) wants to help the girl...Generally speaking, "Trauma" has everything decent Horror films need - it is stylishly filmed, atmospheric and very suspenseful from the beginning to the end. What Trauma sadly lacks, are many of the brilliant trademark Argento elements. Most of Argento's masterpieces from the 70s and 80s had brilliant scores by Progressive Rock band Goblin. "Trauma" unfortunately hasn't, which is one of the elements that I missed most. The change of scenery from Europe to the United States doesn't compliment Argento's style of film-making either. Then again, the camera work is, as usual, great, and even though the film is not quite as ultra-violent as some other Argento films, there is quite an amount of stylish, gory bloodshed. The performances are fine too (although not breathtaking), especially young Asia Argento convinces in her first leading role. The supporting cast contains Frederic Forest, Brad Dourif and Piper Laurie.As mentioned above, "Trauma" is certainly not one of Argento's masterpieces. But even this ingenious filmmaker's lesser films are above average, and "Trauma" is definitely a more than decent 90s Giallo that Horror fans should not miss! Recommended!

... more