"Some Nightmares Haunt You. Some... Can Kill You."

aka

DARIO ARGENTO'S TRAUMA

(1993) 106 mins OVERSEAS FILMGROUP : ADC PRODUCTION ; ITALY

[video - laserdisc - dvd]

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'The thriller genius is back' proclaim the Italian news ads for Dario Argento's Trauma. If only 'on form' could be added to the sentence! Its not that Argento's return to his giallo roots is a bad movie. It has many good points; Asia Argento's harrowing central performance for one, Raffaele Mertes's smokily eerie lighting for another, then there is that clever sleight of hand visual trick to conceal the killers identity. But place Trauma in the Argento canon as a whole and his rather soulless, offhand effort to recapture former glory is really nothing special or out of the ordinary. Argentophiles will be disappointed by how tepid it is in the pivotal horror, suspense and anything but special effects areas - Trauma carries an Italian unrestricted rating a category usually reserved for Disney! By the same token, mainstream American audiences, whom Argento crafted this retro plundering of his early animal trilogy for, despite his angry assertation's to the contrary, will still find his stalk on the mild side dismayingly disjointed, narratively puzzling. oddly schematic and far too European in atmosphere.

It's a no-win situation; the people Argento so desperately wants Trauma to appeal to wont even know it exists while his fans don't really need to see Deep Red again at half-speed. It tells the not uninteresting tale of anorexic Aura Petrescu (Asia) who witnesses the decapitations of both her parents at the end of an eventful seance held by her mystic Romanian mother (Piper Laurie). She then spends the rest of the movie attempting to trap the serial maniac dubbed 'The Headhunter' by the Minneapolis media. Helping her sift through clues to the shadowy assailant, one using an electrical loopsaw as the murder weapon, is former drug addict David Parson (Christopher Rydell) who aims to cure Aura's eating disorder at the same time. Despite various false leads and shoals of red herrings the major one being crazy Dr Judd (Frederic Forest) and his mind-expanding tropical berries, there is method in this murder madness and Aura herself holds the key. Something she saw that fateful rainy night keeps haunting her. But what is it? And what was strange about the memory she can only recall in fleeting flashback? When she realizes the rewound truth, the final trauma is revealed, a past misdeed comes back to horrify once more, and a volcano of deranged hatred erupts for the last time.

Trauma is an Argento Greatest Hits package hastily tied together with Pino Donnagio's strings. Many psychological truths lie at the heart of this Freudian frenzy - complete with lizard close-ups, butterfly-cam photography, dated hallucinations and a net curtain nightmare! - but Argento fails to find a satisfactory through-line to connect them together, ending up with a resigned recycling of favoured motifs and signposted symbols you stare at without going through the emotions. Had he stuck to the rich soil of Gianni Romoli and Franco Ferrini's original script, and not simply used TED Klein's rewrite as an erratic guide, their fertile story shadings would have made all the difference to what is ultimately an indifferent enterprise.

James Russo's two laughable appearances as the defective detective on the case highlights the excessive sketchiness which rocks Trauma's Agatha Christie foundations to the core adding an altogether more cynical meaning to the anorexic theme - itself a depressing dead end anyway. Naturally, individual sequences are technically adept and neatly constructed by the maestro. Cory Garven is the Home Alone kid who lives next door to the tenebrious maniac. His inquisitiveness sets the 'controversial' climax in motion and his separate scenes practically carry the whole weight of what little suspense there is. While the seance is a flurry of noisy frisson and creepy activity, the most evocative - and traumatic - moment is reserved for the later beheading of a nurse in front of a catatonic mental patient. But these add up to very little in what amounts to a disposable thriller you could see on TV any day of the week. Just as well Tom Savini's gore effects have been truncated because they're hopeless. Those severed heads'?! My, my, my. Only Brad Dourif's limp lift shaft death contains any of the visual punch you expect from an Argento film whose understated approach here is both maddening and self-defeating. However, Trauma is Argento's first full length feature since the much maligned Opera in 1987. Isn't that cause enough for celebration? And because Opera was so violent, it's quite understandable why he would choose to explore his dark obsessions in a more sedate manner. After all, the only losers are his rabid admirers who've stuck by him through sick and thin. But Argento is missing the point. He'll never become popular in the mass-market way he seems to crave so I wish he'd give up trying. Even his producers are at a loss hyping Trauma. They're calling it 'A Horror, movie if David Lynch directed one'!? Drop me a line, if you can work that one out. Get back to Rome, Dario, use your home as a location again. The ambience isn't the same with those Mid West settings and faceless Minneapolis was clearly a complete waste of time. Stop using American actors who can't cope with your baroque style anyway. We want to see the striking Eleonora Giorgi types not vapid Laura Johnson ones. Heap on your brand of cinematic angst and florid bloodshed without MPAA restrictions. You were once way ahead of the pack so why do you have the urge to join it instead? Or have the rest caught up with you at last? Have you nothing left in your bag of camera tricks? There used to be a time when a new Argento movie was a major event, a galvanising shock to the system, a guaranteed visual eye-popper, a stunning sock in the jaw. Sadly, Trauma is nothing more than a sloppy caress on the cheek. NB: The English language print runs seven minutes shorter than the 109 minute Italian version.

reviewed by Alan Jones

credits
cast:	Christopher Rydell, Asia Argento, Piper Laurie, Frederic Forrest, Laura Johnson, Dominique Serrand, James Russo, Ira Belgrade, Brad Dourif
director:	Dario Argento
producer:	Dario Argento
screenplay:	Dario Argento, Franco Ferrini
cinematography:	Raffaele Mertes
music:	Pino Donnagio
sfx:	Tom Savini

technical information
negative:	35mm
print:	35mm
aspect ratio:	2.35:1
format:	Technovision

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