Well, actually, that's a bit of a BS statement. Everyone's milage on the subject varies, but I think that there's a pretty clear and distinct line when it comes to the "quality/crap" ratio in the career of Italy's answer to Jack the Ripper. That line begins and ends with Opera, the much-ballyhoed 1987 opus about a guy who stalks a beautiful soprano and forces her to watch murders by taping needles to her eyelids. Tell me that doesn't sound like cheerful time at the amusement park. I can take or leave the ending, but that movie is all kinds of badass...and, in my opinion, it pretty much marked the point where Dario took the big nosedive.
Of course, there were blips on the radar here and there. This 1993 flick (easily the most "mainstream" of Argento's movies, by the way) being one of them.
PLOT: As big as my aforementioned boner for Argento is, you can take this statement to the bank: if you've seen one of his giallo films, you've seen them all. All of the same basic ingredients are here - a quirky and/or angsty female lead, this time played by Argento's own daughter Asia as Aura, a teenage anorexia sufferer whose parents are offed in relatively spectacular fashion in the flick's first act. You've also got your arty and/or writer male lead in the form of David (Christopher Rydell), a friendly reporter who takes Aura in after finding her wandering the streets. Soon enough, more bodies begin turning up, always beheaded using what is actually a pretty cool-looking "decapitation" device leading to my most-loved Argento convention - the (relatively) shocking conclusion involving LOTS of psychological exposition. Yeah, there's no minty freshness to be found here, and that's both a blessing and a curse. The former because it's familiar, the latter because, by this point in the Argento canon, you pretty much know what you're getting around every curve.
PLOT RATING: ** 1/2 out of ****.
CHARACTERS AND ACTORS: Opinions are like assholes, but I've just never been that into Asia Argento. The fact that she figures into a decent portion of Dario's later output no doubt skews what I think about his post-Opera work. Rydell isn't much better, and the character of David - yeah, isn't he technically a pedophile in dumping his girlfriend for 16-year-old Aura? Just sayin'. On the plus side, we do get Piper "They're All Gonna Laugh At You" Laurie as Aura's mother in the early goings of the film as well as an appearance by Brad Dourif, a pretty well-known luminary to my fellow horror mutants out there. It takes a very talented man to make both Critters 4 and Rob Zombie's Halloween II the slightest bit entertaining, but this dude managed to pull it off.
CHARACTERS AND ACTORS RATING: ** 1/2 out of ****.
COOL FACTOR: This is the aspect of Trauma that boggles my mind the most. You know, when this DVD arrived in the mail and I popped it in the slot, I was infinitely stoked when the "Makeup effects by Tom Savini" credit flashed across the screen. Argento AND Savini? This had the makings of a blood-soaked masterpiece. Unfortunately, there isn't a whole lot in the way of badass villainy or creative murdering in this film; the homemade garroting contraption is cool, but we don't get to see it perform its dirty work, like, ever. Please shoot me the next time I type like a mid-'90s teen movie character. While I'm at it, Christopher Rydell is no David Hemmings when it comes to cool male leads.
COOL FACTOR: * 1/2 out of ****.
OVERALL: This is a strange beast of a movie. The teaming up of Argento and Savini sounds like the makings of a surefire instant classic, but instead what you get is a semi-forgettable giallo film that leaves most of the nasty details up to your imagination. That's not a bad thing if you've got a lot of tension and scares to back it up, but Trauma is lacking in those areas as well. That and the fact that this comes from the guy who got famous precisely BECAUSE he didn't leave anything up to your imagination is more than a little disappointing.
OVERALL RATING: ** out of ****. Worth a rental, and maybe a cheap used purchase for Argento completionists. Otherwise you'll be able to live a perfectly happy life without seeing it.
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