Dario Argento's "Trauma"

You are driving over a bridge and see a girl about to jump. What do you do? David Parsons' pulls his car over to the side and saves the girl from jumping. This is the beginning of the story and the relationship between David Parsons (Christopher Rydell) and Aura Petrescu (Asia Argento). He notices track marks on her arms and assumes she has a drug problem, something he knows about. He takes her against her objections to get something to eat and tries to talk to her, to help her. She will not allow it. Then just as quickly as she came into her life, she is gone, with his wallet. He is puzzled by this, but people do act odd so goes on with his life.

There is a vicious killer on the loose who cuts off and takes with her/him the victim's head. Aura comes back into David's life, having tracked him down through his work identification in his wallet to the television station he works at in the news department. It seems someone has killed her parents Adriana Petrescu (Piper Laurie) and Stefan Petrescu (Dominique Serrand) in the same horrible way. Aura's mother was a psychic who during a seance said knew the identity of a killer. Not only did she know their identity, but the killer was in the room with them. So she was silenced. Aura is very afraid, not only for her life but also because she does not want to go back to the Farraday Clinic for her problem with anoxeria. She also wants to find out who killed her parents. Meanwhile the murder's continue. As David and Aura's relationship deepens they have a two-fold problem. First to find out who the killer is and stop her/him and second to keep Aura out of the Farraday Clinic. The police and Dr. Judd (Frederic Forrest) are looking for her not only because she is a witness to the crime but also to take her back to the clinic. Aura thinks Dr. Judd may possibly be the killer. With the use of their wits and some help from the facilities in the news department where David works they work toward these goals.

Dario Argento to my knowlege is known as the master (or at least one) of the European horror film. His father was famed Italian producer Salvatore Argento, so you might say he had film in his blood. He got his inspiration from Italian folk tales, frightening bedtime stories his aunt told him, The Grimm Brothers, Hans Christian Andersen and Edgar Allen Poe. He started his career in film as a writer, those of who who like the western genre will probably be aware of a film he helped write called Once Upon a Time in the West. In the Special Features that come with Trauma he says (interview in Italian) this film is very personal because his neice suffered from the very thing Aura suffers from. This is his first film in English and the first film that he worked on with his daughter Asia (pronouced aaaa-zja not asia).

Compared with the movies in the horror genre today this film was not particularly frightening, though it has its moments. In fact I saw it more as a mystery or thriller. There is even some humour in the film by way of David's coworker. He is explaining the characteristics of anorexia to David and when David asked him where he got his information he mention's watching Oprah and Phil Donaghue. I do like Asia Argento as an actress having seen her in other films before. I got the film from NetFlix and have watched it twice, I found more to like in the second viewing. Franco Ferrini, Gianni Romoli (as Giovanni Romoli) and Dario Argento have written a script with many plot twists and turns. I think anyone who enjoys the mystery, thriller or horror genre's will enjoy this film. It is definetly not your run of the mill slasher film.

Tauma. DVD. Directed by Dario Argento. 1993; Hopkins, Minnesota: Penta Film, 1993.

Rated R for violence and terror, and for some sexuality and language; Run time 106 minutes

IMdb Trivia:

This was Dario Argento's first American production.

The role of Grace was originally offered to Bridget Fonda.

An opening sequence was supposed to feature Tom Savini being accidentally decapitated while the event is witnessed by the killer therefore triggering his/her dormant trauma.

The character played by Asia Argento is inspired by her half-sister Anna (Nicolodi's daughter from a previous marriage) who actually suffered from anorexia. Anna died in a scooter accident in 1994 shortly after the film's release, but she is seen in the actual film during the closing credits dancing in the balcony.

Argento's usual collaborating rock band Goblin was originally suggested to write and perform the music score for the film, but were declined by the American producers who wanted something more friendly to the American audience, therefore Pino Donaggio's orchestral score was used.

Piper Laurie revealed in 1997 that she never even bothered to see the finished film because she heard it was terrible, and that she and Frederic Forrest would constantly sit through the entire shooting laughing.

Used for background informarion and trivia

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0104053/

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