Trauma [1993]
Average customer rating: 4 out of 5 stars
  • synopsis does not match film-
Trauma [1993]
Starring: Christopher Rydell , Asia Argento , Piper Laurie , Frederic Forrest , and Laura Johnson
Director: Dario Argento
Manufacturer: Optimum Home Entertainment
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B0006M4SGY
Release Date: 2005-07-25
Trauma [1993]

Customer Reviews:

4 out of 5 stars synopsis does not match film- .......2006-10-29

Just for the record and to stop any confusion-
The synopsis for this dvd - is not the correct synopsis for the picture of film 'Trauma'- The synopsis describes the Colin Firth movie of same name.
Asia Argento does not appear in movie described. But is in the pic.
Please confirm with seller which - Trauma dvd this is.
Both movie are very entertaining- especially the Colin Firth one which has some clever twists - right up until the end- and you've never seen Colin like this before!
Hope this helped you buy the right movie-
Trauma [1993] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Average customer rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars
  • For Argento completists
  • Slightly disappointing, but...
  • Maligned shocker is ripe for rediscovery
  • a departure for dario...
  • confused story of decapitation
Trauma [1993] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Starring: Christopher Rydell , Asia Argento , Piper Laurie , Frederic Forrest , and Laura Johnson
Director: Dario Argento
Manufacturer: Anchor Bay
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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  1. Two Evil Eyes [1990] (REGION 1) (NTSC) Two Evil Eyes [1990] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
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  5. The Black Cat [1981] (REGION 1) (NTSC) [1984] The Black Cat [1981] (REGION 1) (NTSC) [1984]

ASIN: B0009RQRT2
Release Date: 2005-08-23
Trauma [1993] (REGION 1) (NTSC)

Amazon.co.uk Review

Trauma was director Dario Argento's big crossover attempt at combining the Italian giallo genre with the American stalk 'n' slash. His fans may debate whether the result was a complete success, but the film certainly put his name in front of a wider international audience. Essentially the story is a psycho-murderer-mystery, with the audience made to piece together clues towards the identity-revealing denouement. The movie comes alive as a result of suitably intense performances, even while the characters die.

Piper Laurie and Brad Dourif supply atypically explosive cameos. The leads are contrastingly subdued for the most part, no doubt because of their characters' involvement with drugs. Asia Argento (the director's daughter) is an anorexic who witnesses her parents' decapitations among a series of similar murders by the notorious "Headhunter". Christopher Rydell plays the ex-junkie who takes her in and helps track down the killer. Backing them up are some even greater performances from Tom Savini's eye-boggling special FX. With the aid of a motorised garrotte, the beheadings are gruesomely real, especially the one that leaves a head still able to talk.

On the DVD: Trauma comes to disc in full 2.35:1 widescreen, though this isn't the clearest of transfers (plenty of artefacts present). The sound is in an unspecified Dolby mix. An interesting selection of extras almost makes up for the lack of a commentary. There are filmographies of Dario and Asia, a gallery of behind-the-scenes stills, and trailers for the movie Phantom of the Opera and several more in this series of releases. More interesting are the text features: interviews with Asia on her memories of the shoot and with renegade horror director Richard Stanley surreally recalling his long-term fandom of everything Argento. Most fascinating, there's a mini-essay on what was cut and why by the BBFC for the original UK video release. --Paul Tonks

Customer Reviews:

2 out of 5 stars For Argento completists.......2007-12-15

Dario Argento's first US feature, Trauma, is a film I'd like to like more, partially because it's obviously so personal for Argento but largely because it's depressing to see how ineffectual most of his later films are. In many ways this feels like the work of an overambitious newbie rather than an experienced director: shots seem clumsily timed, performance styles are all over the place and the script is an undisciplined mess of good and bad ideas. Partially inspired by his stepdaughter's anorexia (she can be seen dancing in the film's end credits) to shock her out of it - an intention that would seem to be somewhat undone by Asia Argento taking dieting tips from her to play the troubled anorexic lead - much of it feels like an awkward reworking of past hits. Like Profondo Rosso/Deep Red the plot is triggered by a séance where a medium identifies a killer among those present, and the film features such Argento favorites as ill-fated lizards, elevator-assisted decapitations and a twist that hinges on a misinterpretation of what you think you see (although in this case the key shot is so badly photographed you literally CAN'T see it).

There are a few very subtle references to Les Miserables and the French Revolution (most pleasingly in a shot of Piper Laurie in front of a window with the curtain drawn aside to look like a guillotine blade) thrown in along with other half-developed ideas, but even the seemingly foolproof sequences are executed in a haphazard and workmanlike fashion, although there is one nicely inspired moment of improvisation when a killer who only strikes during rainstorms has to despatch a victim in a hotel room on a clear day. Argento's former visual prowess is little in evidence, the mastery of color that was such a feature of his earlier films reduced to a bland palette, but unfortunately many of his old weaknesses are all too apparent. Chief among them is a lot of really terrible acting: between Piper Laurie's tiresome histrionics and Frederic Forrest's Dwight Frye School of Overacting mad doctor, this may be one of the few films where Brad Dourif seems comparatively grounded. Neither of the leads, both played by the children of directors, can compensate, with Christopher Rydell faring only slightly better than Asia Argento, whose offscreen commitment to the role never translates onscreen.

If you're an Argento completist there's probably a bit more here than for the casual viewer, but it's thin stuff, though Anchor Bay's Region 1 NTSC DVD is fairly generous on extras, including four scenes deleted from the US version (two of which are minor plot points somewhat confusingly directly referred to in the US version).

3 out of 5 stars Slightly disappointing, but..........2003-06-05

...not as disappointing as some would have you believe. The storyline is probably one of the best Argento has come up with, it's just that the execution is flawed (So, a complete reversal of 'Suspiria', which had a minimal plot but stunning execution).

The murder weapon is fantastic, for one thing. Basically a rectangular box with a wire loop, it electronically constricts around the neck until the head is severed- needing no strength, and giving the impression of a gruesome inevitability... The murderer is also able to improvise (The device is broken? Why not use the lift for decapitation?) and is psychotic because of a horrifying event, which to some viewers justified the rampage.

So where did this go wrong? Argento is muted. I don't mean that it isn't gory enough, as Argento doesn't need gore to be Argento (it merely helps), but florishing touches are missing, or not quite as evident as elsewhere. There seems to be a curious slackness, a lack of enthusiasm for it all. Perhaps, since it was made in America, Argento felt he should play it safe stylistically. He certainly hasn't shown any eagerness to go back.

Another reservation is the music. Argento's films try above all to provoke an emotional response from the audience- see, again, 'Suspiria' for a superlative soundtrack. But the music here is bland and uninspired- like you'd get on a bad TV movie. And that completely kills any atmosphere Argento builds up.

But- the automatic garrotte! I WANT ONE! I WANT ONE! I WANT ONE!

If you like Argento, go for it. If you don't know him, go for 'Sleepless' or 'Cat O'Nine Tails'. If you don't like him, stay away. This one will do nothing to change your views.

4 out of 5 stars Maligned shocker is ripe for rediscovery.......2002-10-03

Though often cited as one of the films which signalled a creative downturn in the career of director Dario Argento, TRAUMA (1993) is actually a much better entry than its reputation might suggest. The victim of spotty theatrical distribution and horrendous pan-scanned video versions - which reduced the wide Technovision frame to a mere shadow of its former self - the film has finally been rescued by Tartan Video's letterboxed DVD, which restores Argento's original vision to its original clarity for the first time on home video.

Asia Argento (the director's daughter) plays a distraught anorexic whose life is turned upside down when she witnesses the decapitation-murder of her psychic mother (Piper Laurie) at the hands of a vicious serial killer. As in so many previous Argento movies, Asia resolves to uncover the killer's identity, aided by a sensitive TV newsroom artist (Christopher Rydell, son of actor-director Mark Rydell) who's taken pity on her circumstances, prompting a number of other murders and culminating in a Grand Guignol climax, one of the finest sustained set-pieces in Argento's long career.

Despite the fact that TRAUMA is an American film, the style is distinctly Italian in tone and execution: The ultra-wide scope framing, constantly inventive camerawork (including a bizarre shot from the point-of-view of a butterfly!!), ornate narrative structure and eccentric characterisations have more in common with the excesses of European cinema than the formal elegance of most Stateside productions. It's no wonder that some of the supporting American players seem a little disconcerted by the scriptwork and the director's unconventional filmmaking technique (including Frederic Forrest [FALLING DOWN] as a doctor sporting an unexplained neck-brace, and James Russo [DANGEROUS GAME] as a typically hard-boiled cop, always one step behind the film's youthful protagonists). But the script - co-written by Argento and celebrated fantasy author T.E.D. Klein - adheres faithfully to the giallo template, punctuating its convoluted storyline with several grisly murders (though not THAT grisly, considering the involvement of makeup wiz Tom Savini), and a number of compelling set-pieces: The seance which ends in murder; the mental institution where the killer disposes of an important 'clue'; the room full of billowing drapes (an authentic stroke of genius); and the climactic revelation of the killer's motive, which is so utterly horrific, it almost justifies his/her gruesome rampage. The movie isn't called TRAUMA for nothing!

At least two other versions of this film have surfaced in bootleg video form over the years, one running 109m, the other 113m (at 24fps), and these variant editions plug a numper of gaping editorial gaps in Tartan's official 'director's cut' (note, for instance, the abrupt introduction of Rydell and Asia at the beginning of the film) which indicates either distributor problems or a rushed post-production schedule. This may also explain why Pino Donaggio's half-hearted score sounds like it was written and recorded before completion of principal photography and subsequently tailored to match the finished product, rather than the other way around. Of the cast, only Asia fails to impress, portraying the same joyless harpy she's played in all her collaborations with Argento to date (including THE STENDHAL SYNDROME and THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA), leaving Rydell to shoulder most of the film's emotional burden in a hugely sympathetic role as a young man who learns to accept Asia's flaws whilst simultaneously falling in love with her (few) virtues. Frankly, she doesn't deserve him! Piper Laurie (THE HUSTLER) dominates proceedings during her limited screen time, and Brad Dourif (the LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy) makes an unlikely cameo appearance as a former doctor whose guilty conscience comes back to haunt him in the worst possible way. Watch out for former "Falcon Crest" star Laura Johnson in a brief but creepy performance (her final scene is genuinely chilling) as an ambitious TV news anchorwoman who tries to stake her claim on Rydell in no uncertain terms. Far from providing evidence of creative decline, TRAUMA is actually a fine addition to the director's filmography. It may not constitute 'one of Argento's greatest achievements' (as per Tartan's video packaging), but it's certainly an impressive piece of work, and this DVD provides a welcome opportunity for fans and novices alike to rediscover its sublime pleasures.

Tartan's code-free disc restores the brief gore that was cut from all previous UK versions by order of the BBFC (which is so innocuous, you'll be astonished to discover what was missing!), and runs 102m 1s in the PAL format (106m 16s at 24fps), including the Overseas Filmgroup logo at the beginning (13s). The letterboxed (2.35:1) image is clean and vivid, though prone to solarisation during some of the darker shots, and the terrific Dolby soundtrack is reproduced in 2.0 surround for the first time on home video. There's an effective US trailer and some text-only interviews with Asia Argento and director Richard Stanley (DUST DEVIL), amongst various other bits and pieces, but there are no captions or subtitles of any kind.

3 out of 5 stars a departure for dario..........2002-01-25

I've only recently got into Dario Argento, and whilst I agree this isn't as good as "Deep Red" and "Suspiria", I think with this film Argento takes a brave step in a different direction. Okay, so it follows many of his standard "giallo" themes (black gloved killer, clues locked in memories, and of course nasty murders), but the whole look is different. Here he moves away from the bright primary colours and slightly unreal settings of earlier work and uses a more muted palette of colours to give an atmosphere of autumnal dread. There are some nice set pieces too (the shots from the killer's p.o.v. are effective, as is the mix of dreamlike images and gritty reality). The acting is simply okay (Asia Argento, Dario's daughter, isn't bad, and at times touching when you get used to her heavy accent. However Brad Dourif's appearance is pointless). Also, the story and characters could do with a little more fleshing out, but these arguments are used against many of Argento's other films too. My main gripe is Pino Donaggio's score - his work in "Don't Look Now" was beautifully moody, but some pieces here feel tacked on and work against the mood of the scene, as though someone has left the telly on in the background.
Overall then, not bad - an average Argento film is still much better than most American horror flicks. I agree that if you have never seen any Argento before, go for "Suspiria" first. But don't be put off by the diehard fans - "Trauma" is also good, grim, ghoulish fun.

2 out of 5 stars confused story of decapitation.......2002-01-10

This is not very good at all. Piper Laurie is a psychic who overacts.
The story does not make any sort of sense. Dario nevertheless always chucks in nasty sorts of death in his films, and here its a hammer whack on the top of the spine and decapitation.
Not as bad as The Stendhal Syndrome, but still poor.
Trauma [1993]
Average customer rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars
  • For Argento completists
  • Slightly disappointing, but...
  • Maligned shocker is ripe for rediscovery
  • a departure for dario...
  • confused story of decapitation
Trauma [1993]
Starring: Christopher Rydell , Asia Argento , Piper Laurie , Frederic Forrest , and Laura Johnson
Director: Dario Argento
Manufacturer: Tartan Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

All World Cinema All World Cinema | World Cinema | Categories | DVD | Video
All Horror All Horror | Horror | Categories | DVD | Video
DVD DVD | Format (binding_browse-bin) | Refinements | DVD | Video
Similar Items:
  1. Two Evil Eyes [1990] (REGION 1) (NTSC) Two Evil Eyes [1990] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
  2. The Cat O' Nine Tails [1971] The Cat O' Nine Tails [1971]
  3. The Stendhal Syndrome [1996] The Stendhal Syndrome [1996]
  4. Sleepless [2001] Sleepless [2001]
  5. The Black Cat [1981] (REGION 1) (NTSC) [1984] The Black Cat [1981] (REGION 1) (NTSC) [1984]

ASIN: B0000634AH
Release Date: 2002-07-29
Trauma [1993]

Amazon.co.uk Review

Trauma was director Dario Argento's big crossover attempt at combining the Italian giallo genre with the American stalk 'n' slash. His fans may debate whether the result was a complete success, but the film certainly put his name in front of a wider international audience. Essentially the story is a psycho-murderer-mystery, with the audience made to piece together clues towards the identity-revealing denouement. The movie comes alive as a result of suitably intense performances, even while the characters die.

Piper Laurie and Brad Dourif supply atypically explosive cameos. The leads are contrastingly subdued for the most part, no doubt because of their characters' involvement with drugs. Asia Argento (the director's daughter) is an anorexic who witnesses her parents' decapitations among a series of similar murders by the notorious "Headhunter". Christopher Rydell plays the ex-junkie who takes her in and helps track down the killer. Backing them up are some even greater performances from Tom Savini's eye-boggling special FX. With the aid of a motorised garrotte, the beheadings are gruesomely real, especially the one that leaves a head still able to talk.

On the DVD: Trauma comes to disc in full 2.35:1 widescreen, though this isn't the clearest of transfers (plenty of artefacts present). The sound is in an unspecified Dolby mix. An interesting selection of extras almost makes up for the lack of a commentary. There are filmographies of Dario and Asia, a gallery of behind-the-scenes stills, and trailers for the movie Phantom of the Opera and several more in this series of releases. More interesting are the text features: interviews with Asia on her memories of the shoot and with renegade horror director Richard Stanley surreally recalling his long-term fandom of everything Argento. Most fascinating, there's a mini-essay on what was cut and why by the BBFC for the original UK video release. --Paul Tonks

Customer Reviews:

2 out of 5 stars For Argento completists.......2007-12-15

Dario Argento's first US feature, Trauma, is a film I'd like to like more, partially because it's obviously so personal for Argento but largely because it's depressing to see how ineffectual most of his later films are. In many ways this feels like the work of an overambitious newbie rather than an experienced director: shots seem clumsily timed, performance styles are all over the place and the script is an undisciplined mess of good and bad ideas. Partially inspired by his stepdaughter's anorexia (she can be seen dancing in the film's end credits) to shock her out of it - an intention that would seem to be somewhat undone by Asia Argento taking dieting tips from her to play the troubled anorexic lead - much of it feels like an awkward reworking of past hits. Like Profondo Rosso/Deep Red the plot is triggered by a séance where a medium identifies a killer among those present, and the film features such Argento favorites as ill-fated lizards, elevator-assisted decapitations and a twist that hinges on a misinterpretation of what you think you see (although in this case the key shot is so badly photographed you literally CAN'T see it).

There are a few very subtle references to Les Miserables and the French Revolution (most pleasingly in a shot of Piper Laurie in front of a window with the curtain drawn aside to look like a guillotine blade) thrown in along with other half-developed ideas, but even the seemingly foolproof sequences are executed in a haphazard and workmanlike fashion, although there is one nicely inspired moment of improvisation when a killer who only strikes during rainstorms has to despatch a victim in a hotel room on a clear day. Argento's former visual prowess is little in evidence, the mastery of color that was such a feature of his earlier films reduced to a bland palette, but unfortunately many of his old weaknesses are all too apparent. Chief among them is a lot of really terrible acting: between Piper Laurie's tiresome histrionics and Frederic Forrest's Dwight Frye School of Overacting mad doctor, this may be one of the few films where Brad Dourif seems comparatively grounded. Neither of the leads, both played by the children of directors, can compensate, with Christopher Rydell faring only slightly better than Asia Argento, whose offscreen commitment to the role never translates onscreen.

If you're an Argento completist there's probably a bit more here than for the casual viewer, but it's thin stuff, though Anchor Bay's Region 1 NTSC DVD is fairly generous on extras, including four scenes deleted from the US version (two of which are minor plot points somewhat confusingly directly referred to in the US version).

3 out of 5 stars Slightly disappointing, but..........2003-06-05

...not as disappointing as some would have you believe. The storyline is probably one of the best Argento has come up with, it's just that the execution is flawed (So, a complete reversal of 'Suspiria', which had a minimal plot but stunning execution).

The murder weapon is fantastic, for one thing. Basically a rectangular box with a wire loop, it electronically constricts around the neck until the head is severed- needing no strength, and giving the impression of a gruesome inevitability... The murderer is also able to improvise (The device is broken? Why not use the lift for decapitation?) and is psychotic because of a horrifying event, which to some viewers justified the rampage.

So where did this go wrong? Argento is muted. I don't mean that it isn't gory enough, as Argento doesn't need gore to be Argento (it merely helps), but florishing touches are missing, or not quite as evident as elsewhere. There seems to be a curious slackness, a lack of enthusiasm for it all. Perhaps, since it was made in America, Argento felt he should play it safe stylistically. He certainly hasn't shown any eagerness to go back.

Another reservation is the music. Argento's films try above all to provoke an emotional response from the audience- see, again, 'Suspiria' for a superlative soundtrack. But the music here is bland and uninspired- like you'd get on a bad TV movie. And that completely kills any atmosphere Argento builds up.

But- the automatic garrotte! I WANT ONE! I WANT ONE! I WANT ONE!

If you like Argento, go for it. If you don't know him, go for 'Sleepless' or 'Cat O'Nine Tails'. If you don't like him, stay away. This one will do nothing to change your views.

4 out of 5 stars Maligned shocker is ripe for rediscovery.......2002-10-03

Though often cited as one of the films which signalled a creative downturn in the career of director Dario Argento, TRAUMA (1993) is actually a much better entry than its reputation might suggest. The victim of spotty theatrical distribution and horrendous pan-scanned video versions - which reduced the wide Technovision frame to a mere shadow of its former self - the film has finally been rescued by Tartan Video's letterboxed DVD, which restores Argento's original vision to its original clarity for the first time on home video.

Asia Argento (the director's daughter) plays a distraught anorexic whose life is turned upside down when she witnesses the decapitation-murder of her psychic mother (Piper Laurie) at the hands of a vicious serial killer. As in so many previous Argento movies, Asia resolves to uncover the killer's identity, aided by a sensitive TV newsroom artist (Christopher Rydell, son of actor-director Mark Rydell) who's taken pity on her circumstances, prompting a number of other murders and culminating in a Grand Guignol climax, one of the finest sustained set-pieces in Argento's long career.

Despite the fact that TRAUMA is an American film, the style is distinctly Italian in tone and execution: The ultra-wide scope framing, constantly inventive camerawork (including a bizarre shot from the point-of-view of a butterfly!!), ornate narrative structure and eccentric characterisations have more in common with the excesses of European cinema than the formal elegance of most Stateside productions. It's no wonder that some of the supporting American players seem a little disconcerted by the scriptwork and the director's unconventional filmmaking technique (including Frederic Forrest [FALLING DOWN] as a doctor sporting an unexplained neck-brace, and James Russo [DANGEROUS GAME] as a typically hard-boiled cop, always one step behind the film's youthful protagonists). But the script - co-written by Argento and celebrated fantasy author T.E.D. Klein - adheres faithfully to the giallo template, punctuating its convoluted storyline with several grisly murders (though not THAT grisly, considering the involvement of makeup wiz Tom Savini), and a number of compelling set-pieces: The seance which ends in murder; the mental institution where the killer disposes of an important 'clue'; the room full of billowing drapes (an authentic stroke of genius); and the climactic revelation of the killer's motive, which is so utterly horrific, it almost justifies his/her gruesome rampage. The movie isn't called TRAUMA for nothing!

At least two other versions of this film have surfaced in bootleg video form over the years, one running 109m, the other 113m (at 24fps), and these variant editions plug a numper of gaping editorial gaps in Tartan's official 'director's cut' (note, for instance, the abrupt introduction of Rydell and Asia at the beginning of the film) which indicates either distributor problems or a rushed post-production schedule. This may also explain why Pino Donaggio's half-hearted score sounds like it was written and recorded before completion of principal photography and subsequently tailored to match the finished product, rather than the other way around. Of the cast, only Asia fails to impress, portraying the same joyless harpy she's played in all her collaborations with Argento to date (including THE STENDHAL SYNDROME and THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA), leaving Rydell to shoulder most of the film's emotional burden in a hugely sympathetic role as a young man who learns to accept Asia's flaws whilst simultaneously falling in love with her (few) virtues. Frankly, she doesn't deserve him! Piper Laurie (THE HUSTLER) dominates proceedings during her limited screen time, and Brad Dourif (the LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy) makes an unlikely cameo appearance as a former doctor whose guilty conscience comes back to haunt him in the worst possible way. Watch out for former "Falcon Crest" star Laura Johnson in a brief but creepy performance (her final scene is genuinely chilling) as an ambitious TV news anchorwoman who tries to stake her claim on Rydell in no uncertain terms. Far from providing evidence of creative decline, TRAUMA is actually a fine addition to the director's filmography. It may not constitute 'one of Argento's greatest achievements' (as per Tartan's video packaging), but it's certainly an impressive piece of work, and this DVD provides a welcome opportunity for fans and novices alike to rediscover its sublime pleasures.

Tartan's code-free disc restores the brief gore that was cut from all previous UK versions by order of the BBFC (which is so innocuous, you'll be astonished to discover what was missing!), and runs 102m 1s in the PAL format (106m 16s at 24fps), including the Overseas Filmgroup logo at the beginning (13s). The letterboxed (2.35:1) image is clean and vivid, though prone to solarisation during some of the darker shots, and the terrific Dolby soundtrack is reproduced in 2.0 surround for the first time on home video. There's an effective US trailer and some text-only interviews with Asia Argento and director Richard Stanley (DUST DEVIL), amongst various other bits and pieces, but there are no captions or subtitles of any kind.

3 out of 5 stars a departure for dario..........2002-01-25

I've only recently got into Dario Argento, and whilst I agree this isn't as good as "Deep Red" and "Suspiria", I think with this film Argento takes a brave step in a different direction. Okay, so it follows many of his standard "giallo" themes (black gloved killer, clues locked in memories, and of course nasty murders), but the whole look is different. Here he moves away from the bright primary colours and slightly unreal settings of earlier work and uses a more muted palette of colours to give an atmosphere of autumnal dread. There are some nice set pieces too (the shots from the killer's p.o.v. are effective, as is the mix of dreamlike images and gritty reality). The acting is simply okay (Asia Argento, Dario's daughter, isn't bad, and at times touching when you get used to her heavy accent. However Brad Dourif's appearance is pointless). Also, the story and characters could do with a little more fleshing out, but these arguments are used against many of Argento's other films too. My main gripe is Pino Donaggio's score - his work in "Don't Look Now" was beautifully moody, but some pieces here feel tacked on and work against the mood of the scene, as though someone has left the telly on in the background.
Overall then, not bad - an average Argento film is still much better than most American horror flicks. I agree that if you have never seen any Argento before, go for "Suspiria" first. But don't be put off by the diehard fans - "Trauma" is also good, grim, ghoulish fun.

2 out of 5 stars confused story of decapitation.......2002-01-10

This is not very good at all. Piper Laurie is a psychic who overacts.
The story does not make any sort of sense. Dario nevertheless always chucks in nasty sorts of death in his films, and here its a hammer whack on the top of the spine and decapitation.
Not as bad as The Stendhal Syndrome, but still poor.
Shattered Trust [1993] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Average customer rating: Not rated
    Shattered Trust [1993] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
    Starring: Ellen Burstyn , and Kate Nelligan
    Director: Bill Corcoran
    Manufacturer: Direct Source
    ProductGroup: DVD
    Binding: DVD

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    ASIN: B000GUJYG0
    Release Date: 2006-08-08
    Shattered Trust [1993] (REGION 1) (NTSC)

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