A young man (Christopher Rydell) finds an bulimic girl (Asia Argento) who has escaped her parents. When returned to them, a killer with a unique mechanical decapitation device strikes. Soon, the two must find out who the killer is, and what they want.

Released in 1993, "Trauma" has received some flak from Dario Argento fans, who consider it one of his weaker efforts. In a way, I can agree-the movie has several plot holes, the acting is largely hit and miss (Asia is pretty inexperienced here),and it's not as gory and stylish as his other films.

Yet, there's still plenty to recommend in this movie. The movie is Argento's more character and plot oriented films, and it's surprisingly easy to follow. There's also still plenty of Argento's wonderful stylish touches, and while not as gory as his previous movies, there's still some great kills (including a great bit involving an elevator). The score by Pino Donnaggio, while not as good as Argento's past musicians, is still up to task. Finally, the presence of several acting vets (including James Russo, Brad Dourif, Frederic Forrest, and an excellent Piper Laurie) don't hurt at all.

"Trauma" is not Argento's best movie, and certainly pales in comparison to movies like "Deep Red", "Suspiria", and "Inferno." As it stands though, it's an underrated movie, and worth a look, especially if you are an Argento fan.

This is basically everything that you would come to expect from a late 1980's / early 1990's slasher / horror movie.

However, given the predictability of the movie, then "Trauma" wasn't really much of an enjoyable experience, and there weren't any scares to be found anywhere.

Director Dario Argento have some pretty nice titles to his name, "Trauma", however, is not really one of them.

It was hard to get submerged into the story, because it was slow paced and rather mundane and dull. And the mediocre acting performances throughout the movie weren't really helping the movie along in a nice way either.

If you enjoy Dario Argento's work, then there are far better pieces in the collection. It is hard to find anything worthwhile to recommend the movie to be seen, so I will not even try...

TRAUMA is a middling and muddled effort from cult director Dario Argento, one of his more disappointing efforts that I've seen. There are flashes of the director's classic style and some nice flourishes that remind you of the greatness of the likes of DEEP RED et al, but for the most part this is strained and surprisingly cheesy. Perhaps it's a fish-out-of-water scenario, as this is Argento working in America and not really selling it to the viewer. Asia Argento, as the nominal female lead, seems to be subdued and struggling too, and only old pros like Frederic Forrest, Piper Laurie and Brad Dourif really seem to be making the effort. The film has lots of violence and bloodshed, as you'd expect, but also some very silly moments and FX shots that don't feel at home with the rest of the plot. A mixed bag, at best.