Trauma (1993 film)
Encyclopedia
Trauma is a 1993
1993 in film
The year 1993 in film involved many significant films, including the blockbuster hits Jurassic Park, The Fugitive and The Firm. -Events:...

 film directed by Dario Argento
Dario Argento
Dario Argento is an Italian film director, producer and screenwriter. He is best known for his work in the horror film genre, particularly in the subgenre known as giallo, and for his influence on modern horror and slasher movies....

 who also co-wrote the screenplay. The film can be described as a giallo
Giallo
Giallo is an Italian 20th century genre of literature and film, which in Italian indicates crime fiction and mystery. In the English language it refers to a genre similar to the French fantastique genre and includes elements of horror fiction and eroticism...

, that is a film with influences from the horror
Horror fiction
Horror fiction also Horror fantasy is a philosophy of literature, which is intended to, or has the capacity to frighten its readers, inducing feelings of horror and terror. It creates an eerie atmosphere. Horror can be either supernatural or non-supernatural...

, mystery
Mystery fiction
Mystery fiction is a loosely-defined term.1.It is often used as a synonym for detective fiction or crime fiction— in other words a novel or short story in which a detective investigates and solves a crime mystery. Sometimes mystery books are nonfiction...

, and thriller genre
Genre
Genre , Greek: genos, γένος) is the term for any category of literature or other forms of art or culture, e.g. music, and in general, any type of discourse, whether written or spoken, audial or visual, based on some set of stylistic criteria. Genres are formed by conventions that change over time...

s.

Plot synopsis

Aura, a young woman suffering from anorexia
Anorexia nervosa
Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder characterized by refusal to maintain a healthy body weight and an obsessive fear of gaining weight. Although commonly called "anorexia", that term on its own denotes any symptomatic loss of appetite and is not strictly accurate...

 escapes from a psychiatric hospital
Psychiatric hospital
Psychiatric hospitals, also known as mental hospitals, are hospitals specializing in the treatment of serious mental disorders. Psychiatric hospitals vary widely in their size and grading. Some hospitals may specialise only in short-term or outpatient therapy for low-risk patients...

 and meets a young man, David who offers to let her stay with him rather than go back to the hospital. However, Aura is soon caught but her return to the hospital coincides with the start of a string of murders of hospital staff members, past and present. The killer decapitates them using a home-made garrote
Garrote
A garrote or garrote vil is a handheld weapon, most often referring to a ligature of chain, rope, scarf, wire or fishing line used to strangle someone....

 device, the 'noose-o-matic', on rainy days. When her father is murdered along with her mother, Aura and David team up to find the killer.

In the end, it is revealed that Aura's mother (who faked her death after murdering her husband) is the killer. Years earlier, Dr. Lloyd Brad Dourif
Brad Dourif
Bradford Claude "Brad" Dourif is an American film and television actor who gained early fame for his portrayal of Billy Bibbit in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and has since appeared in a number of memorable roles, including the voice of Chucky in the Child's Play franchise, Younger Brother in...

 was given the task of delivering Aura's brother, Nicolas. However, his clumsiness combined with a power outage (caused by a thunderstorm) led to him slicing off the newborn infant's head as he was being delivered. The head nurse during the delivery convinces the doctor to forcibly subject Aura's mother to electroshock treatment against her will, hoping that it would erase all memory of the blotched delivery/death of her son, allowing for the staff to cover up their causing her child's death. Holding the two hostage, Aura's mother is ultimately killed by a young child who had discovered the mother's crimes and ultimately uses her own murder device against her to save her captives.

Production

Shot in and around Minneapolis in August and September 1992 on a budget of $7 million, Trauma is notable as Italian director Dario Argento's first feature length American production, following his collaboration with George A. Romero in making Two Evil Eyes
Two Evil Eyes
Two Evil Eyes is a 1990 double feature horror film written and directed by the Italian Dario Argento and the American George A. Romero. The two had previously worked together on the immensely popular Dawn of the Dead in 1978.-Overview:...

 in 1990. Adapting the treatment devised by Gianni Romoli, and long-time Argento collaborator Franco Ferrini
Franco Ferrini
Franco Ferrini is an Italian screenwriter born on the 5 January 1944 in La Spezia. His works often fall into the genres of horror or thriller. He was one of the interviewees represented in the book Spaghetti Nightmares. He has frequently collaborated with Dario Argento...

, Argento chose T.E.D. Klein as his co-writer.

Special effects expert Tom Savini
Tom Savini
Thomas Vincent "Tom" Savini is an American actor, stuntman, director, award-winning special effects and makeup artist. He is known for his work on the Living Dead films directed by George A. Romero, as well as Creepshow, The Burning, Friday the 13th, The Prowler, and Maniac. He directed the 1990...

, who had previously worked on Two Evil Eyes
Two Evil Eyes
Two Evil Eyes is a 1990 double feature horror film written and directed by the Italian Dario Argento and the American George A. Romero. The two had previously worked together on the immensely popular Dawn of the Dead in 1978.-Overview:...

, was recruited to produce the films extensive gore and prosthetic effects. Savini also created the film's central murder weapon, dubbed the 'Noose-O-Matic' by the crew. Savini devised a number of elaborate effects, but they were scrapped when Argento decided to minimize his trademark gore; according to Savini "edge-of-the-seat suspense is what [Argento was] after". Savini was also set to appear in a scrapped pre-credits sequence where his character was to be decapitated in an accident, an event that would trigger the killer's psychosis
Psychosis
Psychosis means abnormal condition of the mind, and is a generic psychiatric term for a mental state often described as involving a "loss of contact with reality"...

.

Cast

  • Christopher Rydell as David Parsons
  • Asia Argento
    Asia Argento
    Aria Asia Anna Maria Vittoria Rossa Argento is an Italian actress, singer, model and director.-Family and early life:...

     as Aura Petrescu
  • Piper Laurie
    Piper Laurie
    Piper Laurie is an American actress of stage and screen known for her roles in the television series Twin Peaks and the films The Hustler, Carrie, and Children of a Lesser God, all of which brought her Academy Award nominations...

     as Adriana Petrescu
  • Frederic Forrest
    Frederic Forrest
    -Life:Forrest was born in Waxahachie, Texas, the son of Virginia Allie and Frederic Fenimore Forrest, a furniture store owner. He is known for his roles as Chef in Apocalypse Now, When The Legends Die, It Lives Again, the neo-Nazi surplus store owner in Falling Down, Right to Kill? and for playing...

     as Dr. Judd
  • Laura Johnson
    Laura Johnson
    Laura Johnson is an American actress who played Terry Hartford in the soap opera Falcon Crest from 1983 to 1986.Johnson was married to actor Harry Hamlin from 1985 to 1989, she was previously married to producer David Solomon....

     as Grace Harrington
  • Dominique Serrand as Stefan Petrescu
  • James Russo
    James Russo
    James Vincent Russo is an American film and television actor. He has starred in over 90 films in three decades.-Early life:...

     as Capt. Travis
  • Ira Belgrade as Arnie
  • Brad Dourif
    Brad Dourif
    Bradford Claude "Brad" Dourif is an American film and television actor who gained early fame for his portrayal of Billy Bibbit in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and has since appeared in a number of memorable roles, including the voice of Chucky in the Child's Play franchise, Younger Brother in...

     as Dr. Lloyd
  • Hope Alexander-Willis as Linda Quirk
  • Sharon Barr as Hilda Volkman
  • Isabell O'Connor as Georgia Jackson (as Isabell Monk)

Alternate versions

  • A special uncut version reportedly available on video features seven minutes of footage omitted from foreign prints including:
    • a new introduction of the Aura and David characters: David (Chris Rydell) drives Grace (Laura Johnson) at the airport and sees Aura (Asia Argento) being beaten by a man whose plane ticket she tried to steal;
    • a new scene features Grace visiting David at the TV station and asking him about Aura; David invites Grace to his house and then calls Aura at home to ask her if she needs any food; Aura lies to him and tells she's already eaten;
    • Aura visits a market and is spotted by Dr. Jarvis (Frederic Forrest), who tries to catch her;
    • After David and Aura escape from the Marigold, she tells him she's taken a little souvenir from Nurse Volkmann's purse; another new shot shows the Marigold's owner talking to the police;
    • David checks into a hotel after following Linda Quirk's car and asks for a room overlooking the parking lot;
    • David asks for information about Dr. Lloyd in a saloon;
    • After David calls Grace and asks her for prescription forms, she meets and confronts him, trying to make him face the fact that he's become a junkie;
    • The death scenes of Linda Quick and of the killer are more graphically explicit (the wire is seen cutting through Linda's neck).

  • The BBFC cut the UK video release by six seconds. There are two cuts, both to shots of wire cutting into the necks of Hope Alexander-Willis and Piper Laurie. However, these cuts were waived in 2002, and all subsequent DVD
    DVD
    A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....

     releases are uncut. All UK video and DVD releases contain the shorter version.

Technical facts

  • Filming locations:
    • Hopkins, Minnesota
      Hopkins, Minnesota
      As of the census of 2000, there were 17,145 people, 8,224 households, and 3,741 families residing in the city. The population density was 4,205.9 people per square mile . There were 8,390 housing units at an average density of 2,058.2 pe square mile...

      , USA
    • Irvine Park, St. Paul, Minnesota, USA
    • Minneapolis, Minnesota
      Minneapolis, Minnesota
      Minneapolis , nicknamed "City of Lakes" and the "Mill City," is the county seat of Hennepin County, the largest city in the U.S. state of Minnesota, and the 48th largest in the United States...

      , USA

  • Filming dates: 3 August 1992 - 26 September 1992

  • Taglines:
    • Some Nightmares Haunt You. Some... Can Kill You.
    • A dark secret, a twisted mind, an insane desire for revenge.
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK