Although I'm a big horror fan, I have never felt any affinity to the giallo genre. But it can't hurt to step out of your comfort-zone now and then, so when I stumbled over this movie in a garage sale I gave it a try. Meanwhile I realize that "Trauma" is not considered as one of Argento's best, so I have to take that into account.
The story may be a bit over-wrought, and the pace (the movie dates from 1993!) relatively slow, but I was pleasantly surprised by the sinister, brooding atmosphere, enhanced by a remarkable and very effective photography. The gore was reasonably done (the decapitation-device was a real find!), but at other times the tumblings of the severed heads (some even talking!) caused mainly chuckles. Some of the scenes were definitely too much (like the final show-down in the cellar-dungeon), but others were really thrilling (the seance!) or even extremely subtle in a nerve-racking way, like the scenes with the little spectacled boy entering the house of the killer, reminding me a bit of De Palma.
Asia Argento was beautiful, but had a rather annoying part, acting either cross or terrified (mostly both). Christopher Rydell was a surprise to me, very attractive and acting easy and natural, a pity that his filmography since Trauma was only modest and seems to have ended around 2010. I don't know how Piper Laurie came involved in this project, they gave her an impressive, almost gothic appearance, but her acting was way over the top.
All in all, some mixed feelings but nonetheless surely worth while to have seen.
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