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Not even bad in a good way

Did you people see the same film I saw?

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

When I originally decided to pick up this film,my first expectations were that I was going to see an alt cut of Dario Artgento's 1993 Giallo Trauma.Shortly after the film arriving I had a quick search online,and was pleasantly surprised to find out that the movie was a Giallo-Slasher hybrid!.Since having enjoyed Lamberto Bava's great Giallo-Slasher hybrid A Blade In The Dark,I decided to take a look at what "traumatic" events awaited the unlucky characters of this film.The plot:Getting double dared by his friend to climb the tallest tree in an isolated wood land area,a half blind boy almost reaches the very top,until he suddenly loses his grip and falls all the way down.Years later:A group of adults decide to spend a vacation at a beautiful reclusive villa,where they can all let the days go by as they soak up the rays and go for swims.Whilst things on the outside of the villa may look picture perfect,the current situations that each of the couple find themselves in is far from ideal,with one of the girls having the constant threat over her head,that her husbands blackmail threats may soon become a reality,and one of the most care free of the group (Paul) being desperate to finally break into professional photography.Taking advantage of the good weather,Paul and his girlfriend/wife decide to take some photos around the outskirts of the Villa.Nearly finishing the last roll of film,Paul and his wife are suddenly brutally killed by a strange figure,who has been secretly watching for them quite some time.As the sun slowly starts to go down,the surviving adults in the group (temporally) put their personal demons aside,and start to get worried over the whereabouts of Paul and his wife.Deciding to go on a search around the villa,the group soon begin to make a terrifying revelation that they are far from alone,and that unknown to almost all of them,one member of the group has a strong connection to their past,with the mysterious,ruthless person who is going to make sure that this holiday at the villa will be for all of them a vacation to a living nightmare.View on the film:Opening with a sync-pop song by Ubaldo Continiello,my first expectations were that this was going to be a Slasher/Giallo film which has had all of its edges worn down and replaced with a "mainstream" shine.For the screenplay of the film,co-writer (along with Gaetano Russo and Alessandro Capone) and director Gianni Martucci impressively goes for a more mature,Giallo set of characters to be his unlucky bunch of victims.Unlike most Slasher films which mainly focus on the travailing of a bunch of teenagers,who from out of nowhere encounter a deadly "fork in the road".Martucci,instead makes the all non-teenagers group of characters people who are desperate to stab their partner right in the back with all of their hidden secrets (although Martucci does still have some of the most beautiful actresses in the film appear in various states of undress.)Although Martucci's directing does sadly stick to the middle of the road,and also misses a number of opportunity's to include some stylish moments to this entertaining Giallo/Slasher hybrid (although a weird Lego building in the killers hideout (!) and a small nasty moment of necrophilia do allow for some nice weird touches.)The films screenplay thankfully keeps things moving at an also enjoyable,sometimes twisty pace.Looking at the killings in the movie, Martucci and the other two writers cleverly left me pretty surprised during the films final half hour,with the deaths (mostly) being done in a completely different order to what I had expected and the last five minutes of the film offering a fantastic,open-ended Giallo twist,which helps the movie to end on a terrific rancid note.

The Italians are often criticized for "ripping off" American films. There is some justification for this, but there are times also that the influence has gone in the other direction. The American slasher genre initiated by "Black Christmas", "Halloween", and "Friday the 13th", for instance, owes a lot to earlier Italian gialli thrillers, most obviously Mario Bava's "Bay of Blood", but also "Torso", "What Have You Done to Solange?", and even "Schoolgirl Killer", all of which played American drive-ins in the 1970's and no doubt had some influence on the early American slasher films. Nevertheless, just because "Halloween" and other early slasher films may have been somewhat derivative of gialli, it didn't stop later Italian giallo filmmakers from cashing in on the international success of American slasher movies by making their own films that were highly derivative of "Halloween". This is one such film.In what seems to be a typical slasher-movie flashback prologue, one boy coaxes another boy with a deformed eye into climbing a tree. The boy falls out of the tree, apparently dead. Years later the first boy has grown up and he and a bunch of his friends, some of whom he is in debt to, and his wealthy wife are having a party at his secluded villa when someone starts bumping off the guests. Guess who.This movie IS highly derivative of "Halloween", but the end does go in a very direction than what you might expect and the revenge-for-a-past-tragedy that is seemingly set up in the prologue is not necessarily what it seems. This movie turns out to be much more of a slasher-giallo hybrid than a simple slasher movie rip-off, owing as much to earlier gialli like "Bay of Blood" as it does to "Halloween". Also, the characters in this movie, unlike with most slasher movies, are adults rather than adolescents. Thus, there's even more nudity and sleazy sex than in your average slasher movie, but the characters also have much more adult motives than simply partying or trying to "lose it". You also get the big fat guy from "Strip Nude for Your Killer" (but thankfully this time he DOESN'T strip nude for his killer). Most of the cast, however, are relative unknowns and they're generally unremarkable as actors. This isn't terrible, but it's not great either.

A couple invites some friends to spend a weekend together in an isolated cabin surrounded by woods and fields. But... there's a killer lurking around.... And... someone is monitoring him."Trhauma" is an Italian slasher/giallo film that seemingly took some inspiration from "Friday the 13th", but it has its own story and a completely different mood. The characters are not silly teenagers, but machiavelic young (mostly) adults. "Trhauma" was made on a low budget, but it's audio-visually creative and it takes good advantage of the natural surroundings (the cabin - interiors and grounds, the woods etc.). Most of the scenes (and killings) take place during the night. There are interesting scenes – people walking through the woods in the night carrying torches... illuminating bushes, boughs.... and...... to wrap it all up, a good soundtrack helps to stress the mood.The film begins with a light touch and when the day turns into night, perplexity turns into apprehension and then fear... and from fear to terror..."Trhauma" is not a film for gorehounds, but slasher/gialli fans that like non-mainstream films should like it. It's atmospheric and features a fast-paced story.

This little known Italian thriller (which is "correctly" spelled Trhauma) tells a typical giallo story, but has clearly been influenced by John Carpenter's Halloween. A group of people spend a weekend at a friend's house. Early in the movie, one of the females is killed by a disfigured killer, who rapes his victim post mortem. Soon after this, it becomes clear that the simple minded murderer is paid by an unknown person for the crime - with Lego (that's a cheap contract killer... toys instead of cash)! Soon, the other guests worry about the first victim, because (naturally) she hasn't returned. But before they find the body or realize that they are stalked by a maniac, one by one falls victim to the crazed lunatic.This film by Gianni Martucci, who also made the awfully boring film I Frati Rossi (aka The Red Monks) in 1988, is a very entertaining and sleazy picture. He succeeds in delivering a nice uncanny atmosphere, and through moving camera and creepy scenes in the dark, Martucci keeps up the suspense. The murder scenes are mostly off screen, which probably will disappoint splatter freaks, but towards the end, the film delivers some gore and gets quite messy. Towards the end, the identity of the person who contracted the killer isn't that difficult to find out, but that's no surprise considering that only two people are left and one of them is stalked by the killer for about ten minutes. The only a little bit disappointing thing is the abrupt end, which doesn't make too much sense. All in all, even though it's far from being a masterpiece, it's a highly watchable movie that will satisfy giallo-, slasher- and sleaze-fans alike. Rating: 7 out of 10.By the way: Assistant director and screenplay co-writer was Alessandro Capone who directed the gory Witch Story (aka Streghe) in 1989.