Trauma – 2017

Trauma is a horror-thriller from Chile from 2017. The reason I sought it out and watched it was mainly because of this youtube clip I found. Some guy had made it his mission to find five movies more disturbing than A Serbian Film. It’s a noble cause but also kind of pointless. A Serbian Film has been made infamous by all the hype and everyone “must” see it even if they’re not into extreme cinema. Those people have a hard time stomaching some of the scenes and also feel a strong urge to condemn it, since no “normal” human can really enjoy being disgusted. (Irony of course)

So… Trauma topped this guys list and I felt the urge to see what the fuss was about. And since my angle somehow becomes a comparison with the other film there will probably be more of that in this review than I really want it to be. Oh Well… 

I will start by giving this the prize for having the most disturbing introduction ever! At least as far as I can remember all those other extreme films that I have seen through the years. Most of them don’t start out in such high tempo and in such utter disgust as Trauma does, even if they as a whole become something absolutely terrifying later. Here the tone is set from the opening scene. A scene which I’m not sure I can describe without ruining the shock for you. Let’s just say that it involves, torture, necrophilia and incest. 

The opening scene really made me wide awake and waiting for whatever they could do to top that and raise the intercity during the film’s 105 minutes or so. If you go all in from the very start you need something to back it up with I think. But what happens? Trauma loses pace and instead becomes a film about four women going on a roadtrip. It sounds more normal than it eventually becomes of course. And I guess we needed that contrast to calm us down a notch or two.

But for me, I would have liked it to keep up with the opening scene. That would have been the way to keep my interest up. I won’t say that I don’t enjoy the lesbian eroticism that starts off the rest of the movie. And there is certainly both jealousy and erotic affairs going on within the group of the four women. I’m not really sure if they’re all lesbians or not. But I think there is at least one couple and also two sisters. Love, whether it’s platonic siblings or romantic relationships, have a tendency to make the horrors and separation that they face more heartbreaking for the viewer.

I didn’t really connect with them in that way. I was still waiting for the next shocking scene. And I had to wait. Sure, there are scenes edited in to mix up the story when we see the four women on their journey. At the same time we also see the parallel plot where this old man and his son are living a very “different” lifestyle. It’s not that it’s just violent, there are other kinds of disturbing content as well. And who shouldn’t have male incestions homorelationship where we, on the other hand, have a plot focusing on lesbianism?

It is, of course, no secret what will happen. Of course the paths will cross each other. The men barge in when the women are having a party and the terror is about to begin. And don’t get me wrong, it is disturbing, it is violent, and it is gory. But I don’t think there was ever any tendency to top that opening scene how much they even tried with different elements. To say that these guys are perverted scum is no exaggeration of course. And there is much going on that I can’t mention here. It’s a very sadistic movie to be sure.

But if we go back to the comparison between A Serbian Film and Trauma again. I don’t think Trauma comes close. It’s probably more violent and some of the ideas are certainly more perverted and shocking. But it never feels that way. It never feels like that the whole society around them are evil or that the whole thing is a secret government coverup, like we can see in A Serbian Film. Traume does end with questions though. it’s not entirely clear what actually happened, how some of the characters are linked together and not even who survives. 

It’s a strong movie for sure and I would recommend it to those who think they can stomach it. But beware that it is extreme and definitely not for everybody.