Trauma

Writer and director Lucio A. Rojas was overly ambitious and certainly went all out to create insane shock value, but his inexperience as a filmmaker overshadowed his ambitions. There were just too many rookie mistakes, some so easily avoided, that it's a shame he at least didn't go back and edit some of the obvious issues. There were too many long, dragged out, and some unnecessary filler scenes, but that can be forgiven as rookie mistakes. But the film being too dark in the dark settings - and some so badly out of focus, could've easily been fixed post. I was impressed with the gore effects, prosthetics and S/VFX, but in many of those scenes, the camera only lasted a few seconds - some even less than one second, hardly enough to enable the shock value fully. You'll spend more time trying to figure out what you just saw in between dark, washed out, out of focus and quickly filmed scenes, you'll lose focus on what's happening next, to the point of getting annoyed, and that's still with me also having to constantly rewind to try and figure out what I just missed. The first few minutes of the film were the most impactful, as they were perfectly shot. But the rest of the film is hit and miss, which makes this entry into the gore genre a misfire that could've been much better.

I like gore movies and this one was reputed to be extreme. But it is very bad. The protagonists and their decisions throughout the film are stupid. Actresses' performances are appalling and unbelievable, especially in torture scenes. There is the typical absurdly indestructible villain. I thought the movie would be more grotesque, but I even found it soft, except for a couple of scenes. Something positive is the music. I do not recommend it.

Senseles violence, rape, torture. ... no rhyme or reason. Where is the plot? A movie like A Serbian Film does a better job telling this sort of messed up story. I had to turn this film off because I got tired of hearing the same screaming over and over and over.

Some other reviewers like to talk bad about anyone who enjoys these types of movies, such as A Serbian Film. But the truth is that there is a market for this type of art, if done correctly. This movie failed at bringing together a solid story.

Although clearly intended to shock audiences with gore and taboo themes, 'Trauma' (2017) also addresses the marks left by Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship on Chilean society between 1973 and 1990, tackling the topic with considerable violence and becoming one of the most brutal productions from its native country.

Despite the sometimes robotic performances of the main cast, the film succeeds in developing Juan, the disturbing antagonist, and Catalina Martin as Andrea. The use of digital effects in certain gore scenes removes some of the impact of the violence. 'Trauma' was not developed for a wide audience, making it an ideal experience for lovers of extreme cinema.

You ever see a film so terribly bad that once it's over, you immediately forget everything that transpired, almost completely scrubbing it from your memory? Years later, you hear these people online who discover it, claiming it's "as disturbing as a Serbian Film", and you think, "I HAVE to watch that!!", forgetting you had already seen it, hated it, and forgot all about it? Then you press play and you think, "Hmmm, this looks strangely familiar. I've seen this before, but maybe it was just a part used in the trailer...?" Then the actors start delivering their lines with all of the aplomb of a High School play, and you start to think to you yourself, "Wait a minute, did I see this?". Then when it finally hits you that you DID this trash and you sadly pick up the remote, press stop, and hang your head in shame for having wasted 20 minutes of your life doing all of this, 20 minutes you will NEVER, EVER get back?

No? So it's just me then?