Trauma

Argento’s second “American” film is a horror-tinged giallo that takes a more even-keeled approach than usual as it revisits topics near and dear to the director. In that regard, the film doesn’t miss much: it touches on his obsession for water (the lake, torrential rains, a bracing shower, a murderer who only kills when it’s raining, etc.), his interest in psychopathology along with the topic of false memories and other instances in which the mind plays tricks on someone (Argento gives these subjects his usual, somewhat confusing and rather flamboyant treatment).

Completing the picture are thousands of self-references (a head severed by an elevator, a little girl forced to gulp down “medicines”, crazy mothers, etc.) and the customary narrative trickery designed to misdirect viewers accustomed to more traditional giallo films. As always, with Argento’s thrillers, one needs to think in reverse, since every clue we’re given turns out to be a red herring leading us further away from the killer’s true identity (take, for example, the final, misleading words from the severed head, or the simple fact that the killer doesn’t even appear on the list of leading suspects, having already been declared dead).

At any rate, if implausible character motivations work to benefit the visual impact of works such as “Deep Red” (1975), this film’s relative sobriety leaves it decidedly less appetizing. Technically impeccable: Raffaele Mertes’s atmospheric cinematography favors cold tones, the makeup and special effects are expertly executed (by legendary Tom Savini), composer Pino Donaggio provides a fitting musical score, and the cast is in good form, with the young Asia Argento making a splash in her first appearance in one of her father’s films.