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Trauma Review

October 25, 2018 | Posted by Bryan Kristopowitz
Trauma
7
The 411 Rating
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Trauma Review  

Trauma Review

Catalina Martin– Andrea
Macarena Carrere– Camila
Ximena del Solar– Julia
Dominga Bofil– Magdalena
Daniel Antivilo– Juan
Eduardo Paxeco– Pedro
Felipe Rios– Mario
Florencia Heredia– Yoya

Directed byLucio A. Rojas
Screenplay by Lucio A. Rojas

Distributed by Artsploitation Films

Not Rated
Runtime– 106 minutes

Buy it here

TraumaBRD

Trauma, written and directed by Lucio A. Rojas, is a mega disturbing horror movie that will make you hate life when you’re done watching it. Inspired by real life, politically inspired atrocities in Chile back when dictator Augusto Pinochet was running the show, Trauma is a perfect example of what inhumanity looks like. It’s nasty as fuck.

The movie stars Catalina Martin as Andrea, one of four female friends heading to a country cottage for a weekend of fun and whatnot. Along with the somewhat spunky Magdalena (Dominga Bofill) and lesbian lovers Camila and Julia (Macarena Carrere and Ximena del Solar), Andrea hopes to have a good time out in the middle of nowhere. At first, that seems likely to happen. The friends argue a bit every now and then about various things (family things, relationships, shit like that) but it’s nothing they can’t work through. They’re friends. Friends do that. Things turn to shit for Andrea and her friends when an old man named Juan (Daniel Antivilo) and his skeevy son Mario (Felipe Rios) break in and sexually assault all of them. And when I say sexually assault them I mean they fucking rape them in the most horrific ways possible. These horrendous actions continue through the night, and when the sun comes up, one of the friends tries to escape. Unfortunately, that friend is shot in the back of the head and her face explodes. Juan and Mario then leave the house and the leftover friends try to figure out what to do. Should they get help? Should they leave the area and never come back?

The remaining friends contact the local police (Pedro, as played by Eduardo Paxeco, and another guy that I didn’t catch the name of), and tell them what happened and who was responsible. Pedro and his partner know exactly who the female friends are talking about (they know it was Juan) and decide to go arrest him. When the cops get close to the bar that Juan hangs out in, they find out that a little girl named Yoya (Florencia Heredia) is missing and it’s likely that Juan did something to her. So the cops and Yoya’s father and brother (maybe) go into the bar guns almost blazing and confront Juan and try to arrest him. That plan goes to shit quickly, several more people die, and Juan and Mario go on the run.

On the run? Goddamit, what the hell are the surviving friends going to do now? Should they run now or should they stay, find Juan and Mario, and kill them? I don’t think it’s much of a spoiler to say that they stay and fight.

Now, why did Juan and Mario attack the female friends? Essentially, it’s just something that they do. They’re known within the community to viciously attack both men and women at random, but nothing has ever been done because of Juan’s familial history. See. Juan’s father was a big deal dude back in the days of the rebellion/resistance/whatever the fuck was going on, where he tortured and killed Communists and other non-desirables in the name of the dictatorship. Some of the locals still approve of what Juan’s father did and seem to be okay with him sort of continuing the tradition. That’s what’s on the surface. There’s something deeper and more sinister going on.

How sinister? At the beginning of the movie, we see, in disgusting detail, a young Juan (Max Torres) watch his father torture and murder his mother and, in the process of all that, we also see Juan’s father force Juan to have sex with his mother while she’s both alive and dead. We also watch Juan’s father force Juan to have an erection so he can penetrate his mother.

So, yeah, Trauma isn’t going to be for everyone. It’s a hard watch from the second it begins, and, really, there are no real light or happy moments outside of a full on lesbian sex scene, the car trip to the rural cottage, and a brief topless dancing sequence right before the raping starts. And when that starts, Jesus Christ, prepare to be dismayed with the world and life and history.

The political element of the story and plot probably resonates more with a Chilean audience, since the nastiness that happens is representative of what actually happened. A non-Chilean audience may not really get what any of that is about. You probably don’t have to know anything about Pinochet and the atrocities to “get” that Juan is a seriously damaged person and he’s just perpetuating the violence and be horrified by all of it, but it probably helps to know some of that history to get what writer/director Rojas is talking about.

Does the violence and rape and whatnot really need to be as awful and terrible and harrowing? Some of it probably could have been cut down for pacing reasons (the movie does drag every now and then), but what we end up seeing is clearly important to director Rojas and I don’t know what should be cut anyway. Trauma is not meant to be entertaining. It’s meant to be endured and make you think. Why would people do this kind of stuff to other people? What the hell is wrong with humanity?

The cast is phenomenal and, shit, the female cast members should be given some sort of award for going through the stuff that they go through. Martin, Carrere, del Solar, and Bofill are all put through the emotional and physical ringer and they should be commended for agreeing to do any of it. It’s nasty, nasty stuff.

TraumaJuan

Daniel Antivilo does an exceptional job at being one of the most reprehensible villains in modern horror movie history. Juan is a soulless person created by the violence and awfulness of the Pinochet regime. You should, on some level, feel some sort of sympathy for him. He’s only doing what he was trained to do. You don’t feel any sympathy for him, though. What he does is so terrible you can’t forgive him. All you really want to do is watch him suffer and die. He’s the human element that needs to be tracked down, isolated, and eventually eliminated. You will despise this guy.

You will also despise Felipe Rios as Mario. Mario is damaged, too, but you want him dead. He may not be “responsible” for what he’s doing, but that doesn’t make you want to see him die horribly any less.

Eduardo Paxeco does a good job as Pedro, the young cop who wants to take Juan out. If only he didn’t work for a bunch of people that are okay with Juan’s despicable behavior.

And then there’s Juan’s father. I don’t know this actor’s name but, my God, he may actually be more reprehensible than Juan. He’s a sadistic sack of crap and he just doesn’t die painfully enough. He, like Juan, will give you nightmares.

Now, there’s a whole thing involving Juan’s sister being shackled in a dingy room and Juan trying to get her a child or something, but I’m not sure if that’s what’s going on. I may have missed something in regards to that. In a “normal” horror movie this kind of stuff would be in the movie to give Juan a human dimension, to make him both less awful and even more awful at the same time. It doesn’t really work in Trauma. Juan isn’t going to be any more human than he already is.

Trauma is a tough movie to sit through. It will test your endurance. If you’re a fan of “fact based” horror or extreme horror, Trauma will be right up your alley. If you’re not a fan of that kind of horror movie, steer clear of Trauma. You will not be entertained in any real way. You will end up hating yourself, the world, and life in general.

Trauma. A serious endurance test. See it only if you can handle it.

TraumaAndrea

So what do we have here?

Dead bodies: If it’s less than 20 I’ll be surprised.

Explosions: Yes.

Nudity?: Yes.

Doobage: Gun shots, body dragging, screaming off in the distance, up close needle injection, face cutting, forced masturbation, rape, bullet to the head, sex with a dead body, barfing, full on lesbian sex with cunnilingus, dual vagina touching, multiple horrible flashbacks, a dead bird that bursts into flame for some reason, a seedy bar in the woods, misogyny, a yellow bouncy ball, gross food, multiple dead birds, baby torture, screaming, a frank talk about relationships and shit, a total inability to tell Mom about stuff, dancing at night, mild arguing about drinking, lesbian dancing, lesbian flirting, stripping, under the table oral sex, slow motion topless dancing, gun hooey, kidnapping, wildly inappropriate boob touching, backhand to the face, rape, cheek biting with skin chewing, forced oral sex, a mouth full of jizz, pouring flour on an open face wound, face licking, gay kissing, bondage, spitting, spit eating, cell phone burning, a decomposing dead bird, exploding face, knife up through the chin, knife to the neck, face spitting, serious throat cutting, knife through the kneecap, machete hooey, a severed head, more kidnaping, mirror breaking, a full on action flashback involving machine guns, grenades, and rampant homophobia, bullet through the back of the head and through the eye, electricity torture, gut stabbing with disembowelment, more bondage, exploding prisoner, gas grenades, multiple melting faces, knife to the dick, mouth torture, jaw breaking, acid to the face, acid to the back, a damaged ankle, and tree kissing.

Kim Richards?: Attempted, implied, and, yeah, it probably happens.

Gratuitous: Chile 1978, forced incest, credits in Spanish, full on lesbian sex, the steering wheel on the left side of the car, friends listening to music and fucking around in the car while listening to music, knit finger puppets, a bird sanctuary, baby torture, wine with lunch, man barking, marker heart drawn on the cheek, religious singing, rape, horrendous violence, multiple flashbacks, old newspapers on the wall that help explain the movie’s political content, a patriotic song, and the end of the movie because, Jesus Christ, that was all hard to watch.

Best lines: “Did you think you could fool me with that Communist?,” “I’m going to rape your daughter!,” “What’s going on?,” “What’s your problem, little shit?,” “Since when do you have such a sweet side?,” “Is she fucking with us?,” “You’re so bitter,” “Mom would be proud of the way I treated you,” “Such archaic electrical instillation,” “Disgusting,” “Keep dancing. Dance,” “Is she feeling sad? Is big-tits feeling sad?,” “Clap, you fucking lesbians!,” “Don’t you like to party, bitch?,” “Tomorrow, we’re going on an excursion,” “Kill me,” “Does she want to cry?,” “Motherfucker! What? Do you know them?,” “Shoot to kill. Do you know how to shoot?,” “Never stop looking at your prey,” “Do you realize we’re going to die?,” “The bullet went right through so he’ll be okay,” “Let’s go,” “Cute little rats,” “You’re going to have to go in there,” “Hey, didn’t you want this last night?,” and “The three of us are getting out of here, okay?”

7.0
The final score: review Good
The 411
Trauma is a tough horror movie to sit through. Inspired by the government atrocities of the Pinochet dictatorship in Chile back in the day, you will see rape, torture, shootings, and all sorts of grotesque nastiness and none of it is appealing in any way. Trauma is not a “fun” horror movie. Again, it’s hard to sit through and will make you question man’s inhumanity to man. It will also make you hate life. If you’re not a fan of extreme horror don’t even bother with Trauma. You won’t get through it.
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Trauma, Bryan Kristopowitz