Imagine something like a recipe made with one part "I Spit on Your Grave", one part "I Saw the Devil", and sprinkled with the seasoning of "A Serbian Film" and, voila, you get "Trauma".
The movie, overall, is not bad for its type in the genre of exploitation / horror. For those who have never seen flicks like "Salo", "A Serbian Film" (uncut), or "Irreversible" I'm sure this film will absolutely ruin your day. But those who have experienced the sheer horrors of the aforementioned movies may be underwhelmed.
Dont get me wrong, there are some truly shocking and vile scenes (most of which take place in the first 30ish minutes of the film). The opening where a boy is drugged / jerked off and then forced by his father to have sex with his bloodied and tortured mother only to have her brains blown out during intercourse is one such scene. Another scene that I found particularly upsetting was the flashback to the father as a young man with jar of lube which lead to fingering a baby in its crib at the command of his own psychotic military politician father. And then theres the ever-so-gross father & son incest scenes that take place between the boy from the beginning (all grown up, now the father) and his son who was born out of incest with his own sister (who he keeps chained up in his weirdo dungeon cave).
Some aspects that cheapened the overall effect for me were things like CGI blood splatter (always looks dumb to me), the antagonist John Wick-ing an entire room of guys with guns drawn on him (great choreography, but a little over the top in terms of believability), and the countless times throughout the movie that the victims could have either escaped or killed the bad guys but didnt (I found myself yelling at them more than the villains eventually).
After the first 30 - 40 minutes of the film it plays out more like a catch-me-if-you-can vigilantes on a rescue mission type of film. Only, nobody really wins / lives in the end
So, again, for the type of movie this is it wasnt bad, but it wasnt anything I'd rank as "top 3 most shocking / brutal movies of all time." (fortunately, theres far more gross / shocking movies out there...)
The movie, overall, is not bad for its type in the genre of exploitation / horror. For those who have never seen flicks like "Salo", "A Serbian Film" (uncut), or "Irreversible" I'm sure this film will absolutely ruin your day. But those who have experienced the sheer horrors of the aforementioned movies may be underwhelmed.
Dont get me wrong, there are some truly shocking and vile scenes (most of which take place in the first 30ish minutes of the film). The opening where a boy is drugged / jerked off and then forced by his father to have sex with his bloodied and tortured mother only to have her brains blown out during intercourse is one such scene. Another scene that I found particularly upsetting was the flashback to the father as a young man with jar of lube which lead to fingering a baby in its crib at the command of his own psychotic military politician father. And then theres the ever-so-gross father & son incest scenes that take place between the boy from the beginning (all grown up, now the father) and his son who was born out of incest with his own sister (who he keeps chained up in his weirdo dungeon cave).
Some aspects that cheapened the overall effect for me were things like CGI blood splatter (always looks dumb to me), the antagonist John Wick-ing an entire room of guys with guns drawn on him (great choreography, but a little over the top in terms of believability), and the countless times throughout the movie that the victims could have either escaped or killed the bad guys but didnt (I found myself yelling at them more than the villains eventually).
After the first 30 - 40 minutes of the film it plays out more like a catch-me-if-you-can vigilantes on a rescue mission type of film. Only, nobody really wins / lives in the end
So, again, for the type of movie this is it wasnt bad, but it wasnt anything I'd rank as "top 3 most shocking / brutal movies of all time." (fortunately, theres far more gross / shocking movies out there...)