THRAUMA

TRHAUMA

TRAUMA

REVIEWED BY DENNIS CAPICIK

Italy, 1980.

D: Gianni Martucci

P: Alberto Marras for Lark Cinematografica & Joint Working Group//St & Sc: Gianni Martucci, Alessandro Capone & Gaetano Russo //DP: Angelo Bevilacqua//E: Enzo Alabiso & Antonio Ramirez//M: Ubaldo Continiello.

Cast: Ronny Russ, Dafne Price, Roberto Posse, Timothy Wood, Franco Diogene, Per Holgher, Silvia Mauri, Anna Maria Chiatante, Gina Mancinelli.

Although labeled in many genre reference books as a giallo, Gianni Martucci’s TRHAUMA has more similarities to the then popular stalk-and-slash craze, which, thanks to the enormous popularity of John Carpenter’s HALLOWEEN (1978), dominated box office receipts at the time.  If it’s not glaringly obvious by the misspelled title card, TRHAUMA is pretty much the rock-bottom of the genre – albeit with a few oddball and sleazy characteristics to keep it mildly entertaining – so it’s easy to see why it was pretty much dismissed in most circles.

A disheveled man (Per Holgher – credited as L’Essere / “The Being”) with a disfigured blind eye roams the crypts of a large Italian villa, who, in his spare time, is also constructing a large toy castle made entirely of Lego (!).  As he secretly works away, a wailing cat in the background is soon ‘hushed-up’ when he removes its head with a large sickle – but don’t worry, folks, it’s all very unconvincingly done.  In the meantime, a group of well-to-do socialites – including a photographer named Paul (Timothy Wood), his model Olga (Anna Maria Chiatante), a wealthy industrialist (Franco Diogene) and his newest “secretary” (Gina Mancinelli), and also Carlo and Silvia (Roberto Posse and Silvia Mauri), an unhappily married couple – are all visiting Andrea (“Ronny Russ” / aka Gaetano Russo)’s country villa, which seems to be a thorn in the side of his wife Lilly (“Dafne Price” / aka Domitilla Cavazza).  As Andrea and Lilly bicker over this “shack”, which he purchased instead of getting something fancy on the Côte d’Azur, his guests make themselves at home around the large outdoor pool.  As night falls, everyone becomes the target of the resident madman obsessed with kids’ plastic building blocks, but who is that mysterious figure taunting him with new boxes of Lego…?

As wacky as the above premise sounds, the set-up is about as simplistic as it gets, and the second half is simply one extended stalking sequence.  Like any low-budget flick, characters simply gather together to more conveniently get bumped-off, but, as in many earlier gialli, this is an especially unpleasant bunch, with plenty of dirty secrets and hidden agendas.  At one point, Paul blackmails Silvia with compromising photos of her taken while she was having a lesbian tryst with Olga, and, during the requisite photo shoot, Paul urges Olga to “throw away the dress”, as she prances through the woods in her birthday suit.  Andrea is probably the most pathetic of the group: a degenerate gambler who is obviously financially supported by his wife, but is an asshole to boot (”You’re crazy if you think I’ll continue to finance your megalomania!” exclaims Lilly). 

Characterization is certainly not the film’s main impetus, and, in typically clichéd fashion, when Olga goes missing, they all decide to “split up” and search for her in the surrounding woods.  Although gore is minimal, there is one uncharacteristically nasty scene of “The Being” having his evil way with Olga’s corpse in an open field – incidentally, this unpleasant scene was edited out of the French Canadian VHS release, entitled DÉMENCE – which seems to have strayed in from another film.  During TRHAUMA’s extended finale – in an obvious nod to Italian Gothics – Lilly is pursued by “The Being” as she runs through the villa in her negligee; but unlike many of its contemporaries, the film’s sudden and very cynical ending is quite surprising.  But we never do get an explanation about that damned Lego!

It’s quite incredible that it took fully three writers (namely Alessandro Capone, director Martucci and star Russo) to slap this together, and the slapdash approach is evident almost immediately as Ubaldo Continiello’s irksome disco tune (“Come on, dance…”) plays over a black screen and generic credits; some prints contain psychedelic, rainbow-colored brush-strokes in the background.  Incidentally, most of Continiello’s score is also taken from Ruggero Deodato’s earlier The LAST CANNIBAL WORLD (a.k.a. JUNGLE HOLOCAUST, 1977), which further exemplifies the unoriginality of this entire decidedly lowly production. 

Director Martucci only directed a grand total of five films, including BLAZING FLOWERS (1978), which is arguably one of his best efforts; an entertaining and highly exploitable poliziesco starring Euro action cinema icons George Hilton and Marc Porel.  One of Martucci’s last efforts – again with star Gaetano Russo – was The RED MONKS (1988), a relatively bland horror cheapie put together during the fading days of Italo-horror, which gained some unexpected popularity due to the controversial – and confusing – “Lucio Fulci presents” moniker it got saddled with.

As for TRHAUMA, this is a poor imitation of the burgeoning slasher craze of the time, which, although utterly bizarre at times, wears out its welcome rather quickly.