Démence

This little known Italian thriller (which is "correctly" spelled Trhauma) tells a typical giallo story, but has clearly been influenced by John Carpenter's Halloween. A group of people spend a weekend at a friend's house. Early in the movie, one of the females is killed by a disfigured killer, who rapes his victim post mortem. Soon after this, it becomes clear that the simple minded murderer is paid by an unknown person for the crime - with Lego (that's a cheap contract killer... toys instead of cash)! Soon, the other guests worry about the first victim, because (naturally) she hasn't returned. But before they find the body or realize that they are stalked by a maniac, one by one falls victim to the crazed lunatic.

This film by Gianni Martucci, who also made the awfully boring film I Frati Rossi (aka The Red Monks) in 1988, is a very entertaining and sleazy picture. He succeeds in delivering a nice uncanny atmosphere, and through moving camera and creepy scenes in the dark, Martucci keeps up the suspense. The murder scenes are mostly off screen, which probably will disappoint splatter freaks, but towards the end, the film delivers some gore and gets quite messy. Towards the end, the identity of the person who contracted the killer isn't that difficult to find out, but that's no surprise considering that only two people are left and one of them is stalked by the killer for about ten minutes. The only a little bit disappointing thing is the abrupt end, which doesn't make too much sense. All in all, even though it's far from being a masterpiece, it's a highly watchable movie that will satisfy giallo-, slasher- and sleaze-fans alike. Rating: 7 out of 10.

By the way: Assistant director and screenplay co-writer was Alessandro Capone who directed the gory Witch Story (aka Streghe) in 1989.

A group of people spend a weekend at a friend's house.One of the females is killed by a disfigured maniac using a machete.Then he rapes her corpse post-mortem.The other guests becomes worried about the absence of first victim.Soon they are all stalked and murdered by crazed killer.Very entertaining and pretty sleazy Italian giallo/slasher directed by Gianni Martucci,the man behind deadly dull "The Red Monks"."Trhauma" is a very beautiful giallo/slasher obviously inspired by "Halloween".The location used is serene and eerie and when you add some lovely and often fully naked ladies into the mix you have a giallo that was probably a lot of fun to make.Director Gianni Martucci manages to keep things interesting with only his small cast to rely on and fills the plot with gruesome murders.8 out of 10.

Like all my fellow reviewers, I clearly also couldn't resist making a remark about the spelling error in the title. It's just so unfathomable! It's a one-word title and making a film is supposedly a full-time occupation; how is it humanly possible to mess this up? Excellent job done by everyone even remotely involved in this production! In the other user-comments, I read that "Trhauma" is a belated giallo, because it's Italian, and a slasher inspired by Carpenter's "Halloween" because it got released shortly after. This is, however, merely just wishful thinking. In the end, it's nothing but a very lousy and zero-budgeted amateur horror film, made by and starring a bunch of nobodies.

The prologue introduces two 9-ish year old boys playing around in a forestry region. The smallest one is an irritating brat who commands the taller (and mentally underdeveloped) one to climb into a tree. He falls. After the opening credits, we are in the middle of a friends' weekend taking place in the country mansion of a continuously bickering couple. There aren't any proper character introductions or explanation on who these people are, though. In the film's absolute funniest scene, a really fat bloke just steps out of his car, throws off his clothes whilst crossing the garden and jumps into the pool. After that, everyone simply gets butchered by a savage maniac who turns out to be the dim-witted kid from the prologue (you can recognize him by his one missing eye).

Simply put, "Trhauma" is unimaginably bad! There isn't the slightly sign of tension-building, character development or coherence in the script. Due to the nonexistent budget, the murder sequences either occur off-screen or look very pitiable. If I would have to give an explanation on why this movie is still somewhat seen as a cult gem, it's probably because of two minor aspects: 1) there's a repulsive and 100% gratuitous necrophilia sequence and (2) the maniac killer still is the marionette of the same bully kid who rewards the murders with Lego boxes! The acting, directing, editing and cinematography are horrendous, but do stick around just in case in you are interested in witnessing the most moronic ending in horror history.

The Italians are often criticized for "ripping off" American films. There is some justification for this, but there are times also that the influence has gone in the other direction. The American slasher genre initiated by "Black Christmas", "Halloween", and "Friday the 13th", for instance, owes a lot to earlier Italian gialli thrillers, most obviously Mario Bava's "Bay of Blood", but also "Torso", "What Have You Done to Solange?", and even "Schoolgirl Killer", all of which played American drive-ins in the 1970's and no doubt had some influence on the early American slasher films. Nevertheless, just because "Halloween" and other early slasher films may have been somewhat derivative of gialli, it didn't stop later Italian giallo filmmakers from cashing in on the international success of American slasher movies by making their own films that were highly derivative of "Halloween". This is one such film.

In what seems to be a typical slasher-movie flashback prologue, one boy coaxes another boy with a deformed eye into climbing a tree. The boy falls out of the tree, apparently dead. Years later the first boy has grown up and he and a bunch of his friends, some of whom he is in debt to, and his wealthy wife are having a party at his secluded villa when someone starts bumping off the guests. Guess who.

This movie IS highly derivative of "Halloween", but the end does go in a very direction than what you might expect and the revenge-for-a-past-tragedy that is seemingly set up in the prologue is not necessarily what it seems. This movie turns out to be much more of a slasher-giallo hybrid than a simple slasher movie rip-off, owing as much to earlier gialli like "Bay of Blood" as it does to "Halloween". Also, the characters in this movie, unlike with most slasher movies, are adults rather than adolescents. Thus, there's even more nudity and sleazy sex than in your average slasher movie, but the characters also have much more adult motives than simply partying or trying to "lose it". You also get the big fat guy from "Strip Nude for Your Killer" (but thankfully this time he DOESN'T strip nude for his killer). Most of the cast, however, are relative unknowns and they're generally unremarkable as actors. This isn't terrible, but it's not great either.

As anyone with more than a passing interest in this genre will tell you, the Giallo hit it's heyday in the early seventies. The genre started to dry up as the seventies wore on; and by the time the eighties came around, you would really struggle to find a decent example outside of Dario Argento's filmography. Trhauma is not a great Giallo by any stretch of the imagination; but in comparison to other entries released around the same period, it has to be said that this one isn't too bad. The plot is rather simple and focuses on a group of people staying at an old house. It's not long before a woman is murdered and it soon becomes clear that the murderer is being paid by someone. It's also clear that the murderer is of the cheap variety as he gets paid in Lego! The guests later realise that the victim has gone missing and naturally start to worry, and this worry is increased when another guest falls victim. It soon becomes apparent that there's a maniac loose in the house!

The film is very short at only seventy two minutes and while it doesn't exactly outstay its welcome; that does unfortunately mean that the film doesn't have much time to flesh out the characters or plot; and as a result it's left rather lacking. Trhauma does benefit from a claustrophobic atmosphere brought on by the fact that it all takes place in the same enclosed location; but this is not as effective as it could been if the characters were fleshed out and made more interesting. One thing that many Giallo fans look for in these film is a fair helping of gore; and despite the fact that this film was released around the same time as Umberto Lenzi's cannibal movies and Lucio Fulci's zombie movies; it features very little of the red stuff and while there's a few murders; they are basically bloodless, which is a shame. As we get close to the end, it becomes pretty obvious who is behind it all...but even so, while this is not a great Giallo by any stretch of the imagination; it's not too bad and is worth tracking down for collectors.