The new indie horror film Traumatika opens with a title card informing us of the “five forms of childhood trauma,” unsubtly announcing what’s about to happen over the next 80 minutes. Then we’re in the Egyptian desert, circa 1910, watching an anguished man bury a sinister-looking figurine in the sand. Only then do we arrive in the 21st century, where terrible things are very much afoot.
The flashback adds a little bit of context, but it feels unnecessary; a cursed object is a not-uncommon horror trope. The didactic explanation of childhood trauma, though, is definitely unnecessary. Thankfully, Traumatika eventually shows a bit more confidence in its audience, delivering a story that’s clearly aiming to freak you out and often succeeds.
In 2003, in a run-down cottage in Pasadena, a little boy named Mikey (Ranan Navat) dials 911, and we soon see his abusive “mommy,” Abigail (Rebekah Kennedy), has something very wrong with her. Like, demonically wrong. Inside this house, a frequently returned-to setting, Traumatika often feels almost like a found-footage film. Director and co-writer Pierre Tsigaridis (Two Witches) leans into POV shots and dark rooms lit by frantic flashlight beams—in this instance, as a jittery cop discovers he’s been summoned to a very bad place.
Soon after, we jump to one year earlier to fill in some blanks; later, we’ll move 20 years into the future to see how these events have affected the survivors. Traumatika’s time shifts serve its driving themes of how traumas of the past continue to injure the people who carry them into the present. The ancient statue makes this a literal concept; it’s somehow made its way from Egypt to Southern California, where it’s poised to unleash an actual demon into a family that’s already on shaky ground emotionally.
It’s the perfect environment for a hellbeast that compels its hosts to abuse the most vulnerable victims in their midst, and Traumatika doesn’t hold back on deeply disturbing imagery (sexual assault, physical violence, extreme body horror) to illustrate this worst-case scenario. Alongside this, Traumatika takes stabs at establishing some mythology—including a search for a “chosen one”—but that never quite coheres.
But just when you start to wonder if Traumatika is taking itself a bit too seriously, act three brings some surprising levity. In the 2020s, we meet the adult version of Abigail’s younger sister, Alice (Emily Goss). Rather than repressing her trauma, Alice has embraced it, even penning a best-selling book about her late sister, who’s become a true-crime boogeyman for her role in what’s now known as “the Pasadena murders.”
Despite seemingly building her own career around her family’s notoriety, Alice is mortified to realize the big TV interview she’s agreed to has been woven into a Halloween special. The host, a Nancy Grace type played by Susan Gayle Watts, is all too thrilled to exploit tragedy for ratings, paving the way for Traumatika to offer further, and more distressingly modern, demonstrations of how PTSD can manifest itself.
Without spoiling anything, let’s just say that as long as there’s a demon on the loose, nobody can hope to find closure. Also, the Halloween setting allows for an eerie trick-or-treat scene featuring the saddest sheet-clad ghosts since It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, so the movie gets extra spooky credit for that.
Traumatika is directed by Pierre Tsigaridis, who also co-wrote with Maxime Rancon. It also stars A.J. Bowen, Sean O’Bryan, and Sean Whalen, and it hits theaters September 12.
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