Spookfield – Tears of Trauma

Having been following the trial and tribulations of a filmmaker creating his debut anthology film for over the past year said filmmaker Alexis Gonzales finally sent me a taste of what’s to come with the first vignette of the film.

 

Tears of Trauma is the said vignette and is about a man with a painful childhood of abuse. Hear similar with his next door neighbour abusing his own son triggers memories and a need for action.

 

What we get here is a giallo influenced set piece where a masked man visits what appears to be a criminal associate who has just set up a hit on a young woman. He is there because of what is happening between the man and his son. Putting a scare into him the masked man hopes the abuse on the child will stop.

 

Tears of Trauma is the very first short for Alexis on his journey into film making and the final release of his anthology Spookfield. Originally I believe it was to be a standalone but Alexis wisely decided to go with the anthology idea. Wise because I personally feel a filmmaker is better showcase a number of ideas to the viewer.

 

As for my experience…

 

For whatever reason I felt it was too quiet in the beginning with the build up to what we get with our lead character. I am watching this guy sitting at the lounge and it feels too long before we get to the meat of the matter with what the issue of this vignette is about. I felt just maybe a little more music to set the mood would have been better. Then this communiqué we get between abusive father and his masked visitor would have been much more effective with way less talk from the unwanted guest. For me less would have been more. It would have lent more mystery in the giallo style, maybe voice distortion or whispering as well. Another thing is I would have gone for a darker atmosphere as well to add to the menace.

 

There is not a great deal else I can really go into here as alas it is a 15 minute vignette and only one small aspect of a feature length film. We do get violent retribution at the end of this with a man’s face blown of down naturally with practical effects and as a first time venture into this realm it is effective!

 

With all of this stated in the above I am very excited to experience everything that Spookfield promises in the end! As stated Tears of Trauma is just a start; we will also get an exploration into flesh eating zombies. Going by the trailer and stills this promising to be an awesome experience, as I love the look Alexis has gone for.

 

I look forwards to my complete Spookfield experience and look forwards to sharing it here for our Extreme Horror Cinema readers!