Writer/director Lucio A Rojas’ Trauma will certainly awaken those dark cinematic desires amongst fans of that legendary other Lucio who also had a penchant for extreme gore.

Years after the Pinochet dictatorship era, four women decide to leave the Chilean capital of Santiago behind them for an idyllic holiday amongst the inviting rural landscape. A relaxed private house warming party with the wine and reflection flowing, coupled with a couple of saucy dances goes a long way, at least up until two not-so-inviting locals (one of whom was the victim of government torture years earlier) gate-crash the shenanigans and start imposing their masculinity in a manner above and beyond what made David Hess such a stalwart of this type of movie…

And there is pretty much your cue and clue to how this film unfolds. There is pretty much every similarity between this and the more notorious video nasties such as The Last House on the Left and House on the Edge of the Park. Right from the opening – and a very bloody and shocking one at that – Rojas knows what he is about to unleash on his niche audience. Sadly, he places so many conveniences to drive the characters and conflict forward that it dilutes the intended impact – and the chances are you will probably twig the direction it’s going to go.

The key disappointment with Trauma is that the backstory could well have made it into a far more meaningful and deeply rooted shocker, as the parallels of the dictatorship years set you up for a relentless pacesetter, only to resort to bog-standard torture porn, which has become such a cliché in recent times.

It is still a pretty stylish film visually and make no mistake, the impressive gore and makeup effects will compensate for any script shortcomings.

TRAUMA / CERT: TBC / DIRECTOR & SCREENPLAY: LUCIO A. ROJAS / STARRING: CATALINA MARTIN, MACARENA CARRERE, XIMENA DEL SOLAR, DOMINGA BOFILL / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW (US), TBC (UK)