Trauma Therapy: Psychosis

Rating: 7/10

Director: Gary Barth

Writers: Tom Malloy and David Josh Lawrence

Style: Horror-Thriller

Time: 1-hour, 22-minutes

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lq4yJRvKDyg

Review by Mike Szymanski

This “Trauma Therapy: Psychosis” may scare you away from traditional head-shrinking because these methods start off making sense, but then get a bit extreme.

The first movie “Trauma Therapy” (which came out a few years ago) introduced actor Tom Malloy as Tobin Vance. He is a self-purported wonder guru who helps people face their biggest fears. The problem is, his methods often result in the deaths of his patients.

Let’s think of this first name, Tobin. Who does that remind you of? There was that Tobin Bell who was the guy in the “Saw” movies who got people to face their fears and perform horrendous tasks to overcome inadequacies in their lives. Coincidence? How many Tobins do you know?

I’m reminded how this premise is much like Nicole Kidman’s limited TV series “Nine Perfect Strangers.” At first, the therapy looks and sounds perfect. The settings are quite simple, and quaint and the food looks good. But, sometimes what they’re giving you is tinged with a little something that you didn’t know about up front. Sometimes poison even.

The people in this movie are chosen to participate in the grand experiment for free as a privilege, however, if they back out of it at any time, they must pay $75,000 in fees.

Not everyone agrees to the self-help at first. One guy backs away, and another guy decides on another way out that seems a bit extreme. Nevertheless, the others realize they are a bit stuck and make the best of it.

In jaunting cuts from the storyline of the “therapy” there is a podcast being taped by Tom Sizemore for his show while he interviews a past member of this Tobin Vance “cult.” This appearance of Sizemore was widely considered his last movie. It turns out that the gritty actor from “Black Hawk Down” and “Saving Private Ryan” has a number of small indie films coming out after this movie that will continue to showcase his talents since he died of a brain aneurysm in early 2023.

The back-and-forth to “The Tom Sizemore Show” and his questioning seems quite unnecessary and breaks up the action of the film, but maybe sometimes it’s good to take a break from the building tension of the therapy. Sizemore has an informative talk show where he quizzes one of the former cult members who has some horrific memories of the leader Tobin Vance, played by Malloy.

Malloy’s credits include “House of Many Sorrows” and “Screamers” but he’s best showcased in this, where he also co-writes the screenplay and produces. It’s a good calling card for his acting prowess, playing a creepy manipulator not unlike the character of Joe Carroll in the Kevin Bacon TV series “The Following.”

The movie offers a lot of twists and turns with a creepy foreboding that mixes the dangers of “The Following” and “Nine Perfect Strangers” as well as the tension of “Squid Game.”

The people being helped are put into “Squid Game”-like uniforms and forced to join the games, or else. The patients include actors Craig Seath (“The Necromancer”), Courtney Warner (“The Will”), Gordon Holliday (“Watch if you Dare” and Jamie Scott Gordon (“Bonejangles.”) None of them turn out to be who they say they are, and that makes it all the more fun and intriguing.

Isolation, shaming, brow-beating and scares are usual signs of a dangerous cult, and this gets even more extreme as the numbers who are participating dwindles with each next step.

You won’t need to have seen the 2019 film “Trauma Therapy” to know what’s going on in “Trauma Therapy: Psychosis.” In fact, it is simply more of the same, but this time it is shot in Scotland.

As the patients get pushed more and more into extreme situations. The cult staff includes Tobin’s stiff and unnatural assistant Elizabeth played well by “Black Sails” actress Hannah New.

It’s a low-budget sequel with all the elements of a Grindhouse production.

This makes for a compelling series of movies about the Vance Institute and the sinister ways their practitioners take to help create an army of insensitive soldiers to do the bidding of their leader.

It is a good beginning for the series, but it should have more compelling twists and turns in the future.

The movie is released by Quiver Distribution and is available on all VOD platforms.

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