BREAKING NEWS: COLLIDER | Look Into the Face of Pure Evil With Chilling New 'Traumatika' Poster [Exclusive]
- Maxime Rançon
- 3 days ago
- 2 min read
Although it's not due out for another couple of months, Saban Films is already preparing viewers for what could be the most disturbing horror film of the year — Traumatika. Throughout the entire week, chilling new posters have been dropping for what's been dubbed the "5 Days of Trauma," an event hyping the deeply haunting new movie and all culminating in today's new key art, which brings fans face-to-face with evil incarnate. Collider is excited to cap off the promotional event by exclusively sharing the final poster of a demonic being with burning orange eyes peering through clawed hands and bearing gnarled teeth. It's a taste of the gritty, sinister air of director Pierre Tsigaridis's latest feature before the curtain is pulled back with the first teaser next week.
Traumatika has been described as a genre-bending nightmare mixing the scares of possession horror, slashers, and beyond as it fittingly explores the nature of trauma across generations. The film centers on Mikey, a young boy whose night terrors suddenly become reality when his mother becomes possessed by a demon and begins showing the telltale symptoms. What he experiences and witnesses under her baleful gaze forever affects his life and claims the souls of countless others throughout the generations to come. Adding to the fear is the experimental use of first-person perspectives to bring the audience closer to the moments that scar Mikey and damn a family for years to come. It's an intense experience that, according to the producers, is not a film you see, but rather one you survive.
Tsigaradis served as both director and co-writer of Traumatika alongside Maxime Rançon. The pair previously established their penchant for intense scares that aren't for the faint of heart after collaborating on the screenplay for Tsigaradis's feature directorial debut in 2021, Two Witches, which told the story of two young women whose lives are derailed in deeply disturbing ways by an aging and malevolent witch. Also returning from the occult horror flick is one of its standout stars, Rebekah Kennedy, previously seen in a notable role in Netflix's The Lincoln Lawyer. She leads a cast that features Ranen Navat as Mikey, alongside Sean O’Bryan, Susan Gayle Watts, Emily Goss, AJ Bowen, and Sean Whalen.
Critics have already gotten the chance to see Traumatika on the festival circuit last year, between appearances at FrightFest, Sitges, Morbido, and beyond. So far, the consensus has been quite positive, with the film currently sitting just one percentage point below Two Witches with a 90% score on Rotten Tomatoes. A lot of praise was saved for how the film portrays family trauma under its supernatural circumstances and how it weaves its scares into the deeper narrative. It'll add to what has been an excellent year for horror fans, powered by blockbusters like Ryan Coogler's Sinners, bleak favorites like Danny and Michael Philippou's Talk to Me follow-up, Bring Her Back, and hotly anticipated sequels like M3GAN 2.0 and 28 Years Later.
Traumatika premieres in theaters on September 12. The first teaser will be released next week on Monday, July 28. Check out the exclusive poster here :