Trauma Therapy: Psychosis – Review

3rd September 2023

A group of people all with their own mental health issues come to The Vance Institute in order to be rid of their problems for good. Promising new and effective techniques, the institute run by Elizabeth (Hannah New) and its founder, Tobin Vance (Tom Malloy) treats everybody as equals whilst putting them through the ringer in order to rid them of their problems.

Everybody has their own issues as well such as Lily (Courtney Warner) who has an eating disorder and Jesse (Gordon Holliday) who is suffering from anxiety and depression. What leads them there is the desperation that their emotions are going out of control and despite the hyperbole of what’s promised, it’s an opportunity they can’t pass up. The problem is that The Vance Institute uses some sinister and highly unethical techniques to help its patients, and it’s just a question of how far they’re willing to go.

Trauma Therapy: Psychosis is the sequel to 2019’s Trauma Therapy. An intriguing premise that puts a set of victims in an unusual but recognisable setting. Although it feels like it wants to appeal to the horror crowd who want their torture porn fix.

Although promising a strong horror vibe for an audience willing to go to extreme lengths, it feels like the movie suffers from a budgetary issue. This means that a lot of the time when one of the volunteers for the Vance Institute is made to do something, the true horror is moved off screen.

However, there’s something to be said for a horror movie that does this kind of thing, although it feels like the movie wanted to do more than it was allowed.

There’s also the bizarre choice of having a fictional podcast fronted by Tom Sizemore to comment on the events of the movie. Something which wasn’t present in the first movie and only serves to slow down the pace.

Trauma Therapy: Psychosis does something different with the trope of mental health and brings up thought provoking issues, although maybe only in the name of shock value. Unfortunately, despite its original premise, it doesn’t really have a solid direction for the plot and doesn’t show audiences anything they haven’t seen before.

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