Like most horror fans, I became aware of Rebekah Kennedy after seeing her in Two Witches (2021).
She possessed her own unique, almost uncanny ability to project a level of menace normally associated with horror heroine royalty. But whereas, for example, Barbara Steele (Black Sunday, 1960) is most famous for embodying characters of pure evil, and Mia Goth (The X Series, 2022-2024) for embodying characters of pure madness, there is an innocence about Kennedy that makes the more obvious comparison Sissy Spacek, particularly in her role as the vulnerable Carrie (1976).
In Traumatika (2025), she plays Abigail, an abuse survivor who has been demon possessed yet is still desperate to protect her younger sibling. The tagline for the film “This is not a movie you see. This is a movie you survive! You have been warned!“ gives viewers a good idea of what they’re in for.
But nothing can really prepare you for a film like Traumatika. Potentially triggering for those unaccustomed to unrelenting extreme horror, the film is nonetheless garnering very good reviews. This is trauma horror for those who find such things cathartic.
This viewer was stunned. Traumatika doesn’t give us monsters and heroes as much as it does characters who do awful things, after undergoing trauma.