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ACTOR
Vera MilesClu GulagerDaphne ZunigaJames Read
DIRECTOR
Larry Stewart,Peter Crane
SYNOPSICS
The Initiation (1984) is a English movie. Larry Stewart,Peter Crane has directed this movie. Vera Miles,Clu Gulager,Daphne Zuniga,James Read are the starring of this movie. It was released in 1984. The Initiation (1984) is considered one of the best Horror,Mystery,Thriller movie in India and around the world.
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The Initiation (1984) Reviews
Dying to be initiated
A group of sorority pledges sneak into a mall overnight to pull off a prank that will get them initiated. Tasked with stealing the security guard's uniform, it shouldn't be too hard since Kelly Fairchild's father owns the mall, and she's one of the pledges. She has keys to get in and knows where the spare uniforms are kept, so no problem. Someone else is in there with them though, and it isn't long before bloodshed ensues. This is actually one of my favorite slashers, a large reason for that being the creepy atmosphere of the mall at night. It has multiple levels and is unlike any mall I've ever been to. We also get a few instances of characters catching a glimpse of the killer lurking about, something that I'm a sucker for. Getting that eerie look at something out of the corner of your eye, not sure if you really saw anything at all. The killer's POV shots were extremely well-done, especially the very creepy bit of the killer observing Dwight Fairchild as he's loading his car. The score certainly helps the mood, as does some of the dreary photography in certain scenes. Daphne Zuniga plays the lead, and I've always found her appealing even if she's not the greatest actress. Vera Miles and Clu Gulager are also on hand to add some class to the proceedings. As for the kills, they're not the bloodiest, but they get the job done just fine. The most notable death sees one of the pledges stabbed repeatedly as she holds the PA systems microphone, her screams echoing throughout the mall. On my initial viewing, I didn't see the ending coming, though there are some blatant clues when re-watching.
a fun slasher film with a little class
Sorority girl Kelly Fairchild is troubled about some unanswered questions from her past. But that's the least of her worries now that she and her friends are pledging to a college sorority. The initiation involves the girls breaking into a shopping mall, but having a homicidal escaped murderer locked in with them wasn't part of the plan! The Initiation is a slasher flick that delivers the "goods" for horror fans. Plus, there's some plot twists, a few veteran actors, and a higher-than-average budget to boot! With a fairly solid cast, fiendishly good murder scenes, some tight suspense (especially in the climax), and a bit of style The Initiation is one of the stronger slasher films of its time. Along with Hell Night (1981) and House on Sorority Row (1983), Initiation also remains one of the more memorable college-themed splatter flicks of the 80's. An entertaining treat for slasher fans. *** out of ****
a gruesome film
Have you ever had dreams that were so scary that you wished they would just stop. You don't really tell anybody about them because after all, they are just dreams and you don't want to sound silly. But that dream is just so intense that it really gets the best of you. So is the premise for this film. What is kind of fascinating is to see Daphne Zuniga in a pre-Sure Thing role. When I think of Daphne, even all of these years later, I think of her as the prude Allison from The Sure Thing. But she is not a prude in this film. Quite the contrary. Here she gets naked, has blood as a part of her waredrobe and she has a great scream. What is memorable about The Initiation is that it is quite scary and it is filled with blood and gore. This is a typical 80's slasher flick but it is fairly well done. And the end of it will scare you, at least the end of it will. But I feel the film does a great job of making us scared and that adds to the intrigue for the last fifteen minutes. Check this one out. It may surprise you. Believe me it is better than almsot any horror film that "graces" our screens today. But then again, all 80's horror films had that feel to them. And sadly the modern era of horror films is lacking. The Initiation is at least a good horror film. And it is from the 80's to boot. That makes it worth looking at.
Mental Hospitals, Sororities, and Malls - Oh, My!
Easily one of the more fun entries in the later part of the slasher cycle, The Initiation rewards patient viewers with a gonzo finale and a lot of fun set pieces. Daphne Zuniga stars as Kelly Fairchild, a rich girl pledging a popular sorority on campus. She seems to have the perfect life, but she's been suffering from horrible dreams - dreams that show her as a young child stabbing her father as a strange man catches on fire and dances around the room. To make things even more complicated, her mother has been acting all cagey and weird since a patient escaped from a local mental hospital. Everything comes to a head on the night Kelly steals the keys to her father's shopping mall for her sorority initiation. The Initiation is part Hitchcock, part Friday the 13th, and part soap opera. It shouldn't work, but it really does thanks to a game cast and a surprisingly interesting script. It's not the goriest movie of all time, but there are a few harrowing death sequences and it helps that you really do care about many of the characters. Zuniga makes for a likable heroine and veterans Clu Gulager and Vera Miles offer wonderful support as her secretive parents. Still, it's Joy Jones who steals the show as Heidi - a Velma-from-Scooby-Doo type who helps trace back the origins of Kelly's troubling dreams. The Initiation is one of the better late entries in the slasher cycle and deserves your time.
A rare example of what the majority of 80's slasher movies should be like. Now this is a popcorn fun, complex, psychological slasher-thriller!
Because of the tremendous success of John Carpenter's Halloween, it initially paved way for other film makers to try their hand at that genre. The appeal of a psychopaths motive to slaughter teens through effective POV shots to the powerful instruments that are capable of executing in a garishly grand manner was further explored, simply showing it at a larger scale for us to witness on screen. That's when Friday the 13th came in, which was made to have a good time in and had its fare share of jolts and joy. Suddenly, a entire line of films of this genre type came on aboard, each learning of F13th's impact on audiences were the gore values that were shocking and nothing like any one had ever seen before. The Initiation is one of those that got lost in the 80's slasher boom, with many others enjoying the cult appeal and therefore becoming recognisable in the horror market. For a movie that's very rarely heard of, it on most levels is superior and smarter and due to its scarcity, is what I call a rare example that demonstrates to make an effective and appealing slasher film. First off, it has a complex plot. Combining more than one is an effective way of misdirecting the audience into trying to find out who is mad killer. Plus we also get to spend a considerable amount of time and care for the characters in here before they meet their demise. We are introduced to Kelly, a college student and new-found member of a female sorority, who is suffering from recurring dreams of herself much younger, attempting to brutally attack her father only for a mysterious man to walk in and eventually to be lit on fire. In the mean time, a gardener working outside an institute sports severely burnt scars across his face, and is giving a menacing stare to a nurse, while fixating on an off-screen patient staring down at him. However, one night a mysterious person lets the patients loose, leading to the death of the nurse and sets out to stalk Kelly, the repressed teenager and her friends. Kelly, seeks professional psychiatric consultations where she is under the watch of psychoanalysis lecturer and a performing practice is ensured to form a piece of a puzzle that's been haunting Kelly for years, the burnt man. As the killer closes in on those closest to Kelly, we start to wonder who it might be that's trying to kill her friends. How is it that the killer by any chance may be linked to Kelly? Is it the burnt man, seeking revenge on her family, who may be responsible for his severe scarring, a loose mental patient or is it Kelly herself, who may be suffering from dual-personalities. The situation further increases when Kelly and her friends spend the night snooping around her Dad's shopping mall and the killer, whoever it may be, has caught up with and already set up a trap by isolating them and preventing any chance of escape. Of all the slasher films I watched, I find this to be one of the better ones and it was only by luck that I managed to find this through watching various segments of different slasher films discussed in a documentary. I watched a lot of slasher films but never had it been set in a large apartment or shopping mall and I thought they would make a really cool environment for a killer to stalk his or her victims. It would be a perfect place to set a moody and tense claustrophobic atmosphere, with its wide spaces, vast amount of floors, the confusion of a maze-like construction at night. And that's what we have with 'The Initiation'. Plus, the psychological experiment on Kelly was thrown in for good measure, trying to piece together the logistics of her nightmares. The pacing was exceptional, balancing the sub plots that will eventually form into one main plot. The kills were handled well and were shot with such frenetic energy. The death scenes and POV shots were filmed in usually odd angels, usually tilting, rocking side to side in a bizarre way, that I felt perfectly captured the psychological aspect of this movie, plus also creating a curiously supernatural atmospheric feel. I enjoyed this film a lot and it being more intelligent than some of the stalk and slash cycle in the 80's, I found it to be a very fun movie. Granted there are moments of cheesiness and guilty pleasure goofiness (?), but Daphne Zuniga and supporting cast deliver and are very likable plus the razor-sharp kills, uniquely frenetic camera angles and a great deal of complex who-dunit thriller, makes 'The Initiation' a cult film that deserves more recognition in the broader market. This a great film that kept me guessing to the very end and sits as a personal favourite of mine of the slasher films. I rate this an enjoyable 8 out of 10!