La iniciación

This is one of those slasher films from the 80's that I love to watch. When it comes to good horror ideas, nothing gets better than a bunch of sorority girls being killed at a mall after midnight.

There are few things in this movie that are funny. It's mostly scary. And it has a nice twist at the ending. Rent it a your video store; if you can find it.

Allright so "The Initiation" isn't on the same level as "Carrie", "The Stepford Wives" or "Rosemary's Baby" but it is very good compared to other sorrority girl movies like "Blood Sisters." The Initiation is fun, fast paced, and has a great cast including Vera Miles (PSYCHO), Clu Gulager(A Nightmare on Elm Street 2) and Daphne Zuniga(Melrose Place) Not oscarworthy but deffinetly allright

(**1/2 out of *****) This okay slasher thriller tries to offer more than the standard slice-and-dice affair by having as its main character a young college student (Daphne Zuniga, a year after her cameo in the wretched "The Dorm That Dripped Blood") who is traumatized by an event in her past that caused her to forget everything up through age ten. From the opening scene, we already have a pretty good idea of the surprise involving the girl's secretive parents (played by Clu Gulager -- excellent in "Return of the Living Dead," but just mediocre here -- and Vera Miles from "Psycho"), but there's another twist at the very end that, in spite of some clunky hints here and there, is impossible to see coming (it's hardly fair, but it still provides a bit of a jolt.) With all the background and character development out of the way in the first half hour or so, we finally get to the more-familiar second half, where a group of sorority babes (including Zuniga) and frat boys break into a department building at night as part of an initiation stunt and are subsequently killed off by a maniac who uses a variety of gardening tools and other sharp objects. People are shot with arrows, shot with guns, shot with spears, stabbed, axed, and decapitated until the surprise killer is finally revealed (and it's probably not who you think.) Gaping plot holes abound, but, all in all, this one isn't too bad (and, besides, you're not supposed to pay attention to that kinda stuff in these kindsa movies anyway.)

HIGHLIGHT: The pretty, blonde sorority girl happens to be holding the public address intercom microphone when she is attacked at the security guard's booth, and her shrieks echo throughout the entire building.

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.

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.