Initiation

This movie couldn't decide if it was a drama about on campus sexual assault or a suspense or horror or what. The horror took too long to actually get started and once it did it wasn't really worth the wait.

After an unspecified sexual transgression at a frat house party, a vengeful killer stalks the party-goers.

Long time since I've tested the dried-out husk of the teen/college slasher genre - and this reminds me why. Basically a Scooby Doo-style conceal/reveal plot using a mask, with no psychology, no humour, and no life-like motivation. The suspense is supplied strictly to formula, hammered home by the thunderous music, and the only slightly innovative aspect is the onscreen phone messages, which clog things up worse than subtitles with their endless 'you OK?'s.

The performances are fine, and there is an attempt to build the story in a thoughtful way, but that just drains the pace to the point where the drawn out climax tempted me to fast forward. I guess the fact the victims are all male is a first, but that's just a function of the prevailing political correctness that left me wondering why the villain didn't have a Russian accent and drive a pick-up.

To be honest, I've always thought this genre limited, but in the '70s and '80s at least it was done for visceral thrills. Even Scream in the '90s had the benefit of an awesome opening scene to offset its dreary parody. This has none of that, and then some. Yet, to judge by the quality of cinematography, it obviously enjoyed a budget that could finance a dozen better indie movies. Jeez.

The story of the film surprised me. But there was not enough excitement in the film. The music was very weak and the end of the film was very beginner. The director did not pay attention to small details, such as: How can a killer kill a person safely on campus without worrying about the cameras?

Give it a bit of a chance and it has an okay payoff. It is not spectacular, but is a decent Friday evening watch with the wife.

Initiation is a very strange movie. On one hand it seems like it is just another stupid teen, social media slasher. But when you watch it you realize that the movie is taking time to develop it's characters, and to give them real issues in life. All of these things combined to make a film that was very surprising. The performances are pretty good, mainly from the lead actress. The gore is also very good. My issues with the film is that it takes a little to long for something to happen, and I would've loved there to be some more tension, but the movies final 15 minutes delivers some great chase scenes, gore, and tension. Overall this movie has some pacing issues, and some missed opportunities, but it had some good characters, good acting, good tension, and great gore.