Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #92348 in DVD
• Released on: 2002-09-10
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: Color, DVD, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 97 minutes

Customer Reviews

Better than it should be
The Initiation should be a horrible movie, but for some reason it isn't. The whole is better than the parts. We have all the stereotypes, we have college kids, angst-ridden wealthy kids, recurring nightmares, and big fat flopping red herrings. There's also some pretty borderline acting, even from people you have actually heard of.

So why four stars? The movie just works for some reason. Somehow the blantant red herrings, in-your-face clues, etc still leave you surprised when the "shocking" twist ending is revealed. Or, maybe I am just an idiot... but all the people I have watched it with never saw it coming either.

Half of the movie takes place in a huuuuuge mall at night. The mall provides endless hiding spaces for the killer (or killers?) to wait and pounce from. The gore effects are really top notch. The attacks come quickly and viciously and look quite real. Even though the mall is huge, there is a claustrophobic feel since the principle characters are locked in without a real way of getting away from their attacker.

Veteran actors Clu Gulager and Vera Miles add some weight to the light, early career performances of Daphne Zuniga (Spaceballs, The Sure Thing, Melrose Place), Hunter Tylo (The Bold and the Beautiful), and brief talkshow host Marilyn Kagan.

The DVD I bought was the Initiation-only version whose only feature was a theatrical trailer. There is now a double-feature DVD that contains The Initiation AND The Mountaintop Motel Massacre. I haven't seen that movie, but you might as well buy it instead and get an extra movie out of the deal. You certainly won't be sacrificing any special features. But, again, this movie is good. There are lots of things to pick it apart over, but as a whole, it delivers.

Dull beginning, pretty entertaining second half.
The Initiation is another one of those sorority-type slasher films where a group of girls are offed one-by-one by a deranged killer. The catch in this one is that it's set in a huge department store. Fun times? You bet, well, at least once they get into that store. Before that, this one's a snoozer.

The opening does set up an intriguing premise, with Daphne Zuniga constantly having a dream in which she's a young child watching her father fighting another man. After that, the film bogs down quite a bit with repetitive hypnosis scenes, and at least one of the twists involving her dreams is entirely predictable, so for the first half, the film hasn't done much at all.

But then, cut to the second half, once the girls break into the department store, and are knocked off one-by-one by the killer, and the film suddenly turns from sluggish to suspenseful. The kill scenes are built up quite well with plenty of blood, there are a few good jump-in-your-seat shocks, and it's nice to see I couldn't quite guess who would die in what order. The huge mall works extremely well in the movie's favor, making for a fairly complex setting in which the killer could be hiding anywhere.

There are even two scenes of gratuitous nudity, provided by none other than goregous soap star Hunter Tylo (credited here as Deborah Morehart), who happens to look even hotter now then she did 18 years ago! Unfortunately, the film stars Daphne Zuniga, who makes for a very flat heroine. I've heard many describe her as a talented actress, but I just don't see it. The rest of the performances are pretty standard, not even Vera Miles or Clu Gulager stand out.

The big plot twist at the end is pretty ludicrous, but I happen to like absurd twists in slashers (to an extent and depending on the situation), and at least it ties in believably with the opening. Had the rest of the film been as entertaining as the last thirty-five or so minutes, The Initiation would have been one truly nifty little slasher. As it is, the film is simply middling.
** 1/2 out of *****

Initiation
1980's teen-slasher flick that is pretty ordinary fare.The only novelty values in this film are a young pre-fame Daphne Zuniga (Melrose Place) and a young pre-fame Hunter Tylo (The Bold and the Beautiful).While the film is probabaly a forgotten past on the ladder up for both ladies it is Hunter Tylo who now campaigns for christian values who desperately tries to forget the film more.Hunter has the all-important vital role of - The pretty girl who takes off all her clothes in front of the cameraman takes a shower in front of him and then gets out and dries herself in front of him just in case the eager teen male moviegoer missed her completely nude body the first times around - .Oh the joy of hollywood!!