The Initiation Movie Review 445

The Initiation is a 1984 horror movie directed by Larry Stewart and starring Daphne Zuniga, Vera Miles and James Read.

Kelly Fairchild(Zuniga) is in college and she is going to join a sorority. She and her pals want to be in the sorority and they have to be pledges and go through an initiation first. The sorority sisters have a challenge for them and one of them Megan is a real bitch. She tells Kelly that she and her pals have to break into Kelly's dads department store and steal the night watchman's uniform and bring it to her.
There is a side story about patients breaking out of a mental institution. Kelly's parents, Frances(Miles) and her husband Dwight(Clu Gulager) are called by the institution to let them know and this hints that there is something fishy going on.

Meanwhile, at college, Kelly meets Peter(Read) who is a graduate assistant and she tells him about her weird dreams. He is interested in delving into it and he asks her to come to his small lab where he can run some tests. Her mother isn't too happy about Kelly telling Peter about her nightmares and she tells her that she should stay away from him. Kelly won't do it. She heads off to break into the department store. Her dad, Dwight, gets killed as he goes out to his car. The three pals go to the store and meet Megan who tells them that they have to do it in an hour. What they don't know is that the night watchman is dead. He has been killed. They think that he is in the store somewhere and Kelly goes to get a spare uniform to give to Megan.

Megan has ideas of her own and she gets two guy friends to scare the girls. So, this begins the killings which always happen in these movies. The girls begin to get killed and the guys too. The killer is prowling around in the store, killing at will. Kelly ends up being the only one left. Peter has been investigating Kelly's dreams and he sees an article about a guy called Jason Randall who is actually Kelly's real dad. He came home and saw his wife Frances with Dwight and there was a fight. Jason got burned and Kelly witnessed it all and that is why she can't remember her past. Her dad ended up in the institution while Dwight married Frances and pretended that he was her dad. Messed up!!! Of course, now we know why Frances got a phone call from the place. Jason is on the loose!!!

Back to Kelly and she tries to escape the killer who is stalking her. She sees Jason and she thinks that he is the killer and they end up on the roof where they have an argument.She ends up pushing him off and he dies. Peter arrives and sees Kelly but it isn't Kelly. It is her twisted twin who has broken out of the institution too(Yes this is the plot!!!) She stabs Peter and then she tries to kill Kelly. Jason had been following the twin and trying to cleaning up after her. Frances turns up and shoots her dead. Peter gets taken away and Kelly is left to look at her mother and wonder what the hell is going on.

This was a fun movie. I liked it. The plot had some twists and turns and the ending was a bit silly, but all in all, it is an entertaining 80's slasher movie and one that I had not seen until recently. If you enjoy slashers, like me, then this is a good way to spend an hour and a half. It is watchable and there are some good scenes in the department store as the kids get killed. This is worth a look if you like the sound of it. I recommend it. I will give it a 5/10.