You won't be disappointed!

A Masterpiece!

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

This is my review for the film The Intiation and it shall have several spoilers throughout.The film begins at a house with a group of sorority sisters. Some of the students at college are pledging to become sorority sisters with the sisterhood being lead by Megan we have Kelly,Alison,Beth and Marcia who will have to take part in an initiation before they become part of the group. The are allowed to have a few more days of fun before they are given their initiation.Meanwhile Kelly has been having repetitive nightmares for years about a young girl who enters a room to her parents and witnesses a confrontation between them and a man who is set alight on fire. She tells one of her tutors about this who along with another one of his students gives her some therapy and tries to get her to understand and piece together the meaning of her dreams.At the beginning of the following week Kelly,Alison,Beth and Marcia are due to carry out their initiation which is being given by Megan to break into Kelly's fathers department store and steal a specific item to be used as a souvenir within a time period. Beth gets into an argument with Megan and is eliminated from being part of the sisterhood.The girls go to the department store to fulfill their pledge whilst Megan and a couple of her friends sneak into the store with the intent on making things more difficult for them all. The students are all oblivious to the fact that on the same night a mental patient from a psychiatric ward has escaped with murder on their mind.I enjoyed The Initiation because even though it began with a familiar scenario like that of many of 1980's films in a house and with a sisterhood of some girls what were not a part of wanted to do things in order to be inclusive i like the fact that many of the films scenes were located in a department store which proved to be effective for the suspense and chase scenes. The film also worked as a thriller that was not a simple and straight forward as some others when predicting the plot. I also thought several of the characters were likable from Hunter Tylo's portrayal of Alison who was fun,entertaining and at times naughty to Vera Miles who plays Frances the mother of Kelly that harbors a dark secret to Marilyn Kagen who plays Marcia who was sweet and probably the most mature out of the girls and the way she tells her friends a story about her past even had me a little shocked which added a more serious tone to her character. Daphne Zuniga as Kelly played a worthy and dynamic performance too! The films production values, special effects and music were also professional for a horror film of 1984.I would rate this film 6 out of 10.

Kelly Fairchild (Daphne Zuniga) is a member of the Delta Ro Kai sorority with a haunted past. She has a recurring dream about a man sleeping with her father, and burning. She meets a professor who tries to help her uncover the mystery of her dream, but her mother (Vera Miles) doesn't want her to see him. For the initiation, the girls are forced to spend a night in her stepfather's department store. How can people ignore this underrated gem? It's not that original, but it's very entertaining, and far better than many of the 80's slashers that were coming out left and right at this juncture. The 80's were the golden age of slashers. This tends to be shoved aside with many other slashers, and I think it's highly unfair. It's really solid from a psychological standpoint. It makes sure to build up the suspense (That scene at the mental institution *Brrr*) the characters, and most importantly, the story. There was some thought put into this slasher, and it wasn't just thrown together to make a quick buck. The Fairfield department story was a nice choice for an ominous setting. It's very eerie, and easy to get scared. This was back when sororities were a thing, but this is set up a lot better than the norm. I felt Daphne Zuniga was an excellent heroine. Since her character is written so well, with a strong background, I was able to be fully involved in her plight. She's a natural scream queen, and a cutie to boot. Her character is also refreshingly unpredictable. I was never fully sure where her character was heading. Vera Miles is very good as the drunken mother. Her character alternates between unlikable and sympathetic. James Read is fitfully effective as the concerned professor. Clu Gulager doesn't have a whole lot to do, but his character plays a key part. The gorgeous Hunter Tylo makes her acting debut as well. She is most famous for The Bold and the Beautiful. It's not a gore fest, but we do get some blood. Bloody stabbings, object in the throat, decapitation (off screen) Axe in the head, arrow in the back, and more. It was pretty average. Before I give my final thoughts on this movie, I have to mention the shocking twist ending. It knocked me silly. I actually yelled out "Holy @###" When you've seen tons of slashers like I have, you tend to see most twists coming. I can honestly tell you I didn't expect this one. It's one of the best endings in the history of slasher films in my opinionFinal Thoughts: I enjoyed this movie a lot. It has a lot going for it. It's highly suspenseful, scary, and well made. It's one of those gems that sneak up on you when you least expect it. If you can find it, and you're a big horror movie fan like I am, it's well worth seeing7.4/10

An undemanding 80's slasher, The Initiation features plenty of mediocre acting, clumsy and unintentionally hilarious violence, and gratuitous, pulchritudinous shower nudity. Despite several red-herrings tossed in, and a lame twist at the end, the mystery central to the plot is not terribly cryptic, with the story arc telegraphed within the first 30 minutes or so. Daphne Zuniga's range blossoms from horrible to passable, while Deborah Morehart shows as almost as much verisimilitude as nipple. Through extremely limited screen time, Clu Gulager and Vera Miles give this movie undeserved credibility. Never straying from the patented formula for blood-drenched success, The Initiation would definitely be at home as a DVD wedged under an unbalanced table leg, if not stuffed into a slasher-completist's collection of Greek organization serial killer movies.

The Initiation is definitely one of the better 80's horror films. A sorority pledge named Kelly Fairchild is have a recurring dream that holds the key to something traumatic from her childhood. She tells her college professor about it and he starts digging into the family secret surrounding the dream. All of this is going on while the sorority she is in is planning an initiation for Kelly and some of her friends. They have to spend the night in a mall which Kelly's family owns. They end up getting locked in the dark mall with a killer running around knocking many of them off one by one. There is a very neat twist with the killer's identity which leads into those recurring dreams Kelly was having.The cast is pretty good. Vera Miles and Clu Gulager are no strangers to the horror genre. Miles was in Psycho 1 and 2, and Gulager was in A Nightmare on Elm St 2. Daphne Zuniga does good in the lead, and Hunter Tylo (famous from the Bold and the Beautiful) does a good job as well. The setting of the dark spooky mall after hours is very well done. Elevator doors opening, a killer lurking in almost every shadow, and the overall effect of being in a dark mall overnight is just creepy. The murders are sort of gory, one in particular involves one of the girls being stabbed repeatedly at the night watchman's desk.The story of Kelly and her family makes the movie very watchable and adds a good twist to the end of it all. The acting is pretty good and there is a creepiness about the whole being trapped in a mall with a killer on the loose. Definitely check this out if you like horror, especially 80's horror movies.8/10