Clu Gulager, Daphne Zuniga, Hunter Tylo

Kelly Fairchild has become a college student and a member of the Delta Ro Kai sorority. During all her life, she has suffered from a nightmare where a man is burning. She meets a scientist who can hel...( read more  read more... )p interpret the dream. The sorority's initiation ritual is a nightly breaking-and-entering on her fathers supermarket.

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65% liked it

27 ratings

Unrated

Directed by: Larry Stewart

Release Date: December 1, 1984

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Flixster Reviews (16)


  • September 8, 2009
    I had a decent time with The Initiation and it seems to be one of the better early eighties slashers. Daphne Zuniga makes for a likable enough lead, she ain't no Jamie Lee Curtis but shes pretty engaging. Vera Miles and Clu Gallagher add a bit of star power, though neither have p...( read more)articularly big roles. The film is hampered by its first hour, in which too little happens and the initially intriguing dream based set up soon becomes a predictable and not well written enough. The film chugs along nicely though, pretty well directed with some creepy moments. Once the film finally locks down into slasher shenanigans, the film serves up some great stalking sequences in a good location (mall) and an pleasurably demented final twist. The killings range from ace to amusing to merely OK and a deal more gore would certainly not have gone amiss, especially given the quality of the build ups to the killings. The eerie score helps here. The film has enough blood to satisfy, but it could have gone further. There some fine nudity in here to round out the package, giving the film a great eighties feel. Altogether, if this were slightly gorier and tighter paced it could have been really special. As is, with a good body count, nudity, more fear than usual for the genre and a wacky and great fun finale, this is still happily recommended for slasher fans.
  • January 24, 2009
    a 1984 Slashed Flix, not real good but not real bad. Kelly Fairchild has to go through a College initiation, and a band of her friends start getting killed. Mellow Blood Scenes, some T&A and its surprising seeing full shot nudity in a relative mild film. Pay attention when watchi...( read more)ng this one, when girl gets shot with crossbow and the arrow goes in chest and comes out back about 2 inches lower, that's a cut no I mean a take we just don't have the money to shoot it over, Rotary dial phones were a trip. But only 3 stars, I picked it up in a Anchor bay 2 pack that comes with Mountain Motel massacre. A rental if I did it over again.
  • November 22, 2008
    Nice 80īs slasher with some good gruesome death scene, fairly well-done and good ending.
  • September 20, 2008
    The Initiation follows the story of Kelly Fairchild who all her life has had dreams of a man being burned and her stabbing someone she never knew what these dreams meant untill a doctor comes along to help her turns out there not dreams at all but a memory from her past now on th...( read more)e night of her sorority ritual involveing a break in at her *dads* store all hell breaks loose and people start dieing but who is doing the killing? Pretty effective 80's horror movie with a sorta twist ending better then alot of stuff that came out around that time and worth a look

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The Initiation Trivia


  • In Dazed and Confused, what do the freshman girls have to do for initiation?  Answer »
  • What is the number on the shirts all the senior girls are wearing in Dazed and Confused when they are doing initiation?  Answer »
  • Yale's legendary Skull and Bones club dates back to 1832. A scene in The Good Shepherd (2006) depicts the infamous initiation ceremony. PCU (1994) parodies the society with its Order of the Balls and Shaft. What other film is based on this secret society at this university?   Answer »

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