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MARCH 27 VHS MOVIE REVIEW : THE INITIATION (1983)
When Kelly (Daphne Zuniga; THE FLY II - 1989) was a young girl, she witnessed her mother, Frances (Vera Miles; PSYCHO - 1960), having sex with Dwight Fairchild (Clu Gulager; HUNTER'S BLOOD - 1986) and then watched as Dwight fought with and poured alcohol on a strange man who bursts into the bedroom, accidentally setting him on fire by pushing him into the fireplace (If you watch this whole sequence very closely, it gives away the film's surprise "reveal" way too early, thanks to some awkward editing). Kelly is having the nightmare on a regular basis now that she is a pledge at the Delta Ro Kai sorority house, where she is subjected to Hell Week along with fellow pledges Marcia (Marilyn Kagan; THE LADIES CLUB - 1986), Beth (Paula Knowles) and Alison (Hunter Tylo; FINAL CUT - 1986; here using the name "Deborah Morehart"). Sorority head (and supreme bitch) Megan (Frances Peterson) has decided that for Prank Night, the four pledges are to sneak into Kelly's father's department store, Fairchild's, and steal the night watchman's uniform, "From his badge down to his skivvies". Megan has a real hard-on for Kelly ever since she went on one date with Andy (Pater Malof), Megan's ex-boyfriend. Meanwhile, three hundred miles away, someone wearing surgical gloves sets all the patients free at a mental institution and murders cruel Nurse Higgins (Patti Heider) with a garden claw (which may belong to a badly-burned trustee who is the hospital's groundskeeper). The surgical-gloved killer steals Nurse Higgins' car and escapes; the news seems to upset Frances and Dwight greatly. Kelly asks one of the teacher's assistants, Peter Adams (James Read), to help her solve the meaning of her recurring nightmare (since he is doing his thesis on dream interpretation) and cure the amnesia she has had since a young child (Frances told her that she fell on her head after falling out of a tree house and spent three months in a coma, but I'm willing to bet the farm that story is nothing but bunk). Peter hooks Kelly up to a bunch of machines to monitor her brainwaves and her EEG shows that when she is having her recurring nightmare, her brainwaves are weirdly calm. Peter believes the mirrors that punctuate her nightmares symbolize something very important, but when Frances finds out about the experimentation, she demands that Kelly stop seeing Peter (Frances also tells Dwight that she's tired of keeping a "horrible lie" from Kelly). Shortly after Kelly hears Dwight over the telephone setting up a date with a secret lover, he is murdered by the surgical-gloved killer with the garden claw to his throat and then is beheaded (offscreen) with a machete. After attending a fraternity costume party, where Ralph (Trey Stroud) dresses as a giant dick and testicles (it's hilarious) and Kelly hits on Peter ("You listen. That's why I chose you."), Peter hooks Kelly up to the machine and discovers that her real last name is Randall when Frances bursts in on the session and threatens to throw Peter in jail if he has any more contact with Kelly. Everything comes to a head when Kelly and the other two pledges (Beth thinks the whole thing is childish and quits the sorority) spend the night at Fairchild's Department Store, unaware the night watchman has already been murdered with the garden claw. Have you got if figured out yet? A totally ordinary and uneventful slasher film if there ever was one, THE INITIATION sure isn't helped by the bland direction by Larry Stewart (a TV director by trade, directing episodes of FANTASY ISLAND, BUCK ROGERS IN THE 25TH CENTURY and other 70's & 80's series, which may be why this has the look and feel of a TV movie) or the rather easy-to-guess mystery screenplay by Charles Pratt Jr. It also doesn't help that many of the murders are saved for the final thirty minutes and they're nothing to write home about (a few garden claw stabbings; an axe to the forehead; an arrow to the chest [it's horrendously done and you'll know what I mean when you see it]; a throat slitting; a knife stabbing; a speargun impalement) and the blood is used sparingly. There is some nice topless and full-frontal female nudity, but the sad fact is that the mystery can be solved in the film's opening minutes (I solved it without even trying). Not worth your time unless you are a slasher completist. This film "introduces" Daphne Zuniga, but she appeared in THE DORM THAT DRIPPED BLOOD in 1981. Also starring Robert Dowdell, Christopher Bradley and Joy Jones. Originally available on VHS by Thorn/EMI Video with a budget VHS by Starmaker Entertainment following that. A single edition or double feature DVD (with MOUNTAINTOP MOTEL MASSACRE - 1983) was issued by Anchor Bay Entertainment. Rated R. { text from critcononline.com }
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