Some nightmares refuse to stay locked behind sleeping eyes. They bleed into the waking world, clinging like shadows, whispering anxieties that feel chillingly real. The Initiation doesn't just feature a nightmare; it feels like one – specifically, that recurring kind you had as a teenager, fragmented, unsettling, hinting at a truth buried just beneath the surface of consciousness. It’s a film that captures that specific brand of 80s dread, the kind that thrived under the flickering fluorescent lights of the video store horror section.
Pledging Terror
The setup feels familiar, almost deceptively bright. We meet Kelly Fairchild (Daphne Zuniga, in her first leading role, fresh-faced and radiating vulnerability), a college freshman plagued by a terrifying, recurring dream involving a strange man burning alive. To cement her place in the Delta Rho Chi sorority, Kelly and her fellow pledges must endure the final, titular initiation: spending the night locked inside her father's multi-level department store. It's a premise ripe for standard slasher shenanigans, and make no mistake, the film delivers on that front. But there's a current of psychological unease running beneath the surface, largely thanks to Zuniga's performance and the mystery surrounding her nightmares. Doesn't that initial dream sequence, raw and almost primal, still feel jarringly effective?
The director, Larry Stewart, came primarily from the world of daytime television, and writer Charles Pratt Jr. would later become a major force in primetime soaps like Melrose Place. This background perhaps explains the film’s unusual structure – a slow-burn psychological mystery grafted onto a body-count framework. This blend doesn't always gel perfectly, sometimes feeling like two different films vying for screen time, but it does give The Initiation a peculiar identity amidst the glut of early 80s slashers. It’s trying for something a little deeper, even if it stumbles occasionally along the way.
After Hours Unease
Once the pledges are locked inside the sprawling Dallas Market Center (a truly fantastic, echoing location that becomes a character itself), the atmosphere shifts palpably. The bright promise of sorority life gives way to shadows, silence, and the distinct feeling of being watched. The empty retail spaces, populated by unblinking mannequins and deserted displays, become genuinely creepy. Stewart uses the vastness effectively, creating a sense of isolation and vulnerability. The film taps into that universal fear of familiar places turning hostile when the lights go out. You can almost smell the stale popcorn and hear the hum of the lone vending machine echoing down a dark corridor – that specific late-night, empty-building vibe.
Adding weight to the proceedings are genre veterans Vera Miles (forever etched in our minds from Psycho) as Kelly's aloof mother and Clu Gulager (The Return of the Living Dead, A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge) as Kelly’s concerned father. Their presence lends a touch of class and raises the stakes, hinting that the secrets Kelly is uncovering might be far closer to home than she imagines. Miles, in particular, brings a brittle intensity that perfectly complements the film’s underlying psychodrama.
Retro Fun Facts: Aisle of Anxiety
The Initiation was made for a relatively modest $1.2 million but managed to pull in over $6.4 million at the box office – a tidy profit that spoke to the enduring appeal of the slasher formula in '84. Despite its success, Daphne Zuniga reportedly wasn't a huge fan of the horror genre herself, making her convincing portrayal of fear perhaps even more impressive. The practical effects, while definitely products of their time, have a certain visceral quality. The infamous garden shears kill, for instance, possesses a blunt, nasty effectiveness that often gets lost in today's slicker, CGI-heavy gore. Remember how startlingly real those practical blood squibs looked on a fuzzy CRT screen? There's an undeniable, tactile grittiness to it. The film also features a surprisingly gnarly kill involving a harpoon gun – an odd choice of weapon for a department store, but hey, it's the 80s.
The Unveiling (Spoilers Ahead!)
And then there's the twist. Oh, that twist. It dives headfirst into soapy melodrama, revealing hidden parentage, long-lost siblings, and repressed trauma. It’s… a lot. Pulled straight from the daytime TV playbook that Stewart and Pratt Jr. knew so well, the revelation recontextualizes everything but also feels somewhat out of step with the preceding slasher elements. Did it genuinely shock you back in the day, or did it feel like a sudden channel change to a different kind of drama? While perhaps overly convoluted, it does tie Kelly's nightmares directly into the present danger, giving the film a thematic coherence that many of its contemporaries lacked. It aims for psychological depth, even if the landing is a bit wobbly.
Lasting Impressions
The Initiation isn't a top-tier slasher masterpiece, nor is it a forgotten gem of psychological horror. It exists somewhere in the interesting, often messy middle ground. Its pacing can be uneven, and the tonal shifts between sorority hijinks, stalk-and-slash, and psychodrama are sometimes jarring. Yet, there's an undeniable charm and effectiveness to it. Zuniga's performance anchors the film, the department store setting is genuinely atmospheric, and the inclusion of Miles and Gulager adds a touch of class. It feels like a quintessential VHS-era discovery – maybe not the headliner you rented, but the surprising second feature that stuck with you.
Rating: 6/10
Justification: The score reflects the film's effective atmosphere, Daphne Zuniga's strong central performance, the memorable setting, and its status as a solid example of the 80s sorority slasher cycle with an interesting psychological twist. Points are deducted for uneven pacing, the sometimes awkward blend of genres, and a final reveal that leans heavily into melodrama, potentially undermining some of the built-up tension for modern viewers. It's a film whose ambitions occasionally outstrip its execution, but its creepy setting and earnest attempt to integrate psychological depth make it a notable entry from the era.
Final Thought: For fans who remember scanning those horror section shelves, The Initiation offers a potent hit of nostalgia – a flawed but fascinating snapshot of 80s slasher filmmaking trying, sometimes awkwardly, to be something more than just a body count. It’s a nightmare worth revisiting, even if you can now see the strings holding the ghosts up.