Monday, September 10, 2012

The Initiation



Runtime: 97 minutes

Directed by: Larry Stewart

Starring: Daphne Zuniga, Vera Miles, Clu Gulager, Hunter Tylo

From: New World Pictures

To start off, I have to say that once again I am using Netflix for the next month, so expect various oddities to pop up here for the near future. I don't quite know how I'll handle all I plan on watching, except that at least one entry will likely be several films reviewed at once.

I picked this out of the giant pool of Instant titles via a recommendation on a messageboard. It made things clear this wasn't an undiscovered classic or anything but instead a random forgotten 80's slasher that wasn't bad at all. The cast of a few old pros and some people who would later become more famous was also enticing.

The plot: Kelly (Zuniga) is a girl with a troubled past: an incident happened when she was 9 and it resulted in her having amnesia and forgetting everything that happened before 9 and she also has a weird nightmare which keeps on occuring. Kelly is in college and weird things start happening as she tries to join a sorority and the last thing to do before she's accepted is to break into the mall that her ultra-rich dad (Gulager) owns, while having drama with her mom (Miles). She tries to get help from grad student Peter (James Read)

As described in that messageboard post I read, the movie isn't awesome or anything. Rather, it's one of the many low-budget slashers that came out during the 1980's. Yet it's still fun to watch. The topic is about certainly is different from the norm (at least outside of the Nightmare on Elm Street movies) with the talk of dreams and interpreting them. The kills aren't anything special but the cast is fine and as it's the 80's, there's full-frontal nudity and well, grooming wasn't like it is now... it is Tylo (billed as Deborah Morehart) who is entirely naked.

The musical score is the typical use of synthesizer to make low and brooding tones. It dates things... but also makes it awesome. There are plenty of creepy scenes, which helps make this an entertaining-enough ride for those of you who like watching slashers.

If you do watch it you'll get such great moments as one of the sorority girls having a giant poster of Tom Selleck in her room and a terrible new wave band playing at a costume party and one guy showing up wearing... a giant penis costume. True story. Yep, this is a movie from the 80's where there's a good amount of goofy humor like that.

I'll be back Wednesday night.

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