Initiation Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		1.5
Overall		3.0

Initiation Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman July 23, 2021

John Berardo, one of the co-writers and director of Initiation, is on hand in some interviews included on this disc as supplements stating how formative seeing Scream was for him back in the day, and while there are certainly echoes of the well remembered Kevin Williamson - Wes Craven outing in this film, some may in fact be reminded more of Black Christmas, Black Christmas and/or Black Christmas, considering Initiation's emphasis on potentially victimized sorority sisters. That said, Berardo and his writing collaborators Brian Frager and Lindsay LaVanchy (who also co-stars) don't shy away from how the #metoo movement affected this long gestating project, one that began as a 2013 short called Dembanger. In that regard, while females are the focus of unwanted amorous advances by a number of out of control fraternity types, it is actually the males who end up getting slaughtered by a masked and cowled figure who seems to be especially handy with some power tools and an oversized knife when going on murderous rampages. Initiation might arguably strike some more jaded types as being a tad pretentious in its attempts to inject social commentary and/or critique into what is otherwise a quasi-slasher outing, but that at least gives the film a bit of a distinctive air.

Initiation begins with a bit of teasing misdirection, as a camera tracks through the winding hallways of a frat house and a woman's screams can be heard behind a door. Is some sort of horrifying sexual predation taking place. Well, probably - but not quite yet. The screams turn out to be of the "playful" variety as sorority sisters Ellery (Lindsay LaVanchy) and new pledge Kylie (Isabella Gomez) engage in a water pistol fight. Ellery's real life brother Wes (Froy Gutierrez) is among the frat brothers at the party, and another scene documents another kind of "game" the boys play, namely choosing a sorority sister to bed and then post about on social media an exclamation point after the girl's name to indicate what's taken place. When Ellery discovers Kylie passed out in an initially locked room with Wes and another frat guy named Beau (Gattlin Griffith), it doesn't take much to put two and two (or one and two, as the case may be) together, especially after Kylie is later tagged with a "!".

Two simultaneous and interlocked plots then play out, with Ellery attempting to help Kylie remember what exactly happened, and, after Wes is gruesomely murdered by that aforementioned masked assailant, the police get involved and start poking their noses into affairs (pun intended) at the university. It turns out Wes was formerly involved in a sexual assault incident that was swept under the rug by swim coach Miles Cooper (Bart Johnson), due to Wes' importance as a marquee athlete. Ellery is both traumatized and conflicted about it all, which actually helps to give Initiation at least the glimmer of emotional authenticity.

Unfortunately, Initiation might oddly be both too clever by half and not clever enough at the same time with both its "combo platter" of slasher tropes and "woke" sensibility. The film does a remarkably good job of depicting how the social media age has contributed to everyday life in sometimes questionable ways, and its on screen displays of posts and chats gives the film some visual interest. But the whole #metoo subtext (or even text) is arguably undercut (no pun intended) by having it crash up against those very slasher tropes. And the reveal of the killer is an exercise in suspension of disbelief, not to mention rather audacious misdirection, that may further deflate the project for some.

Initiation does offer Berardo a good opportunity to strut his directorial stuff, and LaVanchy also emerges as an interesting on screen presence. The EPK "making of" featurette included on this disc as a supplemental feature touts the participation of "names" like Bart Johnson and Yancy Butler, but the film is really anchored by actors without a ton of feature film experience, and the relationships they create are largely believable despite the preposterousness of the plotting.

Initiation Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Initiation is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. The IMDb lists Red cameras capturing at up to 6K source resolution, and while there's no information on the IMDb and and I haven't been able to dredge up any anywhere else, I wouldn't be surprised if this had been finished at 4K. Detail levels are impressive throughout the presentation, even in some garishly lit sequences, as in the purple drenched frat party that begins the film. The many overlays of supposed "smart phone posts" also look nicely sharp and are often crisply detailed (you can see several examples of this stylistic conceit in some of the screenshots I've uploaded to accompany the review). There are a couple of odd if very minor downturns in clarity, and kind of weirdly they affect some scenes involving those two aforementioned ostensible "marquee names", Yancy Butler and Bart Johnson, but on the whole this is a problem free and nicely detailed presentation.

Initiation Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Initiation features a nicely immersive DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track that also offers some nice floorboard rattling LFE at a couple of key junctures, including quite early in the film, when a huge low register "whoosh" emanates out from the subwoofer in a kind of proto-startle effect. The killer's use of some power tools also offers some disturbingly vivid moments of sound effects. The party scene early in the film also provides a good wash of sound that surrounds the listener and helps to create a suitably chaotic atmosphere. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout this problem free presentation. Optional English and Spanish subtitles are available.

Initiation Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Hidden Secrets: Surviving Initiation (HD; 30:07) is an above average overview of the production, with some good interviews and at least a peek or two at the short which gave birth to the feature.


• The Final Twist: Post-Production (HD; 6:36) delves into some of the convoluted effects involving displaying social media posts and the like.

Additionally, the packaging for this release includes a slipcover, and a digital copy download sheet is included in the keepcase.

Initiation Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

If you watch Initiation and are a little flummoxed by the supposed "sleight of hand" with regard to the reveal of the killer, it can at least be instructive to go back and see how things were structured, as manufactured as those things may be. There are obvious red herrings in the film, per time honored tradition, but when the denouement feels like a bit of a "cheat", that may be one sign that a bit more artfulness in preparing for the revelatory moment might have paid bigger "shock" dividends. Technical merits are solid and the supplementary featurettes quite interesting, for those who are considering making a purchase.