Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.0

The Initiation Blu-ray Movie Review

Twisted sister.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman November 4, 2016

Scream Queens may be trying to reinvigorate the kind of peculiar subgenre of the so-called “sorority slasher” film, but it’s a niche with a long if not exactly storied history. Some trace the birth of this subgenre to 1974’s Black Christmas (due soon in a new Collector’s Edition from Scream Factory, just in time for—yep, you guessed it—Christmas), but wherever it started, it has shown no signs of slowing down in the intervening years, as evidenced by any number of at least similarly plotted escapades, including such films as Sisters of Death , The Initiation of Sarah (a made for television enterprise that took a page or two out of the then fairly recent Carrie), Sorority House Massacre, The House on Sorority Row, as well as my own personal favorite title (if not actual film), Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-O-Rama. While the basic outlines of many of these films are similar if not outright identical, they of course end up differing in terms of who’s doing the actual slashing and why. In that regard, The Initiation is perhaps a bit better plotted than some of its “sorority row” cinematic kin, with a nice if perhaps predictable (owing to a too revelatory opening scene) “twist” that is kind of fun. The film is also notable for its casting of erstwhile Hitchock blonde goddess Vera Miles as the mother of the focal sorority girl, Kelly Fairchild (Daphne Zuniga).

That aforementioned opening scene shows a young Kelly interrupting her parents’ lovemaking (talk about horror!), an incident which then devolves into an intruder ending up being horribly burned in a nearby fireplace. It’s a frankly kind of silly sequence, but it also has a too obvious subtext for anyone who is paying attention, something that perhaps gives away a bit too much at the outset, especially with regard to the young girl’s expertise with sharp implements (and whom she targets). That perhaps debilitating stumble aside, the film quickly segues to a grown up Kelly, who is being initiated into her sorority through a series of seemingly harmless pranks (yeah, right). A detour of sorts to a nearby sanitarium kind of circumspectly introduces a couple of other characters, and again for those who pride themselves on figuring out “twists” long before they’re actually revealed, there are already enough clues floating subliminally in the film to offer at least a hint as to who one of the lunatics is.

Kelly’s recurrent nightmares of the interlude with the “burning man” bring her to the attention of Peter Adams (James Read), a psychology student who would like to get to the bottom of Kelly’s issues. Kind of weirdly, Kelly’s mom Frances (Vera Miles) doesn’t want her daughter poking around in her subconscious, yet another clue that there’s a bit of skullduggery going on. Meanwhile, a series of gruesome murders follows the revelation that several inmates of the asylum have escaped.

The Initiation kind of weirdly presages 1986’s Chopping Mall by having Kelly and other initiates journey to a mall-esque store where further murders take place and the “big reveal” ends up spilling the beans (as well as a bit of blood and guts) as to what’s actually been going on. The film’s screenplay by Charles Pratt, Jr. does an admirable job of misdirection, not really positing red herrings as much as broadly hinting as to who’s been committing the crimes, only to ultimately “unmask” an unexpected cohort. It’s all resolutely ridiculous and strains credulity to the breaking point (even Kelly’s supposed “childhood amnesia” doesn’t really account for the lapses in logic), but it’s a reasonably entertaining surprise that allows the film to go out on some Grand Guignol hyperbole.

As is discussed in supplemental material included on this Blu-ray, the whole genesis of the project was kind of a lark, and the original director was let go after a couple of days, though evidently quite a bit of his “artier” footage remains in the film (by design). Note the over obvious but still fun use of mirrors throughout the film, as well as the almost fetishistic iconography of a three pronged garden hoe to commit some of the murders, and there are at least some elements to this film that give it a certain style. The use of Dallas residents in several supporting roles also gives The Initiation a certain down home quality that adds to the film’s unmistakably earnest ambience.

The Initiation Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Initiation is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Arrow Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. The insert booklet accompanying this release contains the following information on the transfer:

The Initiation has been exclusively restored in 2K resolution for this release by Arrow Films and is presented in its original aspect ration of 1.85:1 with mono sound.

The original 35mm negative was scanned in 2K resolution on a pin-registered 4K Lasergraphics Director Scanner at Deluxe Burbank. Picture grading was completed on a DaVinci Resolve at Pinewood Studios. Thousands of instances of dirt, debris and light scratches were removed using PFClean software. Overall image stability and instances of density fluctuation were also improved. All restoration work was completed at Pinewood Studios.

This is by and large a very healthy looking transfer, one with an agreeably organic grain field (with a few exceptions, noted below) and a generally very pleasing palette. The film has some built in gauziness in terms of things like the flashbacks featuring soft focus and various optical effects that add additional masking of detail levels, but in normal lighting and especially in close-ups, detail and fine detail levels are often excellent. Contrast and black levels are both solid, and the restoration process has delivered elements lacking any big issues in terms of age related wear and tear. The prevalence of darker shots does lead to occasional chunkiness in the grain and compression challenges, with some chroma-like effects visible at times (see screenshots 15-19 for some of the variances on display).

The Initiation Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Initiation's LPCM mono track may not have a lot of "wow" factor, but it gets the job done, with capable support of all frequency ranges and clear rendering of dialogue and effects (along with the occasional scream). The film has a rather commendable lack of jump cuts with startle effects and therefore a lot of the film tends to play out in relatively quieter dialogue scenes, which this mono track handles without any problems.

The Initiation Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Sorority Saga (1080p; 21:17) is an appealing interview with Charles Pratt, Jr., which gets into some of the fun behind the scenes information like the first director being let go but still providing some of the film's most memorably "arty" shots.


• Pledge Night (1080p; 18:36) is an interview with actor Christopher Bradley, who recounts what it was like to be part of the Dallas film scene when this was shot.


• Dream Job (1080p; 13:34) is an interview with Joy Jones and contains more anecdotes about the Dallas shoot.


• Extended Scene (1080p; 1:07) offers a few seconds of additional footage (without sound) to the party scene (the supplement contains the surrounding footage which is still in the film).


• Trailer (480i; 1:11)


• Audio Commentary with The Hysteria Continues actually features a number of podcasters, some evidently literally phoning it in and making some discussions a little confusing and overlapping at times.

The Initiation Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I wouldn't argue that The Initiation is any great undiscovered masterpiece, but I'd probably give at least a little lip service to the fact that the film is marginally better than it probably has any right to be. While the opening scene probably gives away too much (at least for those willing to read a little subtext into the proceedings), the subsequent plot developments are decently handled, and some of the kill scenes are spectacularly gruesome (especially with that three pronged garden implement). Arrow has done good work restoring the picture, and as usual has assembled some interesting supplements. Recommended.