6.4 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
Kelly Fairchild has become a college student and a member of the Delta Ro Kai sorority. During all her life, she has suffered from a nightmare where a man is burning. She meets an assistant professor who can help interpret the dream. The sorority's initiation ritual is a nighttime breaking-and-entering into her father's department store.
Starring: Vera Miles, Clu Gulager, Daphne Zuniga, James Read, Marilyn KaganHorror | 100% |
Mystery | 9% |
Thriller | 7% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: LPCM Mono
English SDH
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A, B (locked)
Movie | 3.0 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 2.5 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
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).
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.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 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.
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.
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.
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