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College student Kelly (Daphne Zuniga) has had bad dreams for years, dreams that might be the key to memories from her childhood - she suffers from amnesia that lock out the first few years of her childhood altogether and might have to do with her dreams that involve her mother (Vera Miles), her father (Clu Gulager), and a man who catches fire (Robert Dowdell). Weirdly enough, Kelly's parents were never in a great hurry to get her memory restored whatever way and apparently seem to think she's better off with her nightmares - so eventually, she befriends psychology major Peter (James Read), who's absolutely fascinated by her dreams and wants to get to the bottom of it all - even if he's threatened by Kelly's mother to leave it be ...

But Kelly's not only a troubled college girl, she's also a sorority pledge, and to be accepted into the sorority, she and two of her friends (Marilyn Kagan, Hunter Tylo) have to break into Kelly's father's department store and steal the uniform of the night watchman. Thing is, sorority queen Megan (Frances Peterson) has never liked Kelly and thus breaks into the store with three friends (Peter Malof, Trey Stroud, Christopher Bradley) to scare the living daylights out of Kelly ...

In the meantime, Peter has found out plenty about Kelly's family, and also the dramatic backstory to her nightmares, but he has also learned that someone closely related to Kelly has broken out of a nearby asylum and might want to come after Kelly. And indeed, those prowling the department store, including the night watchman (Rusty Meyers), start to drop like the flies, and the fact that Kelly's left standing might have to do with the fact that he or she wants to keep Kelly for last ...

Now it's pretty fair to say that The Initiation isn't breaking any new ground, genre-wise, basically it's just your typical slasher with your teens in a locked off space running for their lives, and that the film takes longer than usual to get the teens there to give the leads a bit more of a backstory might be a two-edged sword as the psychological undercurrents used are rather symplistic and clichéed and hardly give the thing more depth. But then again, these are all factors that make the film so much fun. Now true, you're not watching a masterpiece, but it's a well-made little thriller with all the shocks and suspense in the right places, and a great trip down nostalgia avenue on top of that, where above-mentioned shortcomings also double as charms of this little movie. So don't prepare to be blown away perhaps ... but at least prepare to be entertained!

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

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