"The Initiation" (1984)

Love this movie. The twist at the end really got me. The best part is how you can see all the clues when you rewatch the movie. It's one of those movies that doesn't get talked about a lot and I can't figure out why. It's more interesting than most of the other slasher movies coming out around that period.

Agreed, R1. It's classier than a lot of its contemporaries, and the film does keep you guessing. It's also just a lot of damn good fun. I love the large, weird department store setting.

That was a peculiar mall they were in. It's in Dallas, I looked it up once. It's like a showroom place for retailers only or something.

Also, I remember a scene where one of her friends is making out with a guy and then recounts some traumatic experience that felt really out of place.

I couldn't believe how different Hunter Tylo looked. She definitely got fantastic plastic surgery after this show and before Bold and the Beautiful. She looked stunning on B&B and then sadly got more plastic surgery after and ruined her looks.

Please revisit other lesser known horror movies because I love that you posted about this! This is a really enjoyable unknown slasher for 80’s horror junkies. It’s “bad,” but now it’s great, because it’s such a time capsule of the era.

I grew up in Dallas and know all these locations well. Weirdly I had never seen this until a few years ago when I watched it on YouTube. I suddenly recognized my home city!

All the college scenes are at SMU.

The above post is correct. The “weird mall” isn’t a mall at all. It’s called Plaza of the Americas and is smack in the middle of downtown, built in the 70’s, and has the look of a “70’s modern” Hyatt Recency hotel. It’s offices and convention spaces. I imagine there have always been a few boutiques and shops scattered on its multiple floors, but it’s pretty obvious many of the stores used in the film were assembled as sets. It was used a bit in the original LOGAN’S RUN film.

It’s strange because when INITIATION was filmed, the Galleria mall in Dallas was just a few years old and was a mall that looked just like this, real, and quite dramatic. I guess they couldn’t get permission to film there.

R4 I thought she was quite in pretty in "The Initiation"— reminded me a bit of Nancy Allen. She is unrecognizable now.

Thanks OP! This looks great. I’m watching it now.

R5 the wiki says it was shot in the Dallas Market Center, not the Plaza of the Americas, though they do look similar.

R8 Oops! My bad.

Yes, thank you. It’s Dallas Market Center, not Plaza of the Americas.

Oh well. I haven’t lived in Dallas since 1990, and my dear old brain... forgets...

Is it revealed as a surprise twist in the denouement that Daphne has hidden a Glock up one of her cavernous nostrils?

I loved the nerdy graduate students’s assistant in this. I think she was an inspiration for the Barbara character in the first season of Stranger Things (at least looks-wise).

R11 Heidi! Omg I forgot about her character. According to IMDb the actress is Joy Jones. And here’s an interview with her about making the film from a while back in a horror movie website.

R12 I have the Blu-ray release and there is a pretty interesting interview with her on there. She says that most of her scenes in the university's "sleep lab" were shot in a closet inside a Holiday Inn somewhere in Dallas.

R6 holy shit I never would have guessed that that's Hunter. She looks cute, but i do like the red hair more.

I watched it with my fag hag a couple of years ago; we both agreed it was one of the dullest horror films we'd ever seen. The only good thing about this crapfest is the magnificent film poster:

Nothing beats '80s horror.

Daphne Zuniga's "Oh, god, what I am gonna deeeeuwwwwww?" line after she throws the suspected killer off the rooftop (who is in actuality her father, unbeknownst to her) is one of the funniest things I've ever heard.