The Initiation (1984) on Netflix
R19841h 37mHorrorMysteryThriller
College student Kelly Fairchild dreams of a man burning in her childhood home, though she cannot recall her early years. Her sorority initiation sends her into her father's store after dark.
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- Netflix2.4/5
- IMDb5.6/105,197 votes
- Rotten TomatoesNot available
Trailer
Plot summary
A man burning in her childhood home haunts Kelly Fairchild's dreams, and the college student cannot recall her early years. She brings the dream to Peter, a graduate assistant in her psychology class, and her mother Frances forbids the sleep study he proposes. Far away, several patients escape from a psychiatric hospital. Kelly's father Dwight learns of the escape by phone. The head of Kelly's sorority, Megan, jealous of her, arranges an initiation that requires Kelly, Marcia and Alison to break into the Fairchild department store after closing and take the night porter's uniform. Megan also lets three coeds inside to frighten them, and the pledges find the doors locked.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Initiation (1984)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Filming began with British director Peter Crane, but after several days the schedule had fallen behind and he was fired; television director Larry Stewart took over and completed the film, leaving slight style differences in some sequences.
- Britain's BBFC cut nearly a minute of gore out of the film, taken specifically from the murder of Hunter Tylo's character, even though it had passed the MPAA's restrictions without being cut.
- The Fairchild department store was played by the Dallas Market Center's World Trade Center, which the crew shot in during evenings while it was closed; the dream-lab scenes were shot in an abandoned Holiday Inn, where a maid's closet was refitted as the laboratory.
- Vera Miles, best known for playing Lila Crane in Hitchcock's Psycho, was unimpressed by the screenplay but agreed to appear as Zuniga's mother in the film after meeting director Peter Crane, with whom she quickly hit it off.
- The Initiation marked Daphne Zuniga's first leading role, coming after her minor part in the horror film The Dorm That Dripped Blood (1982).
