In 1984’s The Initiation, Daphne Zuniga plays Kelly Fairchild, a college student who is haunted by a recurring nightmare in which she, as a child, watches a man get burned alive in her childhood home.  Kelly, who can’t remember anything about her life before the age of ten, signs up for sleep study but her mother, Francesca (Vera Miles), strictly forbids it.  Kelly is far too busy and far too rich to have her dreams analyzed.

And really, Kelly does have a lot going on in her life at the moment.  She’s a student at SMU.  She’s pledging to a sorority.  Her father (Clu Gulager) owns one of Dallas’s biggest department stores and Kelly has the key so that the sorority pledges can spend the night inside the “deserted” building.  Sure, a patient with extensive burn scars has recently escaped from a mental hospital but what could that possibly have to do with Kelly and her disturbing dreams?

The Initiation is a film that takes a while to really get going.  The film spends a lot of time on just Kelly walking around the SMU campus and visiting her parents in Highland Park.  Eventually, though, Kelly, Marcia (Marilyn Kagan), and Alison (Hunter Tylo) spend the night in that store, which is not quite as deserted as they were told.  Not only is the president of the sorority there to play pranks but she’s invited along three goofy guys to add to the fun.  Of course, there’s also the mysterious killer who proceeds to start picking everyone off, one-by-one.

The Initiation is a film that I like for a couple of reasons.  One of them is that, whenever I watch this movie, I find myself shouting, “I’ve been there!”  This film was set and filmed in Dallas and it accomplishes the near-impossible task of actually making the SMU campus look vaguely interesting.  (SMU may be a top college but the campus has always been a bit on the dull side.)  SMU is a college that I once wanted to go to, at least until I saw how much it would cost and my guidance counselor saw how unimpressive my grades were in high school.  Instead, I went to UNT but I still spent a lot of time around the SMU campus because it was right next do to my favorite movie theater, the Dallas Angelika.

Meanwhile, the department store is played by Dallas Market Center.  I can only imagine that trouble that the production went through to get permission to shoot there.  That said, I have to admit that I found the “Vendors only” signs that appeared on several doors to be distracting.  (The Dallas Market Center is largely used for trade shows.)  Still, it was a good and atmospheric location for the slasher mayhem.

While it does take a while for that mayhem to start, the kills are all memorably nasty and bloody and actually rather frightening.  I’ve always felt that, if you’re going to make a movie like this, you should go all out.  There should just be blood and guts everywhere and The Initiation doesn’t shy away from that.  The fact that the victims are largely played by likable actors only makes the deaths more effective.

Finally, The Initiation ends with one of those totally out-there twists that a viewer like me just can’t help but love.  It’s a totally ludicrous twist but it’s just so weird and random that it was impossible not to enjoy.

Now, to be clear, The Initiation is not a lost classic.  As I mentioned earlier, it takes a while for the action to really get started and there are a few early scenes that definitely drag.  The film’s original director was fired after shooting began and, as a result, the film itself feels a bit disjointed.  It’s obvious that the original director had a much different vision than the director who replaced him.  But, even with all that taken into account, The Initiation is still a hundred times more effective than it probably has any right to be.  It’s ultimately an effective and memorable slasher film.

And it was filmed in my home town!