.jpg "The Initiation (1984)")
This one has been on my list for a bit now. Despite the title, there really is not all that much initiation going on here.
The Initiation (1984)
Kelly Fairchild, played by Daphne Zuniga in her first major role, is in the midst of pledging a sorority but is also haunted by a recurring dream in which her parents and a stranger are being set on fire at her old home. With large holes in her memory of the event, she enlists the help of Peter (a pre-Charmed James Read), a psychology graduate student, in the hope a sleep study will jog things loose.
On the other hand, Kelly and the rest of the pledges have their work cut out for them in preparation for the big night. They are to make off with the night watchman’s uniform from the department store her family owns. It is a convenient way to get a bunch of students locked up in a sizeable commercial building after hours, which I do not mind. When the killer shows up, the matter of the initiation becomes secondary.
Larry Stewart has directed this from a Charles Pratt Jr. script. Along with Zuniga, you will see Vera Miles, Clu Gulager, James Read, and Marilyn Kagan in it. Some of the campus footage was done at Southern Methodist University, and the Dallas Market Center was used for the Fairchild store. Ignore the fact that the sign out front is just a banner draped over the real mall's sign.
Zuniga is very good in what was her first major part. She has to be the anchor of the film as Kelly and, later, as the murderous twin, Terry Randall. The whole evil-twin business is straight melodrama, but she makes the difference between the two convincing enough for me to accept it.
Then there is James Read as Peter. He is fine in the role, though these days I am more accustomed to him as Victor Bennett, the father on Charmed. There is something oddly fitting about the future dad of Prue and the girls delving into psychic dreams in an eighties horror.
College Horror
I have to say the college atmosphere is what I enjoy most, even if the film could have made better use of it. There is a different dynamic to college horror than to high school horror. In high school, you are still tied to your family and the identity you have had since you were young. College is meant to be a chance to put that behind you, to leave home and figure out who you are going to be as an adult. I have brought this up with both college and boarding school movies this month and it is a fertile ground for a game.
So Kelly can't recall anything from her life before the age of 9. Which is convenient since there are plenty of red herrings here that make you believe she might be our killer.
As Kelly is put through the motions of a ritual to induct her into a new social family, she is also starting to realize that her own flesh and blood are not what they seem. One could make the case for a better film that would have done more with such a parallel, but what is on offer here is sufficient to draw an audience to the multiplex.
The Mall After Dark
This is where The Initiation becomes a far more compelling affair. Even if it doesn't differ much from Chopping Mall in some respects.
For the sorority challenge, Kelly and the rest of the pledges are tasked with going into the Fairchild department store after it closes. Some students slip in to put the frights on them, and before long all of them are trapped. The well-lit world of commerce is transformed into a slasher’s maze.
Using the Dallas Market Center as a stand-in gives the movie a scale you do not get from an average house or dorm setting. Malls and the like are fine horror territory precisely because an empty one is an entirely different place. I have already argued that malls are the second-best place for 80s horror, next to schools.
In the day, they are designed to put you at ease so you will part with your money; there is music, displays to catch the eye, and people about. But when the doors are locked, the mannequins, mirrors, and furniture are still there, and the people are not. The film makes good use of it. It is something I see in a lot of 1980s horror this month: the modern commercial world can be as haunted a castle as any isolated Gothic spot. You head to the mall, and the monster is already there. Or, more to the point, it follows you there.
Jackson finds this useful for Lincoln Square Mall. By day it is all very ordinary. Teenagers are shopping, parents are grumbling about the cost, kids are congregating at the food court, and Stephanie likely knows half the staff. Put out the lights and bar the doors and it is another matter altogether.
Family Secrets
Kelly’s nightmares turn out to be repressed memories. The man she recalls being burned is Jason Randall, her biological father, which means the tale her family has been telling is mostly lies.
But the real twist is yet to come.
There is a twin sister. If you want to say that in your best "Return of the Jedi" Darth Vader voice that is up to you.
Terry Randall has been put away in an institution since she was a child and expunged from the family record. Daphne Zuniga is on hand to play both parts for us, delivering the kind of amnesia and secret parentage you would expect from a mix of soap opera and horror. She would later go on to "Melrose Place" so yeah, this is a good turn for her.
It is preposterous. Yet it works, perhaps better than it ought to. It's the 1980s.
An evil twin is a straightforward notion for horror because it is an assault on identity, not just the body. A killer in a mask is concealing himself; an evil twin can take your place. Your friends will swear they were talking to you; your family will spot you in a place you have never been. You may have an alibi, but witnesses will vouch for having seen your face. That is a more interesting proposition than someone simply running after you with a blade.
The rest of the movie is fairly predictable, though. Terry kills all of Kelly's friends and decides to kill Kelly and take her place. Not sure if she really thought this one out well, but hey, she was crazy.
Jackson, IL Connections
I mentioned already I am a touch disappointed I didn't make Stephanie and Grant Vale twins. In truth, it does work better for Steph to have an older brother she thinks is great, but is also away at UIUC, so he doesn't pop in all the time except when I need him.
But near the end of this movie, I had an idea.
Why not make Stephanie into a forgotten twin?
I would put this down as a Stephanie adventure. But as always, you sub in your Characters here.
Picture someone with the exact features of Stephanie Wren Vale making an appearance in Jackson. In the beginning, there is no violence to point to a monster, just oddities. A teacher is adamant he had words with her after school; one of the cheerleaders will tell you Stephanie called and was deliberately cruel. Then someone spots her coming out of Lincoln Square Mall, even though she was elsewhere.
Stephanie dismisses it as a joke until someone is actually hurt. The witness has no doubt that Stephanie is responsible, and suddenly she has a very personal problem.
Her first thought is likely to be something quite ordinary. She has a sister. Or at least that is what she comes to believe: that her parents have been keeping the existence of another daughter from her. So she starts to probe. She pokes around in the family records, puts questions to her parents, and reads their every hesitation as proof they are up to something.
"Do I have a sister?"
They say no, but are really cagey about it. Stephanie does not buy it. For a Vale, a family scandal is far more credible than a supernatural duplicate. It is only Larina who will eventually put forward the answer Stephanie is not looking for. What if the girl is not her sister? What if she is a doppelgänger?
That is where the story gets frightening. The copy is not content to simply resemble Stephanie; it is studying her. At first there are errors. A wrong nickname is used, or she is wearing something Stephanie would not touch. It knows the facts but not their significance. An associate of Stephanie’s might notice the smile is right on time but not in the right moment. With each meeting, the copy improves.
The doppelgänger is not so much trying to frame Stephanie as it is practicing. Its aim is to take her place. That is the true danger. Stephanie is adept at managing social spaces and how others view her; the creature turns that identity into a weapon.
For the climax, you want to be inside Lincoln Square Mall after hours. There are mirrors and mannequins and dressing rooms aplenty for the thing to vanish and come back a little more like Stephanie. By the end, Faye and Larina may find themselves confronted by two Stephanies, both claiming the other is the monster. Faye (you characters in your) is the one to sort it out. Not with some spell, but because she knows Stephanie.
In my game this would work because Faye would be a good choice to spot an evil twin.
Final Thoughts
I would not call The Initiation a great slasher of the decade. It's not even really a great slasher for 1984. The title sets you up for sorority stuff the film doesn't really deliver; the initiation is little more than a way to get everyone into the department store.
Still, there are merits, and I did enjoy the second half. The college environment allows Kelly the freedom to question what her family has told her, and the psychological side means her nightmares are not just foreshadowing for its own sake. Daphne Zuniga handles the double duty well in her first major outing, and James Read makes Peter likable enough to make the investigation bearable.
But my favorite part is the mall. There is nothing like a deserted one at night for 1980s horror. It strips the safety from a familiar place. And then you realize the one on your trail has your face.
In Jackson’s case, I prefer the doppelgänger to the evil twin trope. One character goes through half the ordeal fearing her parents have kept a sister from her. Then the good news: there is no secret sister. Too bad something else is wearing her face.
I am going to need more "Evil Twin" movies.
October Horror Movie Challenge 2026
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