Home Entertainment: ‘Initiation’ digital review

Later this year, we will be lucky enough to watch both Halloween Kills and Scream 5 as both iconic slasher series return to cinemas. With an appetite clearly still there for the horror sub-genre, new filmmakers with their own spins are entering the arena. One such filmmaker is John Berardo, his film Initiation presents a new version of established conventions. Based on his short film Dembanger, Initiation plays out at Whiton University as a group of college students are hunted by a menacing, and social media savvy, killer. 

Following a similar social commentary to the latest iteration of Black Christmas, Initiation filters itself through the #metoo movement, taking aim at the horrible statistics of campus sexual assaults. Events begin at a fraternity party where everyone is having fun until sorority head Ellery (Lindsay LaVanchy ) discovers one of her pledges behind a locked door, alone with two fraternity members. The next morning the girl is certain that something untoward happened. Ellery is then faced with a dilemma as one of the boys in the room was her brother, Wes (Froy Gutierrez). But Ellery isn’t the only one watching, and a wave of deaths soon rip through the campus.

A very modern movie, Initiation relies heavily on the use of social media to tell the story. We have become a cyber society and the move makes sense with just as many character interactions happening via digital message as in person. The introduction of phones and the technology they house is no new thing, but Berardo manages to make these text-heavy sequences far more dynamic than most. Instead of training the camera over-the-shoulder of our characters so that we can see their screen, Berardo instead projects the message up onto the screen, imposing it over the top, and around the characters. A welcome and kinder on the eyes method of device storytelling, the move of having the messages float around and follow our characters is also a clear comment on the all-consuming suffocating claustrophobia that the digital world has imposed upon us. 

If you’re making a slasher movie, your villain needs to have his or her identity hidden for the majority (or entirety depending on the film) of the run-time. This narrative device necessitates an interesting mask or costume. So what is the correct slasher villain attire for the current generation? Well here, Berardo presents a hoodie-clad, reflective mask wearing, silent assassin with a love of texting. It’s a look that doesn’t exactly strike fear into the heart, but certainly manages to appear strange and ominous. The other key ingredient for a slasher is how the deaths play out. Any good slasher will have a handful of inventive kills and Initiation sticks to that tradition offering some very inspired methods of mangling its victims. 

The overall story isn’t as tight or together as some of the slasher greats however, Initiation playing close to conventions here, meaning those familiar with the sub-genre will be able to predict the end early on. Those who grew up reading the Point Horror series of books, the Nightmare Hall series in particular, will be especially familiar with some of the plot. Fortunately for Berardo, there are just enough points of difference in terms of social commentary and kills to ensure viewer engagement and prevent the film from slipping off into the void of bad slasher.

If we were to compare Initiation to a pre-established slasher, the film would share more DNA with Urban Legend than Scream. It’s not quite as revolutionary as Wes Craven and Kevin Williamson’s kill-fest, but similar to Urban Legend, it has enough of its own ideas to hold its own amongst its older peers. A perfectly perfunctory and modern entry into one of horror’s most enduring sub-genres, Initiation introduces some new ways of thinking and just enough interest to rouse intrigue in further exploration.    

Signature Entertainment presents Initiation on DVD and Digital Platforms 24th May.