User reviews

This movie couldn't decide if it was a drama about on campus sexual assault or a suspense or horror or what. The horror took too long to actually get started and once it did it wasn't really worth the wait.

Trailer looked interesting, but the movie was nothing new. Just a slasher, no extraordinary acting, story, complots, not even the reveal of the killer.

Don't understand all these high scores to be honest. Feel like they all watched another movie.

After an unspecified sexual transgression at a frat house party, a vengeful killer stalks the party-goers.

Long time since I've tested the dried-out husk of the teen/college slasher genre - and this reminds me why. Basically a Scooby Doo-style conceal/reveal plot using a mask, with no psychology, no humour, and no life-like motivation. The suspense is supplied strictly to formula, hammered home by the thunderous music, and the only slightly innovative aspect is the onscreen phone messages, which clog things up worse than subtitles with their endless 'you OK?'s.

The performances are fine, and there is an attempt to build the story in a thoughtful way, but that just drains the pace to the point where the drawn out climax tempted me to fast forward. I guess the fact the victims are all male is a first, but that's just a function of the prevailing political correctness that left me wondering why the villain didn't have a Russian accent and drive a pick-up.

To be honest, I've always thought this genre limited, but in the '70s and '80s at least it was done for visceral thrills. Even Scream in the '90s had the benefit of an awesome opening scene to offset its dreary parody. This has none of that, and then some. Yet, to judge by the quality of cinematography, it obviously enjoyed a budget that could finance a dozen better indie movies. Jeez.

It's so bad it's actually uncomfortable to watch. Bad acting, poorly written and weirdly paced. The worst part.... it's boring. It's just not a very good interesting movie. So many better slashers out there. Trailer did it's job tho and sucked me in:)

I got extremely excited by the first few great comments, 15 min into the movie, I had to come back to read the comments, just to make sure I got the correct movie, 😂 I continued scrolling down looking for a more accurate comment that actually made sense, still all I was getting was very high reviews so I kept watching, 30 min into it and I concluded that these comments must be coming from the cast or kids because this movie was seriously useless. From the acting to the murders, to the make up. Don't waste your time.

A new stupid and boring version of "I know what you did last summer".

You may convert it to MP3 and play it while driving your car as it doesn't require 1% attention.

Initiation is a very strange movie. On one hand it seems like it is just another stupid teen, social media slasher. But when you watch it you realize that the movie is taking time to develop it's characters, and to give them real issues in life. All of these things combined to make a film that was very surprising. The performances are pretty good, mainly from the lead actress. The gore is also very good. My issues with the film is that it takes a little to long for something to happen, and I would've loved there to be some more tension, but the movies final 15 minutes delivers some great chase scenes, gore, and tension. Overall this movie has some pacing issues, and some missed opportunities, but it had some good characters, good acting, good tension, and great gore.

This isn't the typical Screamfest flick. The story offers plenty of twists and turns to keep you guessing. The killer wears an ultra cool metal reflective mask and murders with multiple weapons, including a drill. There's a lot of social media so I don't recommend watching at a drive in, I couldn't see some of the messages. As fun and bloody as the movie is, the characters act like they're in a drama, which was refreshing.

It's bad. I saw the reviews, but now realize they are all fake.

It's a very boring slasher that takes a while to get going. No T&A, just subtle hints at Hollyweird's agenda.

It's a slasher that is boring. That is the best thing I can say. It's worth a shot, as their is SOME competency, but just no real story being told.

2 out of 10. Just bad.

I'm not exactly sure what some people were expecting from this movie but it is a great slasher flick. It's very similar to the Scream movies. I found it very enjoyable.

I love horror but I'm not a big gore person, so this movie made me cringe in certain scenes and I had to cover my face, even at a drive in. Despite all the drilling and blood this movie was entertaining with realistic performances. It's like watching it in real life, we know some things, we don't know others. There's a scene with Isabella Gomez in a classroom that made me think of all my friends in college who experienced creeps at a party but couldn't do anything or thought no one would believe them. The meaning of the exclamation point is phallic and foul. And it is bad because meaning's origins in the story is very realistic. The name is kind of confusing because there isn't a stereo typical college "initiation" but they "initiate" in a clever modern way with social media. I loved the meta themes of what an exclamation point is in contrast to (one of) the killers weapon, a drill. I also love that the lead character isn't just a sorority girl stereotype, she's a science student who parties! I say this is a horror movie.

The story of the film surprised me. But there was not enough excitement in the film. The music was very weak and the end of the film was very beginner. The director did not pay attention to small details, such as: How can a killer kill a person safely on campus without worrying about the cameras?

The whole movie failed because of her overacting otherwise would have been better.

A lot of movie buffs call the early 80's, the golden age of the slasher movie and whilst it's hard to argue with that assessment when you figure in that the original Friday 13th, terror train, the burning, my bloody valentine, the burning etc were all released during this period, there was a lot of lumpen rocks admist the golden nuggets. 'initiation' arrives some 14 year after Wes craven supposedly rejuvenated the subgenre with 'scream' and yet it has the same will this do feel of the golden age's weakest efforts, albeit without the nostalgic charm. Working better as a spirited teen movie than slasher flick, 'initiation ' falls apart when not featuring scenes of campus hazing and sex jokes. Blandly constructed murder set pieces and a weak script make this an ordeal to sit through for anyone seeking engaging horror entertainment. Even those who have to own every slasher movie in existence are unlikely to give this a second viewing. The only amusing thing relating to this movie is its DVD cover that features a quote which proudly proclaims 'intitiation' to be "Gen z's answer to scream" and there was me thinking scream was a good movie.

Even it seems as a basic horror movie located in a campus where sorority guys and girls are getting killed,it's not like that. I have to admit that there were some basic elements in the movie, but it was good. The kills were really good (even though the bodycount was low). The characters were good too. The casting was just fine. By the way, the ending scene was a little weird.

INITIATION is a pretty decent slasher-ish movie. The acting is very good especially from the lead actress. The gore is decent although it's not the bloodbath some of the reviews here are saying. The reason why i say "slasher-ish" is due to the fact that the film has a very low body count. The whole movie only has about 4 kills and none of the kills are shocking or creative at all (a drill, a knife, a spike). The other minor issue with the film is that they sort of make it obvious who the killer is relatively early-ish in the film. The main question left to figure out is why the killer is doing what he or she is doing which we of course do learn (but the reason why is kind of meh...).

THE WORST THING ABOUT THIS MOVIE(!!!).....is the over use/abuse of on screen texts/social media which make it (at least on my tv) nearly impossible to read what characters are saying to each other!!

I don't know why filmmakers who incorporate texting/social media posts in their films don't MAKE THE TEXTS/POSTS READABLE!!!! Way too many films do this and it's very annoying especially when plot points rely on text posts.

Starts off good then in turns into a Masked Killer killing everyone & it's not Realistic. Could of been better but is just another piece of trash.

To me, Initiation is a worthy slasher that seamlessly injects social commentary within a slasher film plot without resorting to lecturing viewers. It instead opts to serve up bloody violence as expected in slasher films while also twisting audience expectation.

I'm all for a good slasher, but this isn't definitely of them. Some people even say this is at the same level of (any) Scream. 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

It's a weak film. Very bad edited, weirdly directed, bad acted, with a terrible first act, stupid dialogue and mostly predictable (excluding the reveal of the killer, which was surprising, but not credible at all). And I'm sorry, but I don't want to see every scene displaying a text message on screen. What did I like? Blood.

A slasher where the first death (that you already know that will happens) comes at 40 minutes is a new one. And not a good thing.

Boring story, slow pacing, unconvincing acting...and overall just mediocre.

If the filmmakers spent as much time on the content of the movie, as they did on Adobe After Effects, putting phone graphics over damn-near every scene, we'd probably have a better film.

Ironically, they are some of the best overlay graphics I've seen in a film though lol.

Wants to be 'Scream' so badly...but is barely a nervous whimper.

Would not recommend.

Initiation tries to blend social commentary with decently gory kills in a somewhat ambitious slasher flick. Director John Berardo (co-writing with Brian Frager and Lindsay LaVanchy, who plays the protagonist) doesn't have a complete hold over his material, however, there's just about enough for slasher fanatics to give it a viewing. The elements in favour of Initiation include its progressive storytelling approach (in the #MeToo era), the neat inculcation of social media to disclose important plot points, and at least a couple of intriguing kills. The aspects that didn't work so well include the lack of depth in the characterization of the murder victims, a not-so-effective twist, and leaving more questions open than answered in the end. Nonetheless, Initiation falls in that zone between totally forgettable and cult classic - it's a relatively safe zone as a slasher - but as a piece of cinema, its shelf life may be much less.