Taglines: The game is over.
Initiation Movie Storyline. During a university’s pledge week, the carefree partying turns deadly serious when a star athlete is found impaled in his dorm. The murder ignites a spree of sinister social-media messages, sweeping the students and police into a race against time to uncover the truth behind the school’s dark secrets and the horrifying meaning of a recurring symbol: a single exclamation mark.
Initiation (stylized as Init!ation) is a 2020 American horror thriller film directed, co-produced, and co-written by John Berardo, inspired by his short film Dembanger. It stars Jon Huertas, Isabella Gomez, Lindsay LaVanchy, Froy Gutierrez, Gattlin Griffith, Patrick Walker, James Berardo, Bart Johnson, Shireen Lai, Kent Faulcon, Yancy Butler, and Lochlyn Munro.
Initiation was originally scheduled to premiere at SXSW on March 13, 2020, under the title Dembanger, but the festival was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The film had its US premiere at the 2020 Screamfest Film Festival and its off-shore premiere at the 2020 Sitges Film Festival. In June 2020, Saban Films acquired North American distribution rights to Initiation. The film was released in theaters and through digital and on-demand platforms on May 7, 2021.
About the Story
During a homecoming party a sorority member named Kylie is found unconscious and alone in a room with three members of Sigma Nu Pi, Beau, Dylan, and Wes. The following morning she is cruelly mocked on social media. Kylie seeks out help from fellow sorority member Shayleen, who in turn approaches Ellery, another sorority member. Ellery agrees to investigate, particularly as Wes is her brother and he has been previously accused of sexual assault.
Wes is murdered by an unknown assailant and his body is discovered by Dylan and Beau. In the following days Wes is lionized by the university chancellor Van Horn, who highlights Wes’s prowess at swimming and his lost potential. The murder is investigated by Detective Sandra Fitzgerald and Officer Rico Martinez, the latter of whom discovers that Wes’s previous case of sexual assault had been covered up by Van Horn. Soon after, Dylan and Beau are also murdered by the unknown assailant.
Ellery attends a meeting with Van Horn, who is angry that she has been investigating the sexual assault. After she leaves the murderer traps Van Horn in his office and murders him. Meanwhile, Ellery has rejoined Kylie and the two witness the murder, causing the murderer to chase after them. The resulting chase ends with the women stabbing the killer, who is revealed to be Martinez, Kylie’s father. He had been motivated to murder Wes and the others after learning that the fraternity had committed similar rapes and other crimes, which the university had covered up.
Film Review for Initiation
A slasher stalks a college campus in “Initiation,” a standard issue horror offering where frat boys and sorority girls are picked off faster than you can set up a game of beer pong.
Things start off innocently enough at a frat party as coeds slam a mystery juice which one bro has dubbed “Pank Drank,” which he keeps shouting like he’s getting paid by the mention. Later, behind closed doors, Ellery (Lindsay LaVanchy) finds her sorority sister Kylie (Isabella Gomez) passed out in one of the rooms. Kylie knows she was sexually assaulted but is hesitant to report it, and the next morning she finds her social media branded with an exclamation point.
A masked killer stalks university students in “Initiation.”
That exclamation point is meant to symbolize impurity, a form of shorthand communication among the frat members. “Tag the hoes to protect the bros,” we hear the frat discussing at an earlier meeting, because “no one likes sloppy seconds.” Ah yes, higher education at its finest.
Soon bodies start turning up on campus, victims of a metal mask-wearing killer who wields a power drill on their tool belt of terror. Is it revenge for the sexual assault, an example of women taking back power on campus? Sadly this is where the intrigue and the momentum drain out of the film like one of the victims’ blood as it becomes a stale procedural with an abundance of lame red herrings. Is it the angry dad with the overly profane mouth, or maybe the creepy loner with a thing for his lab partner? Or some other barely fleshed out character we hardly know or care about?
Don’t bother trying to figure out whodunnit because the revelation makes no sense. If there’s any innovation in director John Berardo’s telling it’s the way that he uses social media on screen: text messages, phone calls and Instagram windows appear and hover around characters, following them wherever they go. It’s an evolution of the way we’ve seen phone use depicted on screen in recent years. It’s also the basis for another, potentially more interesting horror movie, the one where social media is the real stalker, the one that never gives up the hunt.
Initiation (2021)
Directed by: John Berardo
Starring: Jon Huertas, Isabella Gomez, Lindsay LaVanchy, Froy Gutierrez, Gattlin Griffth, Patrick Walker, James Berardo, Bart Johnson, Shireen Lai, Kent Faulcon, Yancy Butler
Screenplay by: John Berardo, Lindsay LaVanchy, Brian Frager
Production Design by: Brenton Berna
Cinematography by: Jonathan Pope
Film Editing by: Kristina E. Lyons
Costume Design by: Jessica Flaherty
Art Direction by: Taryn Oleson
Music by: Alexander Arntzen
MPAA Rating: R for strong bloody violence, some crude sexual content, drug use, and language throughout.
Distributed by: Saban Films
Release Date: October 8, 2020 (Screamfest), May 7, 2021 (United States)
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