The Burning

The Burning has the great fortune of being a product of the early 80's slasher fest that greeted audiences in the hundreds. Some genre highlights were produced from ca. 1980-1984, a time when these films took themselves semi-seriously and were moderately successful at creating creepy atmosphere, displaying gratuitous nudity and inventing some spectacular death sequences. The late seventies laid the groundwork for what was to become a stable formula for these movies and for a minimum budget and isolated surroundings the films could provide some solid shocks and gore that pleased audiences.

The Burning is nearly identical in plot and storyline to Friday the 13th. Here the bad guy is a burn victim as a result of a prank gone awry and years later he takes vengeance on unsuspecting campers in gruesome fashion. While the movie is pretty slow and the gore fest doesn't really start until an hour in it's never boring. Here's where the film is different from Friday the 13th and many others: The teens aren't merely disposable pricks who you can't wait see get their grisly demise. They're actually a pretty likable bunch, well played by some future stars (Jason Alexander, particularly likable here, and Fisher Stevens among them) and when some get slashed you kinda feel bad for them.

Now for what really counts. Two things; gore and mood. The Tom Savini gore effects do not disappoint. Keep in mind that this is 1981 and digital effects have improved horror gore somewhat but this is pretty impressive stuff. The raft scene is a particular standout. As for mood, you can't beat these early 80's alone-in-the-woods scenarios and they're all well played out here. Although there are a lot of false scares here, they're buildups are great and the creepy surroundings go a long way. If films like Psycho made people afraid to take a shower and Jaws made people afraid of the water then films like The Burning and Friday the 13th must have made a few parents hesitant at sending their kids to summer camps.

Fans of slasher films will not want to miss The Burning. Although Friday the 13th is more suspenseful and The Burning feels a bit too stretched, it nevertheless has plenty of good moments and top notch kill scenes. What's not to like?

I first saw this in the late 80s. Revisited it recently on a DVD. Weinstein brothers made their debut with this poor man's Friday the 13th done right. The special effects were done by Tom Savini n he nailed it. The raft scene is the best highlight. Lots of stabbings via the gardening shears, slashings, severed fingers, etc. It's definitely worth a view for fans of slasher movies. There is sufficient violence n nudity but the sex scene is one of the lamest. The plot- a group of kids decides to play a prank on the caretaker of a camp. The joke goes bad n the victim sets himself on fire. He is released after five years from the hospital but his face has been deformed n he seeks vengeance. The cast included future well-known actors. The movie is full of slasher clichés, wandering away from everyone for a nude pond dip, having sex in the woods, going down to the basement alone, not defending oneself but rather running helter-skelter, not making an effort to make sure that the killer is dead once its down. The movie has one very different aspect, there was no waiting until the end for the big reveal of the killer's identity, its fully revealed from the onset. The cinematography is decent with the lush greens of the camps surrounding forest n the images of flowing water.

Summer camp caretaker Cropsy is fire roasted when some pranksters try to scare him with a flaming skull. Five years later, after numerous failed skin grafts, Cropsy is released back into society with a horribly scarred face and even more scarred psychological make-up. Now he's got a bone to pick and returns to the same camp of his accident (after gutting a hooker in the stomach with a pair of scissors) to get revenge on the new campers populating the camp. Armed with a pair of hedge clippers he doesn't hesitate to hack into a dozen or so foul-mouthed, oversexed teens, setting aside special interest in counselor Todd (Brian Matthews), who was one of the kids responsible for his burning. Even though it's saddled with a tired, predictable plot, this is still one of the best of the Friday the 13th rip-offs, and that has a a lot to do with Tom Savini's gory special effects. The music score is also excellent and there are fun appearances by Jason Alexander, Holly Hunter, the guy who played Ratner in Fast Times at Ridgemont High and some other recognizable faces before they were famous. The original VHS of this film was heavily trimmed to remove the gore, but that footage has since been restored. I saw the uncut version on Showtime actually.

Although Friday THE 13TH has more fame, THE BURNING — with an almost identical premise — is just as much a classic movie of the slasher genre. It has hypnotic 80's synth tunes combined with a gruesome killer and an iconic weapon: The massive garden scissors that we also see on the movie's beautiful poster art.

The story, although predictable, isn't all that bad, and the characters, although somewhat stereotypical, are interesting enough to keep you going. Most importantly, some of the scenes involving the killer are genuinely frightening, with some pretty effective jump scares. Add to this make-up effects by Tom Savini and you have a round package of gore and horror that has aged well. I think THE BURNING is as suspenseful today as it was in the 80's.

There's no disguising the fact that 'The Burning' is a rip off of 'Friday the 13th' so I won't bother arguing about it. The most important thing is that 'The Burning' has more likeable characters and they are killed off in gorier and more flamboyant ways. This makes it one of the few knock offs that I can think of that surpasses the original. The thing that really makes this outstanding isn't the handful of actors in the cast of unknowns that went on to bigger and better things (Jason Alexander, Holly Hunter,etc.), but Tom Savini's realistic and gruesome effects, some of his best work. I don't think you really watch a slasher movie for much more than some shocks and some gore, and this has both in spades, making it one of the very best slasher movies of the 80s. This genre isn't my favourite kind of horror, but I enjoyed 'The Burning' a great deal, and the uncut version is worth tracking down for the raft sequence alone, which is unforgettable and very, very cool. Recommended, but not for the squeamish.