The Burning

The Burning (1981)

Directed by: Tony Maylem

Starring: Brian Matthews, Leah Ayres, and Brian Backer

Other Actors of Note: Jason Alexander, Holly Hunter, Fisher Stevens

Plot:Cropsy, an alcoholic, sadistic caretaker for the summer camp called Camp Blackfoot is prank-ed by a group of camp-going boys who felt it was necessary to 'get him back'. The prank goes wrong and Cropsy is left in a hospital for five years, yet to no avail Cropsy is left to go back out into the world again but this time he is a changed individual inside and outside. Cropsy, back in society again for the first time in five years, feels more than obligated to pay a visit to some individuals at a place called Camp StoneWater, just across the way from his old stomping grounds...Taken from www.imdb.com.

"I am Murray, the invincible demonic skull! "

80s slasher movies are really a dime a dozen, an easy way of making a buck after "Friday the 13th" came out, everybody tried their hand at these damn things. What's worse is most of them were just gigantic piles of shit. Except "The Burning."

"The Burning" was the first film by Bob and Harvey Weinstein. Sure it was a cheap cash-in on the popularity of the "big guy with knife stabs naked chick" sub-genre but it was one that was well put together.

"The Burning" tells the tale of Cropsy, a prickish grounds keeper at Camp Blackwood who is so much of a likeable guy that the kids decide to play a little trick on him. Unfortunately this trick involves fire and Cropsy sleeps in a building that has a lot of gasoline cans in near vicinity to his bed. So Cropsy busts out of his shack engulfed in flames and tumbles down a hill into the lake.

So he gets taken to the hospital and the burns have apparently turned him into a mutant looking freak. Fast forward to five years later, Cropsy is released from the hospital and shows that he doesn't hold a grudge by stabbing a dumpy hooker with some scissors and heading off into the woods for bloody revenge.

Now in another camp across the lake from the burnt ruins of Camp Blackwood we meet our characters, none of them more important than the other in all reality. They then head out on a two day canoe trip and the magic begins.

"Hey, aren't you that guy from 'Seinfeld?'"

The acting in this film is far better than acting in any 80s movie should ever be. There's no simple line recetation, no characters that feel too fake. Every member of the cast does a wonderful job, so good that I actually have no specific mention of any one person who outshines any of the others. These kids seem exactly like, well, kids. They act naturally and realistically, there's no hokey lines or over the top scenes, it's all real and natural and the entire cast has great chemistry.

Of note are the first ever movie appearances of 3 soon to be popular actors: Holly Hunter (of "Raising Arizona" and "The Incredibles"), Jason Alexander (of "Seinfeld" and "Duckman") and Fisher Stevens (The only thing you're gonna remember him as is "the Indian guy" from the "Short Circuit" movies) and all 3 are wonderful in their roles.

Cropsy's attempts at filming a biography of the life of "Metallica" front man James Hetfield tragically never got past the August 1992 scene.

The effects in this movie (done by effects master Tom Savini) greatly overshadow those that he did in "Friday the 13th" only one year earlier, but it's not just the special effects that shine here, the cinematography is wonderful as well. The way the murder scenes are cut hearkens back to "Psycho" (Only you do see the outcome of the stabbing/cutting obviously.)

One particular scene, known in many circles as "The Infamous Raft Scene", is easily one of the most memorable horror movie kills you will ever see. The moment Cropsy stands up and raises those hedge clippers above his head the hairs will stand up on the back of your neck and send a chill down your spine.

Also, all of the killing (which doesn't properly start until almost an hour into the film) is done in the daylight. All of the murders are done in direct sunlight leaving no shadows or fog to obscure things, it's this detail that makes "The Burning" especially scary, it doesn't rely on the fear of the darkness trick that most other slashers do and still manages to have as much if not more impact than any of those movies.

The film's score, done by "Yes" keyboardist Rick Wakeman, is a bizarre mix of bluegrass and synthesized music that either creeps you out or makes you feel like you're playing "Castlevania" (sometimes both!) but fits the film perfectly and is easily better than the score for most films of the period and sub-genre.

You found hedge clippers! *cue victory fanfare*

I turned on this movie expecting some run-of-the-mill b-movie with a shoestring budget and a horrible storyline. But the storyline, written by Harvey Weinstein is a well thought out work based on a camp fire story told in New Jersey and New York campsites to this day works well as a horror film, easily fitting into a fairly realistic setting.

Originally most of the better effects used during the raft massacre and at a few other parts were cut out of the original version of the film by the MPAA, but the new DVD released fairly recently is the full uncut movie in all its splendor.

"Oh no! Somebody cut the fingers off this fake plastic hand!"

"The Burning" is just a well put together movie and a truly under-rated classic, it's horror the way it should be done and its easy to see how it helped launch several careers. It's great in story, effects, music, acting, and cinematography. A true lost classic.

I give "The Burning" a 5 out of 5, this deserves a place in your collection.