Strong Slasher Shocker, Very Much In The Friday The 13th Vein

DVDs:

	• The Burning Brian Matthews MGM (Video & DVD), 2007 average customer review:based on 116 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

It Tastes Like Burning.

As part of Sid's October Horrorgreatsuccess, we came upon The Burning Ondemand. Hmm, a horror film from 1981 raised an eyebrow and we were on the fence until we saw Jason Alexander listed as one of the stars. A young possibly thin, possibly unbald Costanza? We were in. And its a good thing we jumped into this one because the would have only been one thing to say about the World's Foremost B Reviewers missing a B horror classic: "Ma, it's a sin."

The Burning is a straight early 80's slasher flick. Its killer is Cropsy(give them a mulligan on that one, it was 1981), a former summer camp groundskeeper who is the victim of a prank gone wrong. He gets badly burned and disfigured. Five years later he gets out of the hospital. So of course, he heads back to the summer camp to pick off some campers. There were some future stars in this group including Costanza and Van Damme's woman in the incomparable Bloodsport. In the heart of the flick, there was the perfect ammount of unintentional comedy to make this one B as well as great horror. There was Cropsy's weapon of choice, hedgeclippers. Just funny for some reason. Then there was Costanza. We have no idea if he came off as cool in 81 but watching this now was awesome. He was a wisecracking little dork who thought he was cool, tough, and all-knowing about the ladies. It was all hilarious and frankly, pushed the film to another level.

If you're a horror fan and more specifically a fan of slasher flicks, this one is an absolute must. We can't heap enough praise on this one. We would have absolutely loved it as a young Elf as we did today.In fact how's this for praise?

4 fingers lopped off by Cropsy's hedge clippers

1 iconic scene. "The Raft Scene." Horror at its best.

48 Costanza jokes

5 grizzly killings

2 occurances of someone walking around on fire

5 breasts

and 1 ax in the head.

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3.5 Stars: A Very Under-rated Slasher Flick!

As I finally broke down and watched The Burning for the very first time just recently, I asked myself these questions "How the hell didn't this film catch on?! How didn't it get popular?! How didn't Crospy become a household name like Jason, Freddy, or Michael?" I feel that this film is one of the best the 80s slasher genre has to offer. Though the plot is similar to Friday the 13th, its not a complete carbon-copy as a lot of other slasher were. The acting is surprisingly good, (with the likes of Holly Hunter and Jason Alexander), and of course, the effects by the master Tom Savini, are superb! And perhaps most of all, it has a memorable villain as its centerpiece. So I just don't get how this one didn't become a big hit. Perhaps it was lack of exposure, or the fact that the infamous raft scene cause a bit of controversy. Now I'm not saying that this film is a masterpiece, but nonetheless, this film should be right up there with all the other famous slashers. If you're a fan of the horror genre, especially slasher, you can't miss out on this one!

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Fine showcase for Tom Savini's makeup effects

THE BURNING

(USA - 1981)

Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Theatrical soundtrack: Mono

An abusive caretaker at a lonely summer camp is disfigured by fire during a prank which goes horribly wrong. Five years later, he returns to the area to take revenge against one of his former persecutors (now a camp counsellor) and the kids in his charge.

Makeup artist Tom Savini rejected an opportunity to work on FRIDAY THE 13th PART 2 (1981) in order to create effects for Tony Maylam's THE BURNING, yet another in the assembly line of low-budget horror movies which emerged in the wake of HALLOWEEN (1978). Savini warned the film's producers - including a fledgling Harvey Weinstein! - that the script for THE BURNING shared uncomfortable similarities with the "Friday" sequel, though fans may have been too dazzled by the gruesome set-pieces to either notice or care.

In truth, THE BURNING shares only a handful of superficial details with "Friday 2", including a late night campfire episode in which the villain is dismissed as an urban legend, culminating in a false 'scare' which today's audiences will probably see coming a mile off. Despite a couple of groan-inducing incidentals ("Oh, I forgot my vitamins - I'll have to go back to my cabin through the dark, creepy woods!"), the narrative develops organically from one scene to the next, and characters react believably to the escalating situation. Unfortunately, the climax - set mostly within an abandoned mineshaft - is staged and executed with little flair or suspense, and amounts to something of a major disappointment.

Of course, the main point of interest - besides seeing some familiar faces in early roles, including Jason Alexander (TV's "Seinfeld"), Fisher Stevens (SHORT CIRCUIT) and an unrecognisable Holly Hunter - is Savini's horrific makeup effects: Victims are slashed, stabbed, punctured and poked in graphic detail, and blood flows copiously from some horribly convincing wounds. Indeed, the film reaches a crescendo of horror during a notorious sequence involving an 'abandoned' canoe (I'll say no more), one of the most vicious set-pieces of the 1980's 'slasher' cycle. Briskly paced, and scored with a series of electronic doodles by no less than Rick Wakeman (!), THE BURNING may seem awfully simplistic to modern viewers, but it delivers the gory goods in no uncertain terms.

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Strong Slasher Shocker, Very Much In The Friday The 13th Vein

The Burning comes from the early days of the big boom in horror slashers that sprung up in the wake of the first Halloween and the first Friday the 13th. Looking back it's amazing at the onslaught of thematically similar movies - many of them not even available on DVD - that hit in the early 80s. Many of the lesser known entries didn't come close to the more famous Halloween and F13, although there were a number of exceptions. The Funhouse was good. Tourist Trap (although arguably not a slasher movie, but in a similar vein; also, it actually Preceded Friday The 13th) was Really good. Another one you can add to the list of high quality slash shockers from the era is this one, The Burning.

It starts off in a summer camp flashback (yes, it's Very similar to the Friday The 13th series, especially the early ones) with a prank orchestrated by several young campers on the camp's cranky, foul-tempered groundskeeper, who goes by the nickname 'Cropsy'. It's not an elaborate prank, just a simple get-back at the guy who's disliked and feared by all the campers for an apparantly violent temper (we never see what happened before the night of the prank, but are given the impression that he was quite the unpleasant, intimidating fellow). It goes wrong, terribly wrong, setting the guy's cabin on fire. The young pranksters are genuinely horrified as the small building - with a couple cans of flamable gasoline inside - goes up in seconds. Cropsy survives, but is horribly burned and disfigured.

Flash forward - I believe it's five years they flash forward, although it looks like the movie's other main character has aged more than five years - and we're at another summer camp not far from the first one. Todd, one of the original group of pranksters, is head counsellor. It appears he's trying to atone for what happened that night years before by running a different kind of camp than the old one (just what all else went on back there?) It's at this camp that Cropsy makes his return. Probably mentally unbalanced to begin with, it appears he's gone insane after the accident and the years of unsuccessful attempts to repair the damage done by the fire. Filled with hate and armed with a pair of very sharp hedge shears, Cropsy begins taking revenge on anyone in sight (a trait we saw begin before he returned to the woods, with his vicious murder of a prostitute in New York), targetting and killing anyone he can catch alone in the woods. It isn't long before people realize there's a psychpath on the loose and attempt to evacuate the camp, but Cropsy's killing spree has been well planned and a mass exodus of his potential victims wasn't included in those plans.

As horror killers go, Cropsy is more menacing than many of his contemporaries, but admittedly he's not on par with Jason Voorhees or Michael Myers. The movie didn't really call for that kind of iconic, virtually unstoppable figure. The characterization and the acting are both well done, and uncommon attention is given to factors such as the cinematography, with unique camera angles helping to create atmosphere and suspense.

It's impossible to discuss this movie without referencing Friday The 13th. There are a LOT of similarities between The Burning and the first two F13s. The first F13 was released in 1980; The Burning and Friday the 13th, Part 2 (Deluxe Edition) were both released in 1981 (I don't know which came first). I notice Tom Savini worked on both movies, and it wouldn't surprise me if a few other people were in on both. I envision a group of the moviemakers were discussing scenes for their films, and some ideas were so nice they ended up using them twice, perhaps not even fully concscious of just How similar certain things were going to look once they were onscreen. However, even if it's just a case of movies 'borrowing' from one another, it doesn't hurt any of the end products. The Burning is almost on par with the original Friday the 13th, although it can't quite compete with F13 2 (in my opinion, one of the very best in its series) . As I mentioned Tom Savini worked on both this and the early F13s, I should mention the special effects. They're very good here, although again not quite on par with Friday. The Burning may have had a smaller budget or tighter shooting schedule.

It may sound like I'm slamming The Burning in comparison to Friday The 13th; that isn't my intention. I'm a huge F13 fan, and in my opinion noting that The Burning comes close to the original, and that it in fact surpasses several of the other F13 entries (a couple of them by wide margins) is strong praise. The Burning has become a bit obscure over the years, partly because it never spawned any sequels, although who knows: if "House Of The Wolf-Man" (no relation to the recent big budget Wolf Man remake) is on its way more than Sixty Years after "House Of Frankenstein" and "House Of Dracula", perhaps Cropsy too will rise again.

A strong 8/10. Fans of Friday The 13th and similar horror, give this one a try - I don't think you'll be disappointed.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

No Description Available.
Genre: Horror
Rating: NR
Release Date: 11-SEP-2007
Media Type: DVD

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