Starring: Brian Matthews Directed By: Tony Maylam Average Rating: Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 Audience Rating: R (Restricted) Binding: DVD Format: Color, NTSC, Mono, Anamorphic Label: MGM (Video & DVD) Number of Items: 1 Region Code: 1 Release Date: September 11, 2007 Running Time: 91 minutes Theatrical Release Date: May 08, 1981
Amazon.com: Oh, those crazy days of slasher films, when every summer camp became a potential slaughterhouse. The Burning was one of the flood of movies that followed the success of Friday the 13th, and it's more notable today for an unexpected roster of talent than for its success as a horror movie. You will note that the opening titles feature the unusual credit of "Created and Produced by Harvey Weinstein," and sure enough, this is the first feature film bearing the name of the future Hollywood mogul. Let's acknowledge that Weinstein's instincts were shrewd, since this junky thing fit right into the kill-the-teenagers trend after Friday the 13th, and thus a safe way to get a return on investment. We're at Camp Blackstone, where a disfigured loony, still sizzling after getting burned by unhappy campers years earlier, exacts his revenge on the empty-headed current crop. Among the campers are future Seinfeld star Jason Alexander, Fisher Stevens, and (in a smaller part) Holly Hunter. There's a vintage early-'80s synthesizer score by Rick Wakeman, but the real star of the movie is effects whiz Tom Savini (Dawn of the Dead), who does his bloody best with the murders. We don't care much about the teenagers, but students of gore will savor the throat-cuttings and the finger-loppings. --Robert Horton
Kind of like an evil "Meatballs" Believe it or not this is my first slasher movie, so I don't have the knowledge to give you a doctoral thesis on the genesis of the faceless killer or anything. I never really liked slasher movies, at least what I saw in the trailers. They just seemed...tedious. I don't know why, I like all kinds of genre films, some of which my friends won't even watch. I just never got into them. But I saw that Jason Alexander, George Costanza himself, was in this film and I had to see it. How could anyone resist Costanza vs. a Slasher? I was hoping maybe he'd use the old "Jerk Store" routine on the slasher, even though that hadn't been written for years yet.
Well sir, I was pleasantly surprised. I don't think this movie speaks for the entire genre of slasher flicks, but this one accounted for itself pretty well. It moved along pretty briskly even though the killer doesn't do any serious damage until maybe 45 minutes into the movie. Until that point there is some decent suspense and plenty of nubile young hi-jinx. Larry Joshua plays the musclehead Glazer, sex hound and dead from the neck up, as the arrogant and bullying buffoon you want to see get his. Brian Backer, who also played Mark Ratner in Fast Times at Ridgemont High, plays the creepy loner Alfred, a symbol of teen angst and alienation. Fisher Stevens plays the dart gun toting Woodstock and Leah Ayres and Carrick Glenn provide some of the aforementioned nubile-osity. (???) Jason Alexander is pretty funny as Dave, the wisecracking camp porn connection. He's more self-assured than Costanza, maybe because of that full head of hair, and I couldn't really imagine his character as a young George Costanza, but he's still funny.
We know just all we need to know about the killer and his back-story. He's given a quick and dirty motivation to wipe out sexy young campers (don't worry, Costanza isn't sexy) and then sent to work. He takes most of them out with some pruning shears and folks these are some very special pruning shears. They look and cut like they are made of adamantium or Excalibur reforged. I mean he slices through fingers, limbs, skulls and trees like they're lemon meringue pie. And he's pretty creative in the way he cuts them up. The gore is very effective thanks to Tom Savini and the raft scene is downright shocking and brutal.
The title refers to the way the killer was brutalized by some young campers years ago (in a prank gone wrong! How many great villains come about THAT way?) One of the campers that burned ol Cropsy grew up into one of the camps current counselors, and it is this person the killer, Cropsy, is primarily after. The entire story comes full circle when the killer uses one of those mini-flamethrowers that some gardeners use to burn weeds, to blow torch the counselor, giving him a taste of hot propane justice.
Like I said, I was pleasantly surprised by this movie and the best complement I can pay it is that because I liked it I am now interested in checking out some more movies in this strange little genre.
Good slasher film This movie was a pleasant surprise. In some ways, it follows the standard "revenge on sex-crazed teens" premise of the Friday the 13th movies and their knock-offs. But this movie does it in a way that is better than those knock-offs, and in my opinion better than the Jason flicks. While the sheer strength of the villain and the many uses of the hedge clippers he uses may be a little hard to swallow, everything else about this movie is pretty realistic. The campers aren't as stupid as the victims in most slasher movies; the final showdown is believable as well.
The thing that really makes this movie stand out is the suspense. This movie has many "red herring" scares and jumps, and interchanges them perfectly with the real scares so that the viewer never knows what is going to happen next. I would like to see a remake of this film with some higher production values, but I doubt they could recapture the thrills of this film.
As a side note, Jason Alexander (AKA George Costanza from "Seinfeld") with a full head of hair is a great addition, as is the sex-crazed, slightly insane GLAZER.
The Original Killer in the Woods Slasher? The Burning came out before Friday the 13th or did it? Its always going to be a debate about that. The film is a by the books, maniac in the woods story. I found the movie to be very boring in the middle but there was awesome killing scenes that made up for it, even though there wasnt alot. The pervert actully lives in this film! I recommend this to horror fans but dont expect nothing speical.
The Best Slasher Film Ever Made When I was a kid I would go to the video store and browse the horror section renting one whole row a week. I would weed out the ones that stood out to me, putting them away in my memory bank. Their was one slasher flick besides "Maniac" that really stood out to me, "The Burning". This film is a flawless and timeless piece of horror film history. The acting is way above par, the script is excellent, and Tom Savini is on top of his game as usual. I am so glad that this is on dvd, now maybe these new teenyboppers can see what a good slasher film looks like, and skip the remake garbage.
Let's be honest... ...this is not a great movie.
The Burning has a flimsily contructed generic slasher plot that doesn't really provide a story but does provide enough room to include all the ingredients that made this genre sell so well to movie theatres packed with a largely male teenage audience in their 1980's heyday: soft female nudity and violent, gory killings.
In summary, camp caretaker Cropsy is burned by a group of teenagers in a camp prank gone wrong and returns to exact his revenge on anyone foolish enough to still be going to summercamp. Pretty run of the mill stuff and queue shots of teenage girls jiggling around fields playing baseball or showering or swimming.
What alone elevates this movie to one worth watching from the horror fan's perspective though are the killing scenes. Their sometimes unusual settings, lingering, want-to-but-can't-look-away direction and truly nasty, brilliantly constructed special makeup effects evoke a real savagery that leaves a lasting impression.
Some may find this savagery a little too graphic - clearly many film censors at the time could be counted among that number - but they can be enjoyed purely for shock value and for technical excellence too.
Incidentally, a full step by step breakdown of "King Of Splatter" Tom Savini's effects for this film can be found in his book Grande Illusions and is definitely worth reading once youe've seen them, even if just to reassure yourself that no, they didn't really kill all those teenagers!
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