Starring: Brian Matthews, Leah Ayres, Jason Alexander and Holly Hunter (whew!)
Body Count: 9
Review:
The Burning was one of those movies that had eluded me for several years for some reason or another. I used to always pass it by on the video shelves, thinking that it was probably nothing more than a ripoff of Firestarter.
When I did find out that the film was a slasher movie, and on top of that, that FX master Tom Savini provided the gore for the film, I knew I had to see this lost gem.
In all truth, I can't say that the film lives up to expectations. That's not to say that it's not good, just not as good as I was hoping.
The grouchy drunken janitor of a summer camp is horribly burned when a prank played on him by some of the campers goes awry. He disappears, turning up in a hospital, from which he is eventually set free. Soon after, it's clear that all is not right, as the murdering starts.
That's when the focus shifts to a brand new summer camp, located across the lake from the now-defunct camp where the creep was burned. This portion of the movie plays a lot like Friday the 13th-meets-Porkys, with all of the kids and counselors embroiled in mostly sexual-related problems with each other. When the group sets out on a canoeing trip, the burnt janitor follows them and starts to chalk up a body count. The Burning came out right after Friday the 13th, and is clearly influenced by it, but for some reason fails to capture the same aura of mystery/fear. There are some good moments, and Tom Savini's gore is great (although the butchered R-rated version leaves much to be desired. I really dug a lot of the teenage sexual tension running between some of the characters (which seemed way ahead of its time, in terms of character development in slasher movies), despite the subpar acting. And, they manage to do some creative things with a limited weapon (hedge-clippers--that's it, just hedge-clippers). Still, it's hard to give The Burning a glowing positive review. Maybe you should just check it out for yourself.
Trivia: The Burning was the first film released by the Miramax company, who would later go on to finance movies like Scream and Halloween H20. Writer Bob Weinstein is one of the top executives in the company, which is currently owned by Disney.
