Video Nasty - The Burning

The Burning

1981

Miramax / The Cropsy Venture : Filmways Pictures / HandMade Films / 20th Century Fox / Arrow Pictures / Cinefear / Thorn EMI

6 / 10

Time travel exists!  This took me right back to my youth when Friday night was video night and you'd trek around the stores to find the best deals and movies.  You had to work for your entertainment then, there was no pay-per-view or the internet.  Me and my mates would walk miles to get the right films.  Friday night was horror.  Though I never did see this one until now it's so reminiscent of the trash we used to watch that I felt as though I had been transported back in time.

This is the "Death" camp story that so many movie companies released after the success of Friday 13th.  Though this doesn't come anywhere near it does have one hell of a cast, including Jason Alexander, Fisher Stevens, Holly Hunter, Ned Eisenberg, Brian Backer, and Leah Ayers.  It even has a soundtrack by The Wizard of the Keyboards Rick Wakeman.  The special effects are designed and created by Tom Savini.

Shame that with all this talent that the story lets them down; and who names a psychotic killer "Cropsy" didn't the writers see "Crapsy" just waiting to be shouted by the critics?  Even though the story isn't a direct rip-off of Friday 13th it's along the same lines, enough so that comparisons can be drawn.  However, it's the inconsistencies that made it irksome to me.  Especially the scene where the canoes have gone so they decide to take a lot of time to find wood and build a raft.  If it takes that much time then how did Crapsy, sorry, Cropsy get there before them... on foot?  Give the audience a little respect.

There are also quite a few dubious directional contretemps.  Such as the obvious doctored still in the end "Mine" sequence.  More so with the raft and canoe scene where the actions, reactions, and the outcome is totally unbelievable; though I shook my head is dismay and laughed, I did like the idea of it.

Even with these niggling elements, it's still entertaining.  I believe this is because of the lightness that permeates most of the film.  It's seventy percent good-natured romp with ten percent seriousness and twenty percent tensity.  It's because of this I would recommend this as a starter for a horrorfest, it'll set you up nicely for a more fulfilling main course.

Nergling - Video Nasties Scare - The Burning