THE BURNING
TAG LINE : THE MOST FRIGHTENING OF ALL MANIAC FILMS!
RELEASED BY THORN EMI
CATORGRY NUMBER : TVA 90 0836 2
RUNTIME : 87 MINUTES 26 SECONDS
AKA : NONE
DIRECTOR : TONY MAYLAM
COUNTRY : USA
YEAR : 1980
STARRING : BRIAN MATTHEWS, LEAH AYRES, BRIAN BACKER, LARRY JOSHUA, JASON ALEXANDER, NED EISENBERG, JOHN ROACH, HOLLY HUNTER AND CARRICK GLENN
REVIEW
An entertaining Friday the 13th clone, released in 1981, complete with funky score. It was directed by Tony Maylam and included make-up/effects from Tom Savini.
The film kicks off with a brief flashback sequence into the demise of Camp Blackfoot’s caretaker Cropsy, who later wreaks havoc on the kids as the madman with the shears. A group of campers play a trick on Cropsy, and he is engulfed in fire when the prank goes wrong. He smashes through a window and somehow manages to survive, although horribly disfigured. After 5 years in hospital, on his release, he kills a prostitute and makes his way back to Camp Blackfoot to wreak his revenge.
After the youths arrive at the camp, we know Cropsy is nearby due to lots of heavy-breathing and twitching of leaves in the woods. As the film progresses, some of the campers decide to go on canoe trip to Devil’s Creek. Cropsy slits the throat of a young girl called Karen, then hides in a canoe and carves up a load of kids on a raft – fingers flying this way and that – as he goes wild with his garden shears.
Later on, Glaser, the camp bully, takes a girl called Sally into the woods for a quick ride and they are followed by “little fucking weirdo” Alfred. Alfred watches in horror as both kids are slaughtered by Cropsy. He frantically warns the remainder of the group that there is a madman on the loose, before stumbling across Cropsy’s hideout, a deserted building, in the woods.
The climax of the film follows, as Cropsy discovers Alfred, and pins him to the wall. Another camper called Todd, who it turns out is one of the original kids who tortured Cropsy years before, swings an axe at the madman, then finally, Cropsy is killed when they torch him again.
WRITTEN BY TONY FRIZZELL
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