Friday, February 18, 2011

The Burning


Late nights at college usually consist of some sort of horror movie with my roommate Alex and I. Since most of the movies we watch come from the Netflix instant queue, it is not often that I come across a movie that I really like. This changed the other night when we decided to watch an 80's slasher flick called The Burning.

The Burning was written by Tony Maylam and was directed by Maylam and Harvey Weinstein. The movie was released in December of 1980. The film follows a classic slasher storyline:

Cropsy, the creepy old caretaker of a summer camp, was severely burned in a prank gone wrong. After escaping from the hospital, Cropsy lurks around a summer camp killing off the teenagers with a pair of garden shears.

This movie had all the elements of the classic slasher. The gore effects, done by legend Tom Savini, were pretty great and the kills were brutal. I have no real complaints about the movie, and found it to be above average. I find it hard to believe that the film isn't more well known. This is everything an 80's slasher should be, lacking pretty much nothing. This movie is on the same level as the original My Bloody Valentine and Sleepaway Camp in my opinion. I would definitely suggest this movie to any fan of the classic 80's slasher movie.

Plus, it has the acting debut of Jason Alexander. Yeah, that Jason Alexander.

I'd give it a 4 out of 5.

-- Chuck

1 comment:

  1. Yeah, I enjoyed this one quite a bit too. I also saw it via Netflix Instant Watch. There are some gems hidden amongst the crap...you just have to do a lot of sifting to find them.

    Anyway, here's MY REVIEW, if you're interested.

    --J/Metro

    (If you like retro action films, there's a great one on instant that I watched and reviewed recently called "Bare Knuckles": Bounty hunters, serial killers, mustaches, and beat downs. Awesome.)

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