Director: Tony Maylam
Starring: Brian Matthews, Leah Ayres, Brian Backer, Larry Joshua, Jason Alexander, Fisher Stevens, Holly Hunter
Special makeup effects by: Tom Savini & Darryl Ferrucci
Story by: Harvey Weinstein, Tony Maylem, Brad Grey
Co-writer: Peter Lawrence
Original music by: Rick Wakeman
Edited by: Jack Sholder
Produced by: Harvey Weinstein and Bob Weinstein
Taglines: “Don’t look, he’ll see you. Don’t breathe, he’ll hear you. Don’t move… you’re dead!”
“A brutal horrific act made him kill and kill and kill”
“If you go down to the woods today… Watch out for Cropsy!”
“Today is not Friday the 13th. But if you see this movie alone… you’ll never be the same again!”
“A legend of terror isn’t a campfire story anymore!”
“Gather Around the Campfire to Die!”
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As you can probably tell from the notable credits above, this is an interesting little movie in that it provided a starting point for a lot of current Hollywood talent. It was the first movies produced by the Weinsteins for their Miramax company, edited by Jack Sholder (who later directed the classic sci-fi/horror The Hidden among others), and features future Oscar winner Holly Hunter, future Seinfeld star Jason Alexander (with hair!) and future Johnny 5 sidekick Fisher Stevens in very early roles. As a bonus, this is not only the first movie I’ve reviewed with effects by the legendary Tom Savini, but also the first to have had an official place on the “video nasties” list. More on that later.
STORY
The plot, such as it is, is very simple (why it took 3 credited people to come up with it is a mystery to me – I suspect interference by ol’ Harvey). At a summer camp for kids, a group decide to play a trick on the weird alcoholic caretaker of the place, Cropsy. A hell of a trick it is too, as it involves placing a rotting skull next to his bed with some candles in it, then make enough noise to wake him up. The prank works a little too well. Cropsy goes completely nuts at the sight, and in his panic knocks the skull over. The cabin erupts into flames, and poor Cropsy runs out in flames. He’s taken to the hospital, but he’s hideously scarred and has no hope of leading a normal life.
Flash forward 5 years later. After we get a glimpse of how nuts Cropsie’s become (he guts a prostitute after she screams in disgust at his looks), we meet our group of cattle for the slaughter, erm, I mean teenagers. They go about their typical business, while Cropsie waits in the woods, picking them off with his favourite weapon, a pair of garden shears.
OPINION
While the basic story couldn’t have taken long to come up with, the script for The Burning is surprising fleshed out. Unlike most slasher movies, especially those set up to cash in on the success of Friday The 13th, the teens we spend time with here are not wafer-thin stereotypes. They’re actually quite well-rounded, and we do get to spend nearly as much time with the older camp counsellors. People tend to react realistically to the situation around them – there’s relatively few “oh, I think I’ll just wander off on my own to investigate the noise in the dark” moments – and there’s no characters you’re particularly hoping will die next.
The film is quite suspenseful, and there’s a number of extremely well-handled set pieces – most notably the now infamous raft sequence, which still makes me jump every time! The film does lose a little steam at the end, but it’s pretty decent for the most part. While I tend to get very bored during the non-murder sequences of a lot of slashers, this kept me involved throughout. In fact, it’s well enough directed that I was disappointed to find out that Maylam has done little of note since other than the bonkers Rutger Hauer movie Split Second and a bunch of motoring documentaries.
Savini’s effects are gruesomely realistic, with almost every use of a pair of garden shears you can imagine – fingers are cut off, gut stabbed, etc. The final reveal of Cropsie’s burnt face is a little rubbery and disappointing (Savini supposedly only had 2 days to create the mask), but the gore is uniformly excellent, being made just after Savini’s dual career high points of Friday The 13th and Maniac.
CENSORSHIP
In fact, it’s partly these effects that have earned the movie a place on the video nasties list. Like many movies on that list, The Burning was more of a victim of circumstance than actually deserving of a ban – realistically, it’s no more ban-worth than uncontroversial movies like the Friday The 13th movies. The story of the ban is a silly one. When the 1984 VRA passed, every movie had to be rated by the BBFC within a certain amount of time – unlike the US, every video/DVD released in the UK (with a narrow list of exceptions) has to have a BBFC rating in order to be released legally; no sure thing as “unrated” here. The BBFC ordered around 30 seconds of cuts, mainly to the infamous raft massacre sequence. Unfortunately, the distributors cocked up and inadvertently released the uncut version, making it in violation of the certificate. This resulted in the video being withdrawn until VIPCO managed to release it among other former “nasties” in its cut form, later re-released uncut.
Along with this, there’s a theory that many of the movies on the DPP list only ended up there thanks to having similar titles to much more objectionable movies, rather than anything contained within the movie itself. For example, Tobe Hooper’s The Funhouse was presumably banned thanks to association with Last House On Dead End Street, which had the alternative title of The Fun House while many believe that Cannibal Man would have passed unscathed if it had been released under the alternative titles Week Of The Killer or Apartment On The 13th Floor.
In this case, The Burning was an alternative title for Don’t Go Into The House, a pretty grim and slightly misogynistic effort that has some really gruelling scenes of women being stripped naked and fried alive with a flamethrower. Taken by itself, The Burning probably doesn’t belong on the list, but it’s still a decently gory ride.
Rating: 
WHERE TO GET IT
The Burning is widely available on DVD in both region 1 and region 2, all uncut although the R1 is a better transfer and has more extras.
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