Sunday, September 25, 2011

The Burning (1981)


Director: Tony Maylam

Starring: Brian Matthews, Leah Ayres, Brian Backer, Larry Joshua, Jason Alexander, Ned Eisenberg, Fisher Stevens, Holly Hunter

More info: IMDb

Tagline: Gather Around the Campfire to Die!

Plot: A janitor at a summer camp is accidently burned severely from a prank. Years later, he is released from an institute, and returns to the camp with a pair of hedge clippers to take revenge on the campers.



My rating: 5.5/10

Will I watch it again? No.

#243 on Drive-In Delirium Volume 1 (part of the TRAILER TRASH PROJECT)

Maybe I had higher hopes for this but it left me disappointed. It's a summer camp killer in the woods slasher but the difference between this one and others is the characters are more likable (it's fun watching a young Jason Alexander and Holly Hunter) and the killer uses the same weapon for every kill, gardening shears. The kills are OK and most are uninspired which surprised me because I got all kinds of excited seeing Tom Savini's name in the opening credits. While they might have been lacking, the gore and makeup effects for the bodies themselves were fantastic. As with many movies in this genre there's a pacing problem. At an hour and a half it felt like two hours at least. I will give this flick points for giving me the desire to go camping. I haven't done that in an awful long time. Maybe I'll run across some teenagers that need to be taught a lesson. Bwahahahaha.

1 comment:

  1. I love this movie (I've seen it at least a dozen times). Much better than Friday the 13th and most other 80's slashers. I wish that there had ben at least one sequel and the soundtrack kicks ass. They sure don't make them like they used to.

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