The Burning
(1981) 91 min
Rated: R (gore, nudity)
Country: USA
Director: Tony Maylam
Starring: Brian Matthews, Leah Ayres, Brian Backer
Links: IMDB | Wikipedia
Rating: ★★★☆☆
The caretaker of a summer camp gets horribly burned in a prank gone wrong and seeks revenge on camp kids.
Synopsis:
One night at Camp Blackfoot five teens decide to play a prank on Cropsy the caretaker. They plant a worm-riddled skull with candles in it’s eyes near his bed. As they wake him up, Cropsy is startled by the sight and knocks the candles onto his bedsheets as well as a can of gasoline. Cropsy is set ablaze and runs out of his shack at the camp.
Five years later, after several failed skin grafts, Cropsy is released from St. Catherine’s Hospital. He wanders the streets in a seedy part of town until he meets a prostitute who takes him up to her room. He chokes her against a window and stabs her with some scissors, killing her.
Cropsy starts to lurk at Camp Stonewater. A girl named Tiger retrieves a softball in the woods and narrowly avoids getting stabbed by Cropsy.
Later while a girl named Sally is scared by fellow camper Alfred while in the girl’s shower. Camp counselors Michelle and Todd talk to Alfred. Todd learns that Alfred has no friends at the camp and was only trying to pull a prank on Sally and scare her. Sally’s boyfriend Glazer confronts Alfred. Todd steps in and tells Glazer to leave Alfred alone.
Later at the lake, Glazer pushes Alfred into the lake. The other boys try to help Alfred as he can’t swim. Glazer, meanwhile, goes to flirt with the girls. As Glazer is flirting with the girls, the boys shoot Glazer in his ass with a pellet gun.
Later at night Alfred sees the face of Cropsy in a window of the boy’s cabin but no one believes him.
The next day everyone goes canoeing and as they camp overnight Todd tells the story of Camp Blackfoot that is across the lake from Camp Stonewater. How Cropsy was an evil drunk and got burned by a prank gone wrong. At the end of the story, camper Eddy appears with a mask on and scares the rest of the campers.
Eddy and Karen wander off alone and decide to skinny dip in nearby water. As they start to make out, Karen gets reluctant and Eddy gets angry at her. Karen gets out of the water but her clothes are scattered so she starts to collect her clothes as she wanders in the woods. As she wanders Karen is attacked by Cropsy and has her throat slashed, killing her.
The next morning counselors Todd and Michelle ask Eddy about Karen but he tells them he assumed she went back to camp. The other campers find that the canoes are gone and Michelle assumes that Karen took a canoe back to Camp Stonewater. Todd directs the other campers to gather wood so they can build a raft.
After a raft is built some of the campers are sent back with Eddy and Woodstock. The raft approaches a canoe which they assume to be one of their lost canoes. As they try to grab it Cropsy jumps out of the canoe and starts stabbing and maiming all of the kids on the raft.
Night falls on the creek. Sally and Glazer attempt to have sex but Glazer has premature ejaculation. Glazer promises to get some matches so he can build a fire for Sally. As he leaves, Cropsy attacks Sally and stabs her in the chest.
When Glazer returns with matches and kindling, he checks on Sally in her sleeping bag. Cropsy stabs Glazer in the neck from beneath the sleeping bag.
Alfred witnesses Glazer getting killed and runs back to wake up Todd. Todd doesn’t believe Alfred at first but then decides to check on Sally and Glazer. Todd finds Glazer stabbed through the throat but then gets hit by Cropsy’s shears. Cropsy then chases Alfred through the woods.
Todd wakes up and goes to find the others. He spots them at the creek just as Michelle is swimming out to the raft that has floated back to the camp carrying the dead campers. She is horrified by the dead bodies on board.
Todd sends Michelle and some of the kids back out on the raft to get help. Michelle is able to get to the main camp and informs the supervisor that there’s a killer in the woods.
Alfred has run to the ruins of an abandoned mine. Cropsy captures Alfred and ties him to a wall, pinning his arm to the wall with the shears. Todd runs towards the sound of Alfred’s screams. Cropsy lights a flamethrower and flashbacks to the night the kids pulled the prank on Cropsy are shown.
Cropsy approaches Todd with the flamethrower, but Alfred manages to pull out the shears with his free hand and plunges them through Cropsy’s back. Cropsy falls to the ground dead.
The police helicopter arrives outside as does Michelle. Todd and Alfred start to exit the mine as Cropsy rises up and attacks Alfred. Alfred moves away and Todd hits Cropsy in the forehead with a hatchet. Alfred then burns Cropsy’s body with the flamethrower. Alfred and Todd leave as the camera pans out on Cropsy’s burning still body.
Around a campfire another group of teens is seen listening to a retelling of Cropsy’s legend. The film ends.
Review:
Summer camps are a seen as a staple in most slasher films such as Sleepaway Camp and interestingly The Burning was written before Friday the 13th was made. Though there are similarities between camp kids getting killed and a vicious serial killer, The Burning succeeds in getting a bit further with characterization and character development in the main camp kids.
Tom Savini’s makeup skills are on display here in quick glimpses as the kids get maimed. The best, of course, is saved for last when Cropsy’s face is finally revealed. The face that skin grafts couldn’t save all twisted with nothing but revenge sustaining him.
Overall, the film is fun and worth a watch for any horror fan. It keeps a quick pace and packs a few surprises as the body count is fairly high. A highlight for me is the entire raft of kids getting taken down by Cropsy which is a bold move for any film as most slashers tend to isolate victims before they’re killed.
Notes:
This film is notable for the effects by Tom Savini and music by Rick Wakeman of Yes. The story is also loosely based on the urban legend of the boogeyman “Cropsey” in upstate New York.