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The Burning

theburningBeing released in 1980, Friday the 13th is, and always has been, considered the all-time trail-blazer for camp-counselors-getting-offed-in-the-woods-movies. However, Tony Maylam’s much revered 1981 film, The Burning, was actually written and green-lighted well before Friday the 13th became a household name. So which one was first? Personally, I like to think of The Burning as the originator. Why? Because it’s simply a much better, much scarier, much gorier film than Friday the 13th.

The story is so simple that it was destined to become a cliché: A group of rambunctious campers decide to scare the creepy groundskeeper, Cropsy. Their prank goes horribly wrong, resulting in an inferno that leaves Cropsy disfigured from head to toe. Five, long years pass. The campers that burned Cropsy are now counselors, responsible for a bevy of young, scantily-clad teens. Try to guess the next part. Right. Cropsy has come back for revenge.

The Burning gets a lot of things totally right that Friday the 13th only got half-right. First off, the kids in this movie are funny. They’re genuinely enjoying themselves at camp. They don’t want to die and, in turn, you don’t want them to die. This allows the film to bank on being able to build suspense effectively. Second, the soundtrack is menacing. Friday the 13th always had that post-Psycho, faux-Bernard Hermann thing going on, whereas The Burning’s got a low, rumbling synth score.

As a villain, Cropsy is borderline lame–but just lame enough to the point where he’s kind of funny. His weapon of choice (gardening shears) are almost laughable but they get the job done in an incredibly brutal fashion. The deaths are spectacular–especially one involving an entire group of kids on a raft. Wait for it… wait for it…

This is a perfectly pitched, early 80’s old-school splatter fest–the kind of movie that begs to be watched on VHS in someone’s wood-paneled basement. Although the Burning is stylish enough to remain interesting throughout its 91 minute run-time, it’s also straight-forward enough to not be considered a true classic.

Mitchell Wells

Founder and Editor in Chief of Horror Society. Self proclaimed Horror Movie Freak, Tech Geek, love indie films and all around nice kinda guy!!

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