10/13/17 – day thirteen of thirty-one days of horror!
It’s Friday the 13th, so why am I choosing a
movie that doesn’t feature Jason Voorhees? Because I’m choosing The Burning,
another movie about a disfigured madman who stalks and kills teenage summer
camp counselors! There is a Friday the 13th connection – aside from
seeming like a ripoff (it was actually written and planned before the original
F13 came out) it features the FX work of genre legend Tom Savini, who jumped
ship on Friday the 13th Part 2 to handle gore duties on this – and magnificent
gore work it is! The burned, vengeance-seeking killer – named Cropsey after the
infamous Staten Island legend – inflicts wonderfully vicious deaths upon his
victims, most notably with a pair of razor sharp garden shears. Adding to the
fun is a cast of notables in the counselor roles including a pre-George
Costanza Jason Alexander, Fisher Stevens before the Super Mario Bros movie made
him a household name and a blink-and-you’ll-miss-her Holly Hunter. The most
memorable sequence involves Cropsey going to town on a whole group of hapless
counselors as they try to escape in a raft, a jaw-dropping explosion of
bloody carnage that is shocking even by today’s desensitized standards. What
kind of fevered sicko could have conceived of such gut-churning violence? Why
none other than recently outed sexual predator and all-around real-life monster
Harvey Weinstein! That’s right, the story of The Burning was conceived by
Hollywood’s most loathsome mogul, making it possible for him to form Miramax
and prey on countless women. But don’t let that ruin this nasty little gem –
get yearning for The Burning!
