THE BURNING I'm on a roll!
Wow. Two not-bad "slasher in the woods" movies in three days. Considering how many of them rank that well, I'd say that's a bit of an achievment.
Yes, it's a shameless Friday the 13th ripoff, which in itself was a shameless ripoff. Yes, it ridiculously hypes up how ghastly the face of its burned villain is, and when it's finally shown, it's nothing special, as expected. And yes, horror of horrors, it shows Jason Alexander's bare ass.
What struck me about this one was just its portrayal of the summer camp. I used to be a camper myself, and after that, a counsellor, and this is pretty much how it all worked, minus most of the killings. The camp I was at was mostly geared to older teenagers, and the counsellors were just barely older...once, one of us was actually even younger than some campers. The campers were not pleased. So it was fun, pointing out individual characters and identifying which of them correspond to people back at that camp I was at. Sure, they were all one- dimensional stereotypes (Jason Alexander's character gets an extra half-dimension for being a jokester that, for once, other characters like), but then, so were the people they correspond to!
Tom Savini's gore looks very trimmed. I'll bet there's a really gruesome X-rated cut out there.
The editor on this one was Jack Sholder, who would later grace us with The Hidden and Alone In The Dark. Just a little tidbit of knowledge to brighten our lives.
There was some really dumb stuff in it - for example, what are the odds that a camper who actually caused the severe burning disfigurement of somebody would be invited back as a counsellor, considering that he was sent home for the deed? Pretty slim. Of the seven or eight people responsible for burning to death the freaky guy at my camp, only two of 'em were asked back as counsellors.
And what was up with the worm/maggot-ridden skull as the prank, anyway? What was the idea there? Where'd they get this skull?
But overall, not a bad effort, and yes, Jason Alexander is actually pretty good as a jokester who nevertheless seems to have half a head on his shoulders. Watch also for a young Fisher Stevens, and future Oscar winner Holly Hunter, if you can believe that.
Oh yeah, almost forgot - they abandoned this about fifteen minutes into the movie, but there's something pretty cool about the silhouette of a man in a trenchcoat and that kind of hat (it's not a fedora...what is it?). It's used to good effect in Seven, The Usual Suspects (which otherwise blew), and yes, it was even the coolest aspect of Halloween 5. What the hell kind of a hat is that? |
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