The Burning

Notable mostly for its prime-era Savini bloodshed and a few quick glimpses of a young Holly Hunter (uttering about as many lines of dialogue as won her an Oscar a dozen years later for The Piano), returning to The Burning three decades later is like contemplating any summer at camp: Peel away your nostalgia, and you’ll be left with 20-second sex bouts and insect bites.

A few effectively directed sequences and special makeup effects by Tom Savini (most of which were cut to avoid an "X" rating) are the only reasons to sit through this terribly familiar material.

The repeated fake-outs even lead one to entertain the fond delusion that The Burning might be absent-minded enough to diverge into harmless farce and end up as a rehash of "Meatballs." Regrettably, once Cropsy strikes again, he can't seem to stop, and the movie keeps him company by going methodically beserk. [28 May 1981, p.D11]

The Burning makes a few minor departures from the usual cliches of its genre, though it carefully preserves the violence and sadism that are schlock horror's sine qua non.

The best thing about this is Tom Savini's superb, uncensored special effects.

The Burning is a very typical slasher flick that can feel rather slow at times, but the addition of enjoyable and even humorous characters and a host of memorable kills make it an entertaining watch.

This definitely is not original. The story has been seen many times. On the plus side the cast is great, the effects gory and the atmosphere quite good. It is very predictable from beginning to end but this makes it better somehow. The scares are silly but they do make you jump and that is all that you want from this type of film. Overall it is an unoriginal classic slasher before the swish Scream (1996) ages.

The biggest problem of the 80's movies is they spend too much time on people and their relationships. We have a burned Jason, yet all the killing parts start very late. And this lateness kills the vibe.