Brilliant low-budgeted Teenage Slasher where Tom Savini still managed to create some really cool effects, and the effects by The Maestro
of Gore makes "The Burning" one of my favourite Top 3 slashers, and along with "The Prowler" and "Maniac". So, what is it that connects
these 3 films - Tom Savini making the special effects it is.
In the old US MGM DVD edition director Tony Maylam and clown Alan Jones were dissing Savini's work and called his effects "Tame" by
todays standards. Which they are NOT .... but every digitally made effect in a horror movie for sure is Tame. In this audio commentary track
on the MGM DVD Maylam also bragged about not seeing the film in 25 years, not knowing the names of the actors in it and that he hates
horror movies - A Total Asshole, and luckily this Blu-ray release didn't include this shitty commentary track.

To be honest Maylam's dull directing makes this film a generic Friday the 13th clone, but the effects of Savini and the raft scenes makes it a
Slasher cult classic.
Welcome to Camp Blackfoot ! In the intro we get to see a couple of teenagers about to do a prank on the much disliked and nasty caretaker
of the camp - Cropsy (Lou David) but it goes wrong, terribly wrong when Cropsy accidently is put on fire and severely burnt. Five years later
he leaves the hospital with all skin-grafting operations failing, and he's angry as hell. In a nasty scene he murders a prostitute and then he's
off to the lake for some killing. The new camp at the lake is called "Camp Stonewater" and filled with kids, and Cropsy wants to kill them all
and armed with garden-shears/a hedge cutter he's on a mission.

The old US MGM DVD edition

There are a lot of kids in this film and some of them became famous as Jason Alexander playing Dave, and Holly Hunter in a minimal role as
Sophie (i didn't notice her in the film though, saw her name in the credits). There are gore and nudity and the latter is provided by two of the
girls - Carrick Glenn and Carolyn Houlihan as Sally and Karen. I counted to 8 garden-shears killings plus a scissor one.
Luckily Jason Alexander survived and became famous for his role in Seinfeld some years later. I thought the kids acted pretty well and
especially the rafting scenes were well made, poor kids but luckily 7 of them including Alexander returned unharmed to the camp.

The film is presented in widescreen 1.85:1 and with english audio DTS-HD MA 2.0 (with Swedish subtitles), region B.
Extras: Cropsy Speaks-11 minutes interview with actor Lou David, Summer Camp Nightmares-7 minutes Lea Ayres interview (in the film she's
one of the 2 elder youngsters, Michelle and Todd), Slash and Cut-12 minutes interview with editor Jack Sholder, trailer and gallery

Text in Swedish below from the old DVD edition:

Briljant teenager slasher med coola gore effekter av mästaren Tom Savini, och med på min topp tre slasher lista ihop
med The Prowler och Maniac (och vad är gemensamma faktorn....jo, Tom Savini förstås).
Ett gäng ungdomar råkar tända eld på Summer Camp skötaren Cropsy, som sen förbannad och bränd ger sig ut med en
häcksax i högsta hugg. Bra blipp-bloppande "slasher" soundtrack av gamle Yes-fantomen, organisten Rick Wakeman
och Jason Alexander (Seinfeld-George) i sin första filmroll, och med yvig hårman, ja, håren går, that's life.
Jag kommer ihåg att jag på 80-talet hade denna på en oklippt svensk VHS från legendariska Video Invest, en dyrgrip
på den tiden Sverige hade en filmcensur strängare än censuren i Eritrea eller Nordkorea.

Negativt är det usla kommentarspåret med dumdryga britterna, regissören Tony Maylam och filmskribenten Alan Jones.
Snorkiga Maylam koketterar med att han inte sett filmen på 25 år, inte vet namnet på skådisar och att han hatar horror.
De båda clownerna fortsätter med att konstatera att Savini's effekter "är mycket tama jmf med dagens". Yeah, Right!
Många gore effekter av Savini klass har man ju sett under den "horrorfilmens högtid" som följde 80-talet - NOT.
Ha! Ha! Klantskallar! Det finns liksom en anledning till att Tom Savini är en ikon bland genre-fansen.
Lyckligtvis, finns det dock ett skönt snack med sympatiske Tom Savini (ca 18 min från 2007) "Blood 'N' Fire Memories"
och naturligtvis skulle det varit Savini som gjort kommentarspåret också, original trailer, gallery.