Quartile rating: 6/10 · 1 rating
A caretaker at a summer camp is burned when a prank goes tragically wrong. After several years of intensive treatment at hospital, he is released back into society, albeit missing some social skills. What follows is a bloody killing spree with the caretaker making his way back to his old stomping ground to confront one of the youths that accidentally burned him.
The Burning is a competent but largely formulaic early-80s slasher riding the Friday the 13th wave, with a summer camp revenge premise that offers little narrative originality. Acting is serviceable with some notable early appearances (Jason Alexander, Holly Hunter) but nothing exceptional. Tom Savini's practical gore effects and Rick Wakeman's synth score elevate the production value, and the cinematography is reasonably effective in building atmosphere. The Cropsy killer and his garden shears are memorable, and the raft massacre set-piece is genuinely effective, giving the ending above-average punch. But overall it remains derivative of its slasher contemporaries, earning its Video Nasty notoriety more through gore than genuine craft or distinctiveness.