UHM - Review - The Burning

I heard a lot about this film in the past and I'm glad that I finally got a chance to catch it. Sure it's a total Friday the 13th rip-off, but it's one of the better ones. I was actually surprised that I actually kind of liked it, because I thought it wasn't going to be any good. The film starts off with a group of kids at a camp planning a trick to pull on the local caretaker at the camp. The trick goes wrong and the caretaker goes running out of the cabin in flames. He eventually hits the water and the campers never see him again. He eventually goes to a hospital and stays there for about five years and then gets released to the outside world once again. Too bad he's out for revenge.

Some of the acting in the film was lame and the directing was okay. There were a few scenes where it'll make you jump, but nothing really that creepy. On the plus side of the film it had some cool moments, like the excellent raft scene. Damn that was pretty sweet. Don't see that kinda stuff in slasher flicks often. The film also kept my interest through the whole thing and I thought that was another positive about it. There was a lot of unnecessary nudity in the film, which I thought was rather funny. For example, this one scene where a girl goes skinny dipping with a guy and when she goes back for her clothes they mysteriously vanished, so she's forced to walk around the woods naked looking for them. I'm not saying that's a bad thing, but it was really not needed.

I'd love to check out this film uncut, because they cut out about 45 seconds of extra footage of certain death scenes, which I'm sure would have been a lot cooler uncut. There were a lot of fimilar faces in the film. One in particular is Jason Alexander's, who is better known as "George" on the show, Seinfeld. Who would have thought that he would play in a slasher flick. When I was watching his character in the film I could see a little George in him. Good to see he actually had hair at one point. I was originally going to give this film a higher rating, but changed my mind, because this isn't a bad film, but it's not necessarily that good either. The film had a lot of very cool moments, but so much more could have been done. Oh yeah, and for you Tom Savini fans, he did the makeup for this film.

OVERALL

Not a bad slasher flick. Definitely a ripoff of Friday the 13th, but this is actually one of the better ripoffs. Try to catch this film UNCUT if you can. I wasn't lucky enough to catch it.

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Mr.Killjoy :

Posted 89 days ago

This is not a F13 rip off because it was being made during the first Friday film and yeah it's your typical 80's slasher flick it's ending is not like a typical slasher film. I love slashers they are my fav movies and the burning is at or near the top tier of these kinds of films.

coward :

Posted 100 days ago

i agree, just because this one's campy does not make it a rip-off. the raft scene alone makes this one worth watching for any horror fan

Jason :

Posted 135 days ago

God, one thing I can't stand is when people call this a Friday the 13th rip-off. It's already been proven that this project was planned before F13 even if it came out after. Anyways, great movie with great gore effects and typical 80's T&A. 8/10.

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