Blockbuster.com

 

Apart from early appearances by Jason Alexander and Holly Hunter, an interesting score by Rick Wakeman, and some typically effective work by effects icon Tom Savini, this slasher film is also among the more frightening of its kind. The plot concerns a summer-camp caretaker named Cropsy (Lou David) who is horribly burned by mischievous teen campers during a botched practical joke. Years later, he leaves the hospital as a disfigured gloppy mess with an axe (actually, hedgeclippers) to grind. After dispatching a local prostitute, Cropsy heads out to the wilderness to terrorize a group of campers. They're the usual bunch of horny, obnoxious teenagers, but there are some interesting performances by Larry Joshua as a mean-spirited bully and Brian Backer (of Fast Times at Ridgemont High) as a put-upon nerd. The campers visit an island and, in a scene heavily cut by the ratings board prior to release, several of them die in a horrifying mass slaughter aboard a boat. The remaining teens are brutally picked off one by one until Cropsy is finally defeated. Director Tony Maylam paces the proceedings well with tense buildups and some good scares, and although it's just another slasher movie, it's one of the best.

  Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide

Amazon.com

Horribly disfigured by fire after a prank goes awry, dissolute camp caretaker Cropsy (Lou David) emerges five years later from the burn ward to wreak vengeance on a new batch of hormone-driven campers with a pair of oversized garden shears. The cast (which includes film debuts by Holly Hunter, Jason Alexander, Fisher Stevens, and Brian Backer from Fast Times at Ridgemont High) also approach their cookie-cutter characters with a let's-put-on-a-show level of enthusiasm and earnestness. Eighties gore fans should know that MGM's release of this full-frame print marks the first time The Burning has been available in an uncut form in the United States. The Burning was produced (and "created," whatever that means) by Harvey Weinstein and his then-fledgling company Miramax; Harvey also contributed to the original story with brother Bob and future producer/talent agent Brad Grey (The Sopranos, The Larry Sanders Show). Editor Jack Sholder went on to direct The Hidden. The cacophonous electronic score is by Yes keyboardist Rick Wakeman.

Paul Gaita