The Burning (DVD)

A review of just the film. This is a slasher film from 1981 - it very obviously tries to cash in on the success of Friday the 13th, released the previous year. This is perhaps the most mainstream of the video nasties. It only made the list by accident; EMI released an uncut version by mistake, and it isn't in the same league as most nasties: there's very little dodginess in it, and it's made with a degree of professionalism largely absent from the rest of the list. At a summer camp some kids play a prank on the caretaker. It backfires and he ends up burned almost to death. Five years later he's released from hospital and heads for a different summer ...

Five teenagers decide to play a prank on the caretaker at their summer camp. Sneaking into his cabin, whilst he sleeps, they leave a little surprise for him on the side. Once outside again, they bang loudly on his windows to wake him up, but such is his shock upon waking that a terrible accident occurs and the wretched man is engulfed in fire. Fearing that they will be held accountable, the five teenagers scurry back to their cabins and deny any knowledge of the incident. What they don't realise is that the man was never actually killed. Instead, he spends five long years in a hospital's burns units. Despite their very best attempts to try and repair some of ...

'The Burning' has been knocked by many, but to my mind, its a classic slasher film. I guess from the start, that puts some people off, and rightly so: if you don't like slasher films, there's not a chance in hell you'll like this. But if you're fond of a bit of slice and dice, 'The Burning' is right up there with 'Friday the 13th' parts 1-4, and all the other early 80's forest fear greats. The plot is......well, i'd love to say that it offered something original. But I can't back that up. Summer camp prank goes wrong....janitor hideously disfigured......returns to the camp several years later, with a large pair of ...