The Burning
Directed by Tony Maylam
Released: 1981
Starring Brian Matthews, Leah Ayres, Brian Backer, Lou David
Running time: 91 minutes
DVD Studio: MGM
Reviewed by Eric Grubbs

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Though he was a successful promoter of rock concerts, Harvey Weinstein, along with his brother Bob, wanted to get into making films in the early 1980s. They had a script, written before the release of the original Friday the 13th, called "The Cropsy Murderer". The Burning was to become Miramax’s first film, released many years before they released such films as Shakespeare in Love, Scream, and Good Will Hunting. To this day, The Burning is still a great slasher flick, even if it appears to be a Friday the 13th/Halloween/Sleepaway Camp knock-off on the surface.

It is notable that The Burning is Jason Alexander’s first film role, as well as Holly Hunter’s and Fisher Stevens’s. The film doesn’t fall into the traps many other slasher flicks do. For one, no one – not even the shy people or the virgins – are safe from Cropsy’s murderous path. The whole “sex means death” formula is not used with every kill scene, and the murders don’t necessarily follow a pattern. All Cropsy wants to do with his garden shears is kill, kill, kill.

Also, director Tony Maylam made a wise choice to keep the full view of Cropsy’s severely burnt-over face hidden until the very end. Time and time again, with film after film, this surprise technique still works well.

Legendary makeup artist Tom Savini turned down Friday the 13th Part II to do this film, and the results are pretty great. It was considered a “Video Nasty” in its day, due to the nature of the gore found in some of the murder scenes. But by today’s standards, the gore is tame and quick. That said, this film comes highly recommended as one of the better slasher flicks of the early ’80s.