The Burning 1981

 Released Year: 1981

Directed by Tony Maylam

Casted by:

Brian Matthews as Todd

Leah Ayres as Michelle

Brian Backer as Alfred

Larry Joshua as Glazer

Jason Alexander as Dave

Ned Eisenberg as Eddy

Carrick Glenn as Sally

Carolyn Houlihan as Karen

Fisher Stevens as Woodstock

 Story: 

At Camp Blackfoot, several campers pull a prank on the caretaker, "Cropsy". During the night they sneak into his cabin and set up a wormy skull next to his bed with candles in the eye sockets. When Cropsy is awoken by the campers banging on his window, he is so frightened by the skull that he knocks it onto his bed where it ignites his sheets and clothes. Aflame, Cropsy leaps from his bed and knocks over a gas tank, causing flames to spread through the cabin. The boys watch in shock as Cropsy, engulfed in flames, stumbles out and falls into a river.

Five years later, Cropsy is released from hospital, wearing a coat, sunglasses and hat to hide his deformities. Out of rage, he murders a prostitute by strangling her and repeatedly stabbing her in the chest with a pair of scissors. He then sets out to another summer camp, Camp Stonewater. Cropsy arrives, now armed with garden shears and tries to attack a female camper, Tiger, who is searching for a baseball in the woods, but he hesitates to kill her.

The next morning, camper Sally steps out of the shower and is surprised by camper Alfred, who then runs away. Sally's screams bring Karen, Michelle, Todd, and Eddy, who catch Alfred. Michelle demands Alfred leave, but Todd talks to him. Todd learns that Alfred has no friends, and was pulling a prank on Sally. Glazer, Sally's boyfriend, later attacks Alfred, but Todd tells Glazer to cool off, and Alfred apologizes to Sally.

That night, Alfred spots Cropsy outside his window, but no one believes him. At the mess hall, Karen tells Michelle that she and Eddy are going to sleep together. The kids all go on a canoe trip up the river. After supper, Karen and Eddy go to a lake to skinny dip. Just as Eddy and Karen are about to have sex, Karen reconsiders, upsetting Eddy. Upon leaving, Karen discovers her clothes strewn in the woods. As she collects them, Cropsy grabs her and slits her throat.

The next morning, Michelle finds Karen has not returned. She and Todd find Eddy, who tells them she left. They discover the canoes have been cut adrift on the lake that surrounds the camp. Michelle does not believe Karen is the culprit, so some campers including Todd, Michelle, Alfred, Glazer, Dave, Eddy, Sally, Woodstock, Tiger, Barbara, Marnie, Sophie, Diane, Fish, Alan, and Rhoda go and search far away from the camp. They create a raft to collect the canoes, while other campers and counselors gather wood. Eddy, Fish and Woodstock board the finished raft along with two female campers, Marnie and Barbara . Alfred begins to explore, while Todd reassures Michelle that Karen is fine. Eddy and the campers spot a canoe and paddle toward it. Woodstock reaches for the canoe only to have Cropsy jump out and kill them all with his shears. He stabs Fish in the collarbone, Marnie in the back, cuts off Woodstock's fingers, stabs Eddy in the throat, and Barbara slashed in the head.

Michelle starts to worry about Karen. As night falls, Glazer finally has sex with Sally, but suffers premature ejaculation. He later goes to get matches to start a fire and resume their intimacy. Cropsy appears behind Sally and forcibly shoves his shears into her chest, she fights to remove the shears but is killed. Alfred finds the spot where the couple is staying, and watches as Glazer returns. He uncovers Sally but Cropsy is hiding under Sally, Cropsy stabs his shears through Glazer's neck and pins him to a tree. Alfred returns to the others. He wakes Todd and tells him about what he just saw. Todd does not believe him until he finds the bodies. He is then attacked by Cropsy, who knocks him out and chases Alfred.

Alfred is chased, while Todd chases after Cropsy with an felling axe. The campers see a raft moving towards them with no one on board moving. When Michelle approaches the raft, she discovers it is full of dead bodies, Woodstock's severed arm falls on her head while she pulls him. She screams in horror while the other campers help her. Todd appears on the nearby island and goes to them. He tells them to evacuate as the campers are scared and panicking. On the island, she rows the remaining campers – Dave, Tiger, Diane, Sophie, Alan and Rhoda towards the campsite. Meanwhile, Cropsy has captured Alfred and drags him towards an abandoned mine shaft. Todd follows nearby, eventually tracking down Alfred in the mine, where Cropsy has pinned him up to the wall with the shears through his arm.

Michelle returns with the campers and calls the police to helicopter the kids and survivors to safety. Todd looks through the mine opening for Cropsy and Alfred. When he steps across a piece of track, a mine car up on a raft rolls down, causing him to fall. He falls through a wall and discovers Karen's body hanging from the ceiling. He and Cropsy struggle as Cropsy is trying to kill Todd with a blowtorch, and when Cropsy's disfigurement is shown, Todd remembers he was involved in the original prank. Alfred frees himself and helps Todd by stabbing Cropsy in the back with his own shears, seemingly killing him. The police arrive, while Michelle travels by boat to find Todd and Alfred. While Todd and Alfred are leaving, Cropsy attacks them. Todd finally kills Cropsy by slamming his axe into his face, then Alfred ignites his clothes with Cropsy's blowtorch. Afterward, Alfred and Todd make their way out to Michelle, who brings them to the helicopter and to the hospital as Cropsy's body continues to burn. The film ends with another group of teenagers telling the story of Cropsy around the campfire.

 L² Scored: 5/10

L² Comment:

This film was a hit in 1981 and was once rated as the best slasher film ever. The storyline is ok, nothing extraordinary to me, its about some dumb kids burn an idiot who came to take revenge of innocent kids at the summer camp. Of course partly it was because slasher film is so popular during that time when "Halloween" & "Friday the 13th" were shown in 1980. Maybe the reason of this high rating are the girls showing their nice boobs :) Anyway, this is also the first film for many big celebrities such as Jason Alexander, Fisher Stevens & Holly Hunter~