The kids in The Burning REALLY want to be in a summer camp sex comedy, but no such luck for these dorks. They’re in a slasher movie instead.
That’s what happens when you go to a camp that’s near another camp where the caretaker disappeared years ago after he got disfigured in a fire caused by a prank-gone-wrong. Obviously, he now lurks the woods with a pair of big, scary garden shears and a mind for revenge against the world. Makes sense to me. He also has the mystical ability to prowl in the bushes and spy on everyone without being noticed. For much of the first hour, he (and we) watch teenage boys fumble to get into the pants of teenage girls. Every boy is a sex-mad Wile E. Coyote and every girl is a winsome Roadrunner who thwarts all advances. Shower nudity and skinny-dipping helps move things along until the killer finally pops out to paint the place red.
Effects master Tom Savini, fresh off of Friday the 13th and Maniac, provides reliably wrenching gore. Let’s also mention Rick Wakeman’s swirly, high-tension synthesizer music. Meanwhile the cast and creative crew teem with future success stories in early jobs. Jason Alexander, Holly Hunter and Fisher Stevens each make their movie debut as campers. Future big time producer Brad Grey shows up in the writing credits, as do Miramax execs Bob and Harvey Weinstein. This film is an early production from Miramax, who made some quick bucks off the slasher boom on their way to becoming a prestigious name ten years later.