The Burning (1981)

My rating - 6.5/10

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A group of teens play a prank on their abusive camp caretaker Cropsy, but after it goes wrong Cropsy is engulfed in flames and ends up in hostpital with most of his body a charred mess. Soon teens start dying in horrific ways and it seems that Cropsy is out for revenge.

Even though there was a never ending stream of slashers appearing in the 80s The Burning was one of the few that ended up on the UKs video nasties list and even managed to stay on it to become one of the infamous final 39. It's definitely one of the more brutal slashers of the era thanks in no part to Tom Savini's excellent gore effects. Stabbings, throat slashings, an axe in the face, fingers cut off with shears and an impressive full body burn are all well done.

The acting is good and includes early appearences from future stars Jason Alexander and Holly Hunter. There's plenty of quite intense scenes, especially near the end and the raft scene is a standout in the genre. Definitely one of the better slashers that came in the wake of Friday 13th and if you haven't seen it in a while then it's definitely worth a revist, time has been kind to this one. For those that haven't seen it before then I'd highly recommend you check it out.

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