The Burning (1981) – Early 80s Killer at a Camp

1981’s The Burning is about a camp caretaker that is horribly disfigured in fire after a mean spirited prank, played by campers goes horrible wrong. Years later, he returns to the camp to exact revenge on new, innocent campers.

This is a typically bad camper/slaughter movie. Not a lot of work put in to the script or the acting. The senior campers go across the lake for a three day excursion when all hell breaks loose. First, the canoes get lost, a girl disappears, a group goes out on a handmade raft to get help and are brutally slaughtered. As time goes by, more and more die… like these kind of movies. This is pre-Friday the 13th (I think) and therefore before this format was really perfected – I say this is a terrible film, though there may be those that might believe that this is a formative movie -those people are wrong.

Pretty straight forward. One surprise was the fact that Jason Alexander (George from Seinfeld fame) and Brian Backner (Mark “Rat” Ratner in Fast Times at Ridgemont High) are part of the cast.

Take my advice: Leave this one alone.

Here is the trailer: