When I was growing up and first reading about the slasher genre, The Burning was a title that kept coming up.
After 2017, it gained new infamy when producer Harvey Weinstein was accused of multiple incidences of sexual assault, including by people involved in the making of this film. It is impossible to talk about this movie without the prism of the Weinsteins. Not only is The Burning the first Miramax production, but both brothers have screenplay credit.
Because of those revelations, I put this movie on the backburner.
Almost a decade later, it is impossible to watch the film with that knowledge in mind - particularly when it starts with a minor character (Brian Backer’s Alfred) who gets caught creeping on girls in the showers.
Waiting to catch up with The Burning did it some service. Particularly since when I did finally watch it, I had binged the first eight Friday the 13th movies.
There is a lot to like about the movie on its own terms. But it makes for an interesting comparison with the Jason movies, particularly the early instalments.
The most obvious difference is scope. In the early Friday movies, Camp Crystal Lake is abandoned.
In The Burning the camp is operational, giving the action a real sense of jeopardy as the counsellors have to take care of the kids as well as each other.
Like My Bloody Valentine, the film benefits from a level of regional specificity. In this case, it features a cast of distinctly New York actors. Even though it does not affect the archetypes they are playing, their look, accents and even clothes, give the whole enterprise a unique feel.
Tony Maylam’s direction is effective, and occasionally inventive.
There is some POV shots, but the killer is mostly shown in elliptical montages:
Gloves, shears, the back of his head. He is an otherworldly, supernatural figure.
There is a sense of escalating chaos and encirclement that feels organic - a slow-building sense that our heroes are not in control.
And once the killer attacks the counsellors (in the film’s most memorable set piece), the film starts to feel like a siege narrative.
Even before Cropsy appears, there is a grim undertone to the piece, a sense that too many of these people do not like anyone they are with. Most of the men are obsessed with sex, and seem treat their partners (or potential partners) with disdain.
To the film’s credit, the lion’s share of scumbags get hacked to bits first. But it is hard not to read these various paragons of virtue as reflections of the producer/co-writer's own worldview.
Cropsy chalks up an impressive body count, which feels like a reaction to other slashers.
Despite the film's misogyny, there is a moment of empathy that feels unique, particularly when compared to the Friday the 13ths: after the iconic raft set piece, there is an extended scene of the campers, traumatised, reacting to the raft. This prolonged beat is a welcome downbeat that raises the stakes.
In another twist on the formula, instead of a final girl, we get a pair of Final Boys, who are forced to face Cropsy by fate, rather than chance.
It is revealed that Todd, our supposedly clean-cut hero, was involved in Cropsy’s disfigurement. He is forced to join forces with Alfred - the character introduced peeping on girls, who is now presented as a misunderstood outsider. Facing the killer is meant to be an act of redemption for them, but the sudden attempt to make Alfred a hero feels completely tone-deaf. At no point does it feel like the film is condemning him for his creepy behaviour.
It is a pity that this element of the climax falls flat, because as a set peice, it is a terrific example of The Burning's overtly gothic atmosphere.
Cropsy’s lair is a striking piece of art design: a disused mineshaft filled with dark shadows broken by shafts of light.
This environment is the one place where we get a good look at Cropsy, and where he is presented as a human (and mortal) man.
In a neat turn, the film does not end with his demise - instead we end on another campfire re-telling of Cropsy’s story.
No longer a human menace, Cropsy is now even more powerful as a legend.
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