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I believe I've found what must be the seminal summer camp slasher film of the 1980s. It captures every element of the decade's obsession with movies like "Friday the 13th" and "Meatballs" and puts them in one package. Shout! Factory has scored again with their Blu-ray release of "The Burning."

The caretaker of a summer camp is burned alive and left deformed after a prank goes wrong. Years later, he's released from the hospital and returns to the area where the accident occurred. A new group of campers have arrived for the summer and he has horrific plans for them. Hedge clippers in hand, the caretaker begins his reign of terror on the counselors and attendees.

"The Burning" has the raunchy toilet humor of "Meatballs" mixed with everything you came to expect from slasher films like "Friday the 13th" and "Sleepaway Camp." You have nice girls making bad decisions by hooking up with bad guys. Unfortunately, the killer sees all and punishes them for their perverse deeds.

I always thought the killer in "Friday the 13th, Part V: A New Beginning" was the first to utilize hedge clippers. I was very wrong, as you can see in "The Burning." It's obvious the psycho in "A New Beginning" took inspiration from the crazy caretaker.

It's unbelievable how many big names are attached to "The Burning." Harvey Weinstein created and co-wrote the story. Bob Weinstein co-wrote the screenplay. Special Make-up Artist Tom Savini returns to camp for a second time after his classic work on "Friday the 13th." His handiwork keeps the blood flowing efficiently.

Brian Backer plays a character more annoying than the one he did in "Fast Times at Ridgemont High." Jason Alexander (yes, George Costanza) portrays a sporty and popular high schooler. He has a full head of hair and doesn't wear glasses. Holly Hunter can be seen briefly as a camper. She looks like she was maybe 13 years old.

"The Burning" is another one of those cult classics many people forget about in the shadow of "Friday the 13th." If you're a fan of 1980s slasher movies, it's a must-own.

Summer camp caretaker Cropsy is fire roasted when some pranksters try to scare him with a flaming skull. Five years later, after numerous failed skin grafts, Cropsy is released back into society with a horribly scarred face and even more scarred psychological make-up. Now he's got a bone to pick and returns to the same camp of his accident (after gutting a hooker in the stomach with a pair of scissors) to get revenge on the new campers populating the camp. Armed with a pair of hedge clippers he doesn't hesitate to hack into a dozen or so foul-mouthed, oversexed teens, setting aside special interest in counselor Todd (Brian Matthews), who was one of the kids responsible for his burning. Even though it's saddled with a tired, predictable plot, this is still one of the best of the Friday the 13th rip-offs, and that has a a lot to do with Tom Savini's gory special effects. The music score is also excellent and there are fun appearances by Jason Alexander, Holly Hunter, the guy who played Ratner in Fast Times at Ridgemont High and some other recognizable faces before they were famous. The original VHS of this film was heavily trimmed to remove the gore, but that footage has since been restored. I saw the uncut version on Showtime actually.

The Burning has the great fortune of being a product of the early 80's slasher fest that greeted audiences in the hundreds. Some genre highlights were produced from ca. 1980-1984, a time when these films took themselves semi-seriously and were moderately successful at creating creepy atmosphere, displaying gratuitous nudity and inventing some spectacular death sequences. The late seventies laid the groundwork for what was to become a stable formula for these movies and for a minimum budget and isolated surroundings the films could provide some solid shocks and gore that pleased audiences.

The Burning is nearly identical in plot and storyline to Friday the 13th. Here the bad guy is a burn victim as a result of a prank gone awry and years later he takes vengeance on unsuspecting campers in gruesome fashion. While the movie is pretty slow and the gore fest doesn't really start until an hour in it's never boring. Here's where the film is different from Friday the 13th and many others: The teens aren't merely disposable pricks who you can't wait see get their grisly demise. They're actually a pretty likable bunch, well played by some future stars (Jason Alexander, particularly likable here, and Fisher Stevens among them) and when some get slashed you kinda feel bad for them.

Now for what really counts. Two things; gore and mood. The Tom Savini gore effects do not disappoint. Keep in mind that this is 1981 and digital effects have improved horror gore somewhat but this is pretty impressive stuff. The raft scene is a particular standout. As for mood, you can't beat these early 80's alone-in-the-woods scenarios and they're all well played out here. Although there are a lot of false scares here, they're buildups are great and the creepy surroundings go a long way. If films like Psycho made people afraid to take a shower and Jaws made people afraid of the water then films like The Burning and Friday the 13th must have made a few parents hesitant at sending their kids to summer camps.

Fans of slasher films will not want to miss The Burning. Although Friday the 13th is more suspenseful and The Burning feels a bit too stretched, it nevertheless has plenty of good moments and top notch kill scenes. What's not to like?

There's no disguising the fact that 'The Burning' is a rip off of 'Friday the 13th' so I won't bother arguing about it. The most important thing is that 'The Burning' has more likeable characters and they are killed off in gorier and more flamboyant ways. This makes it one of the few knock offs that I can think of that surpasses the original. The thing that really makes this outstanding isn't the handful of actors in the cast of unknowns that went on to bigger and better things (Jason Alexander, Holly Hunter,etc.), but Tom Savini's realistic and gruesome effects, some of his best work. I don't think you really watch a slasher movie for much more than some shocks and some gore, and this has both in spades, making it one of the very best slasher movies of the 80s. This genre isn't my favourite kind of horror, but I enjoyed 'The Burning' a great deal, and the uncut version is worth tracking down for the raft sequence alone, which is unforgettable and very, very cool. Recommended, but not for the squeamish.

THE BURNING

Aspect ratio: 1.85:1

Sound format: Mono

An abusive caretaker at a lonely summer camp is disfigured by fire during a prank which goes horribly wrong. Five years later, he returns to the area to take revenge against one of his former persecutors (now a camp counsellor) and the kids in his charge.

Makeup artist Tom Savini rejected an opportunity to work on "Friday the 13th Part 2" (1981) in order to create effects for Tony Maylam's THE BURNING, yet another in the assembly line of low-budget horror movies which emerged in the wake of HALLOWEEN (1978). Savini warned the film's producers - including a fledgling Harvey Weinstein! - that the script for THE BURNING shared uncomfortable similarities with the "Friday" sequel, though fans may have been too dazzled by the gruesome set-pieces to either notice or care. In truth, THE BURNING shares only a handful of superficial details with "Friday 2", including a late night campfire episode in which the villain is dismissed as an urban legend, culminating in a false 'scare' which today's audiences will probably see coming a mile off. Despite a couple of groan-inducing incidentals ("Oh, I forgot my vitamins - I'll have to go back to my cabin through the dark, creepy woods!"), the narrative develops organically from one scene to the next, and characters react believably to the escalating situation. Unfortunately, the climax - set mostly within an abandoned mineshaft - is staged and executed with little flair or suspense, and amounts to something of a major disappointment.

Of course, the main point of interest - besides seeing some familiar faces in early roles, including Jason Alexander (TV's "Seinfeld"), Fisher Stevens (SHORT CIRCUIT) and an unrecognisable Holly Hunter - is Savini's horrific makeup effects: Victims are slashed, stabbed, punctured and poked in graphic detail, and blood flows copiously from some horribly convincing wounds. Indeed, the film reaches a crescendo of horror during a notorious sequence involving an 'abandoned' canoe (I'll say no more), one of the most vicious set-pieces of the 1980's 'slasher' cycle. Briskly paced, and scored with a series of electronic doodles by no less than Rick Wakeman (!), THE BURNING may seem awfully simplistic to modern viewers, but it delivers the gory goods in no uncertain terms. The movie was censored for an R-rating, but the uncut version has since been released on home video.