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The Burning, 1981
One night at a summer camp, a group of boys pulls a prank on a reviled caretaker called Cropsy, badly burning and disfiguring him. A few years later, camp counselors Todd (Brian Matthews) and Michelle (Leah Ayres) lead a group of campers and counselors on an ill-fated canoeing trip to an isolated spot. Cropsy is out of the hospital and looking for payback.
This title often falls into the second level of recommendations, especially for 80s slashers. I can definitely see why it has a good reputation, though a few quibbles kept it from feeling great to me.
On the positive side, the leads are pretty likable, especially Leah Ayres as Michelle. Though she's often put in the position of giving the guys a hard time, it helps that she's, you know, right. Brian Matthews is also fine as Todd. It's a neat difference to have a couple as the final characters facing down the villain. The supporting cast is studded with recognizable names and faces, like Jason Alexander, Fisher Stevens, and Holly Hunter(!!!) as fellow counselors. Brian Backer is, I don't know, admirably off-putting as camp outcast Alfred.
The film also does a great job of creating a perfect setting. Instead of the usual nonsense of camps ignoring murders or dubiously writing them off as "accidents," the characters are taken to an isolated location--and then robbed of their canoes--which creates a believable vulnerability. Their initial solution makes sense, and it's one of those "what would I do?" situations.
The murders themselves, for the most part, do feel like a product of anger and resentment. There is a degree of almost indifference in terms of who gets killed that makes the murders feel that much more real and upsetting. A lot of the kids who get killed are just . . . kids. While a few of the characters feel close to the kids who hurt Cropsy, most of them really don't. There's a lot of blood spilled here, and only one character even borderline feels like the kind of person who "deserves it" (and I use that term REALLY loosely in the sense of within-slasher morality).
The effects are also pretty solid, and the staging of the different killings is pretty effective. One sequence in particular, where a raft full of campers and counselors approach a seemingly-empty canoe, is full of suspense. Aside from some obvious day-for-night stuff, the use of the setting is very solid.
I had some mixed feelings about the two "setpiece" murders that take place in the middle of the movie. There's a scene early on, away from the camp, where we see Cropsy attack and kill a woman who is repulsed by his disfigured appearance. I guess this is meant to set up his anger at women? Or something? Because the people who pranked and injured him were a bunch of dudes. It feels like the movie trying to connect the dots in terms of why we linger on the bodies and killings of some of the female characters, and I didn't totally buy it. The movie deviates from the killer's POV just to show us a lingering full frontal shot of the one girl? Okay movie. (The guy who is also skinny dipping is, you will be absolutely shocked to learn, never seen except from the chest up). Aside from eyerolling at the typical and totally unsubtle male gaze crap, it feels like a missed opportunity. Not necessarily to put male nudity on screen, or whatever, but to let the male characters be the focus in a way that is usually reserved for female characters. We get halfway there with a final act that focuses heavily on Todd and Alfred as our primary protagonists. As an example of how this feels muddled, some of the camera ogling comes courtesy of Alfred spying on a woman in the showers. There's also some concessions to the negative or disappointing experiences of the young women, but this is undercut by the camera's leering eye. I wish they'd kept the framing of the women more strictly from the point of view of the killer, making it more clear the way that he is projecting his own rejection onto the way they speak to their (gross and/or disappointing!) male companions.
Definitely a solid horror, partly notable for pulling off the final act in a way that feels like a good landing.
IMDb seems to say that the R-rated is (or at least was) cut and the version on Tubi (as well as the Blu-ray rip) seem to be slightly shorter than the length on IMDb unless IMDb just always rounds up.
The not-so-legit places have a Blu-ray rip which is also 88 minutes. Why must it be so difficult to watch the damn movie?