THE BURNING

Cropsy (Lou David) is the middle-aged caretaker of a summer camp called Camp Blackfoot. He also happens to be hated by the adolescent campers there, on account of him being an abusive drunk. So much so, that a group of kids decide to teach him a lesson by placing a flaming skull torch beside his bed and then waking him in the dead of night. The idea is to give the guy a fright: instead, he panics and knocks the skull onto his bedding - setting himself alight.

Five years later, and Cropsy is discharged from a New York hospital. As he's wheeled out onto the city streets, various medical voiceovers play over in his mind - each one advising that numerous attempts at skin grafts have been unsuccessful, he's to try and not bear a grudge against the kids who ruined his life etc.

Following five long years lying on his back in a burns unit, Cropsy's first thoughts are understandably tied in with getting his leg over. But, being a tad self-conscious about his disfigured visage (kept off-screen until the film's finale), he insists the prostitute he visits keeps her lights off. As a flash of lightning exposes his face to her and she recoils in horror, Cropsy blows his top and reaches for the nearest pair of scissors...

Cut to Camp Stonewater, a neighbouring camp to the now abandoned Blackfoot. A fresh group of horny, practical joke-playing teens are there for the summer, overseen by slightly older and wiser Todd (Brian Matthews) and his girlfriend Michelle (Leah Ayres).

As the group concern themselves with getting naked, getting drunk and getting laid, Todd keeps a protective eye over geeky Alfred (Brian Backer). Alfred's a wimp who has become a natural target for jock Glazer (Larry Joshua) - not least of all because he gets caught spying on the latter's girlfriend in the showers.

Unbeknownst to any of them, however, is the black-clad figure lurking in the surrounding trees and brandishing a pair of garden shears. Could it be that the legend of a vengeful, wronged Cropsy that Todd tells around the campfire is about to become a harsh, bloody reality?

Although initially written off by many critics as a rather pedestrian cash-in on the success of Sean S Cunningham's FRIDAY THE 13TH, THE BURNING has not only stood the test of time as solid entertainment but also emerges as a film with some very interesting names attached to it.

Firstly, it was the maiden release of Bob and Harvey Weinstein's Miramax company (as well as co-producing, they devised the basic storyline). Then there's the stirring and atmospheric electronic score, provided by former Yes man Rick Wakeman. Oh, and it's probably common knowledge that the film features early minor roles for Jason Alexander and Holly Hunter.

In horror terms, the most significant names on the credits are Jack Sholder and Tom Savini. Sholder, editing here, went on to direct the likes of THE HIDDEN and A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 2: FREDDY'S REVENGE. Savini, of course, was already infamous for providing the gore in the likes of MANIAC and DAWN OF THE DEAD. Indeed, his splatter FX in THE BURNING - throat impalements, digits being hacked off, multiple stabbings - were responsible for the film's notoriety in the early 80s, culminating in the uncut version being banned in the UK as a video nasty.

Looking at the film now, the talent involved still serves it well. It's testament to the tight editing, energetic agreeable performances and well-placed musical cues that the film never feels laborious despite it taking an inordinate amount of time to actually get going. I mean, prolonged pre-credits sequence and a few red herring scares aside, it really isn't until halfway through the film that the body count starts proper.

On the surface, too, the film is entirely unoriginal. Horny teens get killed in the woods: it's been done umpteen times. But British director Tony Maylam toys with audience expectations, not only subverting the pace and laws of kill regularity that the slasher genre normally adheres to, but also by making its monster one with such a strong reason for revenge that you almost feel sympathy for him. Also, once the murders do start (the highlight being a multiple killing upon a raft) the cast are picked off in a satisfyingly unpredictable order.

With a second half that truly ups the ante and delivers the tension and gore in equal spades, THE BURNING emerges as a memorable little fright flick that, even after numerous viewings over the decades, remains a pleasure to revisit.

Up until now, the best version of THE BURNING available domestically has been MGM's Region 1 DVD. Upon its release in September 2007, it rendered previous editions by Vipco and Dragon Entertainment all-but redundant. But even that can be discarded now, thanks to the efforts of Shout! Factory and their rather excellent 2-disc blu-ray and DVD combo pack.

Disc one is a region A encoded blu-ray, presenting the film in a lovely natural-looking 1080p HD transfer from an inter-positive master. It looks to be the same source as that which was used for MGM's aforementioned DVD, but benefits nicely from the heightened clarity that HD offers.

Presented as a healthily sized MPEG4-AVC file on a 50GB dual layer disc, THE BURNING comes uncut in its original 1.85:1 aspect ratio and is 16x9 enhanced.

Colour schemes thankfully remain familiar to that earlier presentation, but with a more defined sense of reality. Likewise, detail is clearer and contrast has never seemed so strong. Dark scenes fare well; daytime scenes look particularly excellent. What shines through in this spiffing transfer is that Savini's FX work really is great: sometimes the added clarity of 1080 resolution can reveal unwelcome flaws in such work, but not in this instance. Minor print damage in the form of very occasional specks can't detract either from the fact that this is, easily, the best THE BURNING has ever looked. I can't realistically imagine it looking any better.

English 2.0 audio is boosted by a clean and evenly balanced DTS-HD Master Audio mix which really does breathe fresh life into every keyboard lick of Wakeman's score, and every splashy sound effect during the kill sequences. Optional English subtitles are available for the Hard-of-Hearing: these are well-written and easily readable at all times.

The disc opens to an animated main menu page. From there, pop-up menus include a scene-selection menu which allows access to THE BURNING via 12 chapters.

Extras begin with the audio commentary track which was originally recorded for the MGM DVD. It finds Maylam speaking rather openly about what does and doesn't work in the film, along with Alan Jones who does a fine job of moderating with pertinent questions keeping the kettle boiling throughout. If Maylam seems a little too keen to get it across that he's made other stuff too, Jones wisely ignores all hints and keeps the director on-topic.

Also previously available on the MGM DVD is the enjoyable 18-minute featurette "Blood and Fire Memories". In it, Savini speaks in his usual, enjoyably slightly camp manner over the top of rough behind-the-scenes footage which serves to ably demonstrate how some of his gory FX work was achieved. As ever, Savini caps his comments off with witty anecdotes and asides.

Fans will no doubt rejoice in the presence of several all-new bonus features contained within this set.

Perhaps the most substantial of these is a second commentary track. This one features co-stars Shelley Bruce and Bonnie Deroski, who relive their on-location memories in light-hearted fashion to moderator Edwin Samuelson.

"Slash and Cut" is an excellent 12-minute chat with Jack Sholder, who cut his teeth as editor on the film and took what he learned on the shoot to help him make the excellent ALONE IN THE DARK. He speaks of the invaluable experience this first job offered him, his lack of belief in the film at the time and elaborates on the importance of the editing in the infamous raft massacre sequence.

Arguably even better is "Cropsy Speaks!", an 11-minute talk with Lou David. He looks rough but it's great that he's been tracked down for inclusion in this set. He briefly alludes to a wider career but chiefly discusses his character, and how much (or little) of Cropsy he actually portrays on screen. He seems genuinely fond of the end result.

"Summer Camp Nightmares" finds Ayres looking good (with possible cosmetic help?) while she reminisces about the fun shoot with the cast and crew over the course of 5 minutes.

8 minutes of archival behind-the-scenes footage includes test takes of Cropsy's burning, and screen tests for some of Savini's effects.

A nicely designed stills gallery is divided into two segments, looking at both the gory FX and a plethora of promotional artwork from around the globe.

Finally, we get the film's original 2-minute theatrical trailer.

All of the above, including the "Blood and Fire Memories" featurette, are presented in HD.

Over on disc two, the region 1 encoded DVD offers the same content - albeit in standard definition.

The packaging itself is worthy of a mention. For a start, the cover is reversible: as well as the vivid new artwork, the reverse reproduces the gorgeous original US theatrical artwork. An outer card slipcase slides over the keepcase packaging, boasting the colourful newly commissioned artwork.

As an added bonus, customers who bought this set direct from Shout! Factory's site also received a free colour poster reproduction of the main cover artwork. I believe, however, this was restricted to 'domestic' purchases (i.e. America-based customers)?

Seriously, this is not only by far the best package THE BURNING has ever received, but it exceeded my expectations of how much respect any distributor was ever going to afford this film.

If, like me, you love this film and feel a certain sense of history with it, you're really going to want Shout! Factory's stunning dual format release.

Review by Stuart Willis