Throwback Thursday: "The Burning"

Let's go ahead and tackle the obvious here: The Burning is pretty much Friday the 13th. If you're okay with that concept, you might just find something you like in this campy '80s slasher flick.

The setting is a summer camp full of various-aged kids: maybe 8 to 18. It's a given that there's got to be some gratuitous teen sex, so the storyline surrounds the upper-aged teens most of all, plus it's the teens who are responsible for setting the murdering rampage of the antagonist in motion.

Like in many films before and since, such as U-Turn and Sunshine, being horribly disfigured mysteriously acts as a permanent boost to the bad guy's speed, strength, and stamina. He stalks with the catlike prowess of a panther, though the viewer is alerted to his presence by a cacophonous blare as if the music composer fell asleep lying on a church pipe organ.

The actual deaths are pretty clever, with excellent gore and splatter effects. The madman groundskeeper doesn't quite have the arsenal of Jason, but he gets pretty crafty considering his weapon of choice is an impossibly sharp set of garden sheers.

The cast has some pretty big names, such as Jason Anderson and that nerdy kid from Fast Times at Ridgemont High (who plays a nerdy kid in Burning, as well).

While the plot has the depth of a kiddie pool, the film tries to communicate the horror of what caused the massacre through flashbacks and build-up scenes that are quite well done, though again smacking of the early Friday films.

So if you enjoyed the Friday films and don't mind a little gratuitous gore with your butchered teenagers, check out The Burning. With decent acting, good effects, and a well-portrayed (if cloned) plot line, it's sure to please slasher-film fans who missed this one from the camping horror lineup.