Made in 1981, this film clearly jumped on the teenage slasher bandwagon and is very similar to a Friday the 13th movie. As far as the genre goes, 'The Burning' is way above average. Sure, it has the obligatory teenagers on summer camp and a deranged stalker out for 'revenge' but there are some genuinely tension-building moments and quite a few decent scares. The effects are above average (though quite heavily cut in the British version) thanks to gore-king, Tom Savini and Rick Wakeman's electronic music score is far more effective than Harry Manfredini's psycho-like strings in Friday the 13th. The acting is nothing special, but then again, it never is in these films.
If you're in the mood for a decent, scary stalk'n'slash movie, you could do far, FAR worse than this.
If you're in the mood for a decent, scary stalk'n'slash movie, you could do far, FAR worse than this.