So MANY SPOILERS...
I have a very long history with this film, as a longtime horror fan. I first watched it in the living room with my dad when I was 12 - with my mum hovering nervously by the door, saying (as she did so many times), "Sid, do you really think she should be watching this?" To which he replied (as he did so many times), "Woman, sit down if you're staying, and stop worrying." Cue, mum looking very worried for my mental health - and immortal soul - and leaving quietly.
So dad and I would carry on my unexpurgated exploration of all the dodgy 70's and 80's titles from the video shop. The rule was, I could watch whatever, as long as he was there for the first viewing to make sure...I don't know. That it wasn't porn? (Though I am strongly convinced after seeing 70's and 80's porn later in life that horror and porn are so linked up as to be close sister genres, in many ways; the low budget kinds of both, at any rate.)
So I saw lots of films I probably shouldn't have seen at this age because dad loved it when I thought for myself (except when I disagreed with him, when of course, it was disliked intensely!). I was fascinated with horror, and still am. It's partly because I'm deeply woo, and convinced there's more here (in the world) than meets the eye and so far recognised science, and supernatural horror was around a lot at that time and was one of the few places to feed my need for more. Since then there are many more books, documentaries and other sources for my speculative ideas on life. But it was too late. My love of horror, supernatural and otherwise, stayed with me when it's initial function was over. I stayed with the countryside camp slashers (Friday the 13th [1980] being the classic there), because...I loved the scenery. I know that sounds weird - but sometimes I'd be looking straight past the characters and slight plots and be wandering off mentally into the woods/fields myself. American countryside is beautiful. The Burning was a favourite of this sub-genre from the first time I saw it.
I've seen it off and on again over the years, always having new ideas and opinions about it, mostly about how I'm relating to the characters. Sometimes I hate it - so many unlikeable characters; the time I forgot about Cropsy killing the sex worker near the beginning (so cruel, she was nice to him, and she wasn't representative of those who hurt him, so why her other than opportunity?); the orderly in the hospital being needlessly voyeuristic at Cropsy's suffering (more cruelty, casual and unnecessary)...so many unlikeable people.
And then sometimes my mind focusses on the better natured parts of it - Fisher Stevens and Jason Alexander's characters sarcastically sticking up for the hapless and odd Alfred - who can't seem to express in words his fascination for the Sally character, creeping about after her and trying to scare her instead. The constant joking about, the sinking kayak scene. As an English person and an introvert, the very idea of American summer camp seems hellish - you can't get away from people if you need to! - but these films often make it look like chaotic lighthearted fun. Fiction is great. Then there's Glaser - what a weird boy: strangely childlike all the time, sweet and insecure with Sally, but a bully and a thug with everyone else. All the teens are much more childlike than we are used to now in our horror. Not even the self awareness of the original Scream (1996) teens; and have you watched the series remake of I Know What You Did Last Summer (2020)? Oh my god, could you squash any more unlikeable, selfish and shallow Insta TikTokers into one series? Why do TV execs have this idea of millenials as like this? They are a much more varied lot of people than this constant stereotyping as vicious overgrown children. I had to stop watching an episode before the end as I only liked 2 people and one of them got killed in a very early episode. I just didn't care what happened next.
Yes, I am complaining about character development and portrayal in horror, be it in film or TV. There's no reason why you can't paint a shorthand character and have it be interesting and sympathetic, even when you don't like that character. Everyone in Final Exam [1982], for example - tiny portraits, you get who they are, what 'types' and it works. Though, teen slasher horrors specialise in teens you don't like much. It started off with the 'if you have sex you die' trope, but then just became about general spoiled youth, overprivileged and 'getting what was coming to them' in the eyes of...? I'm not sure who, middle aged white men most probably, since they are to blame for more or less everything in Western society (I'm not kidding).
Back to The Burning. I always used to remember Alfred as the
strange little hero – but it’s Todd, denim shirted Bruce Campbell lookalike, just oozing responsibility and grown-upness who actually saves the day. Yet…Todd,
in a twist I totally forgot, is to blame for the whole thing, by being one of
the people who originally burnt Cropsy and caused him to stop being grumpy and
start being psychotic in the first place. He seems so nice
and reliable and responsible – because of what he did before? Trying to make up for it? But…how could he tell the Camp Blackfoot
story with such relish round the campfire, knowing he was a part of it? That Cropsy may have survived, in agony,
because of what he’d done? On the other hand –
they 'pranked' Cropsy in the first place because he was a bully, from what they
said (beating a child for no reason was mentioned); so here is Todd again, sticking up for bullied (and now killed)
children. So maybe not all bad? Complicated. (And where could they have possibly gotten a skull with worms in it that looked so realistic?! Far too realistic for ...Stanley just walked past and told me to let it go. Tsk.)
My relationship with the film is further complicated by realising Harvey Weinstein wrote the main story idea – the film is full of men
trying to have sex with women – the women get killed either way – Karen for not
doing it; Sally for doing it. There’s prominent
bullying entitled men here – and they die too: Glaser and Eddie. When Jason David was asked what his best
memories of filming The Burning were, he answered, “looking at Carrick Glenn” (actress playing Sally – naked shower scene comes to mind, lots of gratuitous and at the time
expected boob action). In the context of a Harvey Weinstein stink laying over the production, which until all the stories broke years later with Rose McGowan in particular, I had no clue about because I follow films, characters and actors, not directors or producers; it makes the playful comment seem sad. But Jason Alexander distanced himself from The Burning many years ago, and in the same Twitter exchange too, see below. One of many actors making a film on the way up that is looked at differently later, the film a bit damned by association with an actual predator. The past is a different country. I've always liked Jason Alexander too. I'm a sucker for the socially awkward characters he so often plays.
As a feminist (among other labels), I've spent years a bit conflicted as to why I love male made horror films, full of the male gaze, killing women. The Italian and Spanish 70's directors in particular, enjoy it too much. The answer is complicated, and inconclusive. There's the usual strong final woman protagonist who triumphs over the 'killer' - which is always cathartic. Though I used to worry the women would be in mental hospitals for the rest of their lives as a result of the events, whatever they were. (Halloween Kills [2021] tried to riff on trauma caused to a final woman, and her town. Sorry to say they botched that film almost unimaginably badly, but I see where they were trying to go with the idea of longterm and repeated trauma and how it haunts and warps you as a person, family, town, culture; abused becoming abusers etc.) The subject of why I like horror is a seperate post another time, I think. It's a lot about the characters, a lot about the psychology of being afraid and how to get past it. I'm a massive wuss as a person, usually - horror makes me feel braver.
Interestingly, in The Burning, there is no final girl - just two final boys. Which is fair, as boys were the ones who hurt Cropsy to begin with. This is a film less about violence and a reckoning with pretty young women than many other slashers of the era. There's more male victims than usual. It seems to me more about lost opportunities and the generalised rage that makes in a person. Coupled with the pain of a disfiguring and life-changing full body injury: five years in hospital is a long time to agonise and brood, and decide revenge against cruel children is a great idea. I often wondered if the weirdness of the Alfred character was meant to show that he was a sort of unfortunate Cropsy in waiting type of person, and the fact he had to fight him with Todd at the end, and that he was the one who burned Cropsy again showed that he would not be following on the path of the lonely embittered caretaker, that his life would go a different way now. Not through a show of strength (defeating Cropsy), but because Todd came back for him and helped him, showing Alfred a different way of relating to people. A more healthy way. But then, as you see, I can overthink for England.
Speaking of actors making long ago films reinterpreted later, this is one of those horror films containing early appearences by later stars, here the already mentioned Jason David; but Fisher Stevens and Holly Hunter too – Fisher Stevens gets
more air time though, being the finger chopped of the wonderfully infamous and
too short raft scene - which is always way longer in memory. I don't know why more pleople don't remember Tom Hanks' small but memorable part in He Knows You're Alone [1980] - another low key gem. Astonishing how many later stars began in horror.
Lastly, the Rick Wakeman soundtrack is the final word in horror themes: as iconic as Halloween, in a different sort of way. Music is a big reason why horrors are great. Now, as usual, after having re-viewed this, I've got it earworming my head, probably for a week or so before its supplanted by something else. You hear too - this is the main theme:
That's enough overthinking for now. Till next time :-)
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