Review: THE BURNING (1981)

I love FRIDAY THE 13TH and its sequels (yes, even the silly ones like A NEW BEGINNING and JASON TAKES MANHATTAN). I love MADMAN. I love SLEEPAWAY CAMP. But I have to admit - THE BURNING is the best "campers in peril" body count flick ever made. Period. And because of that, it stands as one of the best slasher movies ever made. Period.

I don't really know what it is about The Burning that makes it such a cult classic. During its initial release, the film didn't draw up much attention - most of this was due to be released a week after the very similar and highly anticipated FRIDAY THE 13TH PART II. Yet over the years, fans have seen its brilliance in the genre, and The Burning has enjoyed quite a little resurgence as a cult classic.

Pop-culture aficionados will probably recall The Burning as being the debuts of acclaimed producers Bob and Harvey Weinstein (who have released several Academy Award winning pictures), as well as actors Jason Alexander ("SEINFELD"), Fisher Stevens (SHORT CIRCUIT), Brian Backer (FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH), and of course Holly Hunter (THE PIANO) in a "blink and you'll miss her!" role. The film was also co-written by Brad Grey, who you might recognize as the Chairman and Chief Executive of Paramount Pictures. And Peter Lawrence, a co-writer, went onto pen successful cult television series like "THUNDERCATS". Basically, The Burning got a lot of successful careers started.

The plot is straight and to-the-point, as with most body count flicks; a horrible crime from the past comes back to haunt the unsuspecting, sex-craved, careless youths of the present. In the case of The Burning, some kids at summer camp play a prank on their cruel camp caretaker, Cropsy (Lou David). This prank goes horribly wrong, resulting in extreme scarring, both physically and mentally, and over the course of 5 years in a hospital Cropsy is transformed into a monster. He heads back to his old camping grounds to get revenge, starting with Todd (Brian Matthews), one of the kids he blames for his disfigurement who is now a camp counselor himself.

While The Burning is undoubtedly known for its gore effects (created by none other than Tom Savini, who turned down Friday the 13th Part II for this job), but that is not the draw of the film. The draw is definitely the fact that The Burning is just a fun movie - its a perfect combination of suspense, horror gore, and teenage fun. There are scenes that show the campers splashing each other in a kayak race, shooting the bully with a pea-shooter, and playing pranks on each other. While these antics might become annoying with a less talented cast, The Burning works. It makes our potential victims likable, fun people we want to see live... not just slasher fodder like in most other movies of this kind.

The movie's villain, Cropsy, is also a large reason as to why the film works so well. Cropsy does not fall into the pits of forgettable slasher villains, but he stands out on his own. Imagine, if Jason had only appeared in one movie, would he be so memorable? Cropsy oddly comes off as a hybrid of Jason and Freddy Krueger - he's a burn victim out for revenge, but the people he's getting revenge on are teens attending a summer camp.

Cropsy lurks in the shadows and bushes throughout most of the film; carrying his big garden shears as blades and studying his prey before finally attacking. And when Cropsy attacks, its sudden and frightening - slashing, stabbing, and chopping all sorts of body parts. The movie's most famous scene involves a group of unsuspecting teens on a makeshift raft paddling toward a kayak... and someone very unfortunate is inside! The scene is shocking, unexpected, and brutal. I could only imagine audience reactions back in 1981.

But a villain is only as good as the hero they oppose. Here, that hero is Todd. Unlike most slasher films, the final showdown in man vs. monster, rather than woman vs. monster. In most cases, this would be a risky move, but in the case of The Burning, is the right move. It helps elevate the film to a sort of unexpected, unconventional slasher. As a character, Todd is a perfect hero. He is one of the ones responsible for what happened to Cropsy, but he is also remorseful for it. And at the end of the day, Todd would risk his life to save the younger campers he's looking after. It's upsetting that Brian Matthews career did not take off like the other cast-mates.

Other great characters include the Brooklyn-accented bully Glazer (Larry Joshua), the hot girl at camp Sally (Carrick Glenn), the temperamental Eddy (Ned Eisenberg), Todd's outdoorsy girlfriend Michelle (Leah Ayres), the nerdy and slightly creepy Alfred (Backer), and of course jokesters Dave (Alexander) and Woodstock (Stevens).

Basically, The Burning is a slasher film that I would recommend to any moviegoer looking for a good horror movie - whether they are fans of the genre or not. It has great, memorable gore and an excellent build of suspense. It has fun, enjoyable characters, a hero to root for, and an awesome villain. It started the careers of many familiar faces and names. And its atmosphere is just awesome. If you are standing in a video store contemplating between watching Friday the 13th or The Burning, go with Cropsy. You won't regret it!

Recommendations:
Friday the 13th Part II (1981)
Just Before Dawn (1981)
Sleepaway Camp (1983)

Review: THE FORBIDDEN PHOTOS OF A LADY ABOVE SUSPICION (1970)

I was pleasantly surprised by Luciano Ercoli's thriller THE FORBIDDEN PHOTOS OF A LADY ABOVE SUSPICION (such a long title!). While the giallo genre itself is fascinating and - in some ways - more innovative than American slasher films, it does occasionally crap out some stinkers. But Forbidden Photos is not one of those stinkers, but a smart addition to the genre that perfectly represents the earlier, classier giallo efforts before they fell into the world of underground sleaze (THE NEW YORK RIPPER, for instance).

When I read the NetFlix synopsis for the film, I thought, "Uh oh. This one could be like Lucio Fulci's A LIZARD IN A WOMAN'S SKIN." Which, for me, is a bad thing considering that I found Lizard to be a psychedelic, overly-sexualized mess. Both films have similar basic premises - a beautiful woman believing she is going insane due to fantasies of sex and murder.  These ladies become increasingly convinced that a horrible crime has taken place... or that they are just crazy and are hallucinating the whole thing! Marvio Bava's THE GIRL WHO KNEW TOO MUCH (which I still need to see) also has a very similar plot, and that film is often credited to being the first giallo film to get produced.  I hope that The Girl Who Knew Too Much has more Forbidden Photos in it than Lizard.

Boy, it's great when that happens, though. You end up really liking a movie that you thought you weren't going to like.

The plot of Forbidden Photos is built on twists and turns, so I won't give away too much. Basically, Dagmar Lassander plays Minou, the beautiful and devoted wife to businessman Peter (Pier Paolo Capponi), who is deeply in debt. One night Minou is attacked by a perverted stranger (Simón Andreu) and blackmails her: he claims he has evidence that Peter killed a man, and to keep him from talking Minou has to act as his sexual slave. After agreeing and sleeping with the stranger, she learns that he made the whole "murder thing" up... but he now has photographs documenting their love-making session. And as she tries to come to terms with the whole thing, she enlists in the help of her best friend Dominique (Susan Scott), who is having an affair of her own with Peter. Yes, a whole lot of sleeping around occurs.

Of course, early on in the film, you learn that nothing is what it seems. And that's what makes Forbidden Photos a great film to watch, as it is a masterly crafted mystery that has the ability to flip the whole plot on its side! It's not quite as atmospheric as, say, DON'T TORTURE A DUCKLING and the body count is not as impressive as DEEP RED, but Forbidden Photos is a great psychological thriller that still has the ability to move at a swift pace and entertain, over forty years since its conception.

Giallo enthusiasts and fans of Italian cinema in general should definitely check this gem out. The film, released in 1970, came out only a few months after Dario Argento's famed THE BIRD WITH THE CRYSTAL PLUMAGE took the world by storm, and a whole year before thrillers like Bava's THE TWITCH OF DEATH NERVE or Paolo Cavara's BLACK BELLY OF THE TARANTULA. It marks the beginnings of the giallo movement, when much of the genre's cliches were still undecided. Because of this, Forbidden Photos seems a lot fresher than most of the movies that we as an audience have to come to identify with the genre. It may lack a huge body count and tons of gruesome killings, but it has the essentials and is just as suspenseful and entertaining.

Recommendations:
The Girl Who Knew Too Much (1965)
A Lizard in a Woman's Skin (1971)
What Have You Done to Solonge? (1974)

Review: RETURN TO HORROR HIGH (1987)

Most moviegoers - whether they are fans of the slasher genre or not - who seek out 1987's RETURN TO HORROR HIGH look for an early appearance of Hollywood superstar George Clooney. It doesn't really matter if you're a fan of Mr. Clooney or not - he is one of the most powerful working actors today, and a trip into his not-so-glamorous roles of the past is always interested. It's like watching CUTTING CLASS just to see Brad Pitt, or LEPRECHAUN just to see Jennifer Aniston.

But be warned: if you're looking for Clooney, only watch about the first ten minutes or so of the film. His role is small and he doesn't appear again in the movie. And, after Clooney is gone, there is really no reason to watch this movie anymore. It's horrible. There is no plot to speak of. No creative kills. Very little blood at all. Ugly girls getting naked. And the so-called "spoof" of self-awareness is laughably bland.

None of the characters are interesting. And the entire movie does this weird thing of cutting between the present and the past, which ultimately gets to confusing and the audience can't really tell what's going, if people are really being killed, etc. But then again, the audience probably doesn't care. George Clooney's last moments on screen in Return to Horror High take place, as mentioned, about 10 minutes in. By the time 12 minutes roll by, anyone watching has probably zoned out.

The story revolves around a film crew making a slasher film based on real events. You see, five years ago there was a massacre at a high school. The killer was never caught, but the story faded into urban legend (yes, only after 5 years). Now, some of the crew members shooting the slasher are being picked off. But no one really knows for sure if these people are actually dying, or if they're just leaving the production.

Is Return to Horror High the worst slasher film ever made? It's hard to say. I mean, at least movies like SPLATTER UNIVERSITY have some kind of absurd murders that keep the film afloat, and it never tries to be anything its not. Return to Horror High lacks the interesting murders, and it tries to be funny and witty but it's not. Think of it as a lame pre-SCREAM effort at making fun of slasher movies, without the intelligence of films like SLUMBER PARTY MASSACRE.

I honestly cannot say that I would recommend Return to Horror High on any level. Sure, see the first 10 minutes of it, and then stop watching and use your time doing something more constructive. Because Return to Horror High is an hour and a half of nonsense that I'll never get back.

Recommendations:
Splatter University (1984)
Slaughter High (1986)
Cutting Class (1989)

Top 20 NON-PSYCHO KILLER Horror Movies

1. ALIEN (1979)

Director: Ridley Scott

After investigating an SOS beacon on a distant, seemingly abandoned planet, a mining crew begins to suspect that they have accidentally brought a dangerous creature aboard their ship. 

2. THE SHINING (1980)

Director: Stanley Kubrick

When Jack Torrance gets a gig as the winter caretaker for the Overlook Hotel, he brings his wife and son to the hotel, and soon after Jack and his son start seeing gruesome visions from both the past and future. 

3. ZOMBI (1979)

Director: Lucio Fulci

After a strange boat drifts into the New York harbor, a reporter and a young woman follow its clues to a Caribbean island that may be the birthplace of a zombie epidemic. 

4. JAWS (1975)

Director: Steven Spielberg 

When a giant great white shark terrorizes the small vacation island of Amity, New York on the island's busiest weekend of the year, the new chief, a marine biologist, and a grizzled fisherman set out to stop it.

5. THE EXORCIST (1973)

Director: William Friedkin 

After her young daughter is possessed by mysterious and evil entity, an actress enlists in the aid of two priests - to help rid the girl of the demon. 

6. THE CHANGELING (1980)

Director: Peter Medak

Years after his wife and child are killed in a terrible accident, a man stays at a secluded historical mansion and finds his life being haunted by a mysterious, angry child specter. 

7. THE SIXTH SENSE (1999)

Director: M. Night Shyamalan

A boy has the ability to speak to spirits - although he cannot tell when they are actually dead - and enlists in the aid of a disheartened child psychologist to control the "sense." 

8. I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE (1943)

Director: Jacques Tourneur

A nurse travels to the West Indies to care for the comatose wife of a wealthy plantation owner and starts to suspect that Voodoo is behind most of the bizarre occurrences in the area. 

9. THE BEYOND (1981)

Director: Lucio Fulci 

A young woman inherits an old, secluded Louisiana hotel only to learn that it is the site of many unsolved deaths, all leading to it being built over one of the gates to hell. 

10. THE BIRDS (1963)

Director: Alfred Hitchcock 

A beautiful socialite pursues a potential boyfriend to a small Northern California town, where the birds of the area are attacking the citizens with increased viciousness for no apparent reason. 

11. THE DESCENT (2005)

Director: Neil Marshall

A cave diving expedition for a recently widowed woman and her friends goes horribly wrong when the group becomes trapped and relentlessly pursued by a strange breed of predators in the caves. 

12. POLTERGEIST (1982)

Director: Tobe Hooper 

A family's home is haunted by a host of ghosts that communicate through televisions, can make furniture move without a sound, and possess dolls... and these spirits want the family's daughter. 

13. NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (1968)

Director: George A. Romero

A group of people take refuge in a farmhouse located at the cemetery where a swarm of bloodthirsty zombies rise from their graves to attack the living. 

14. JU-ON (2002)

Director: Takashi Shimizu

A mysterious and vengeful spirit marks and pursues anybody that dares to enter the house in which is resides, created by a horrible crime which once occurred there. 

15. LET SLEEPING CORPSES LIE (1975)

Director: Jorge Grau

Two travelers become prime suspects for several gruesome murders occurring around a small European village, unaware that the real culprits are the living dead. 

16. EVIL DEAD II (1987)

Director: Sami Raimi

Ash returns to the legendary cabin from the first film, this time banding with a group of strangers to defeat the deadly flesh-possessing spirits. 

17. THE RING (2002)

Director: Gore Verbinski

A journalist investigates the origins of a strange video tape which seems to cause the unnatural death of anyone who views it within seven days. 

18. THE OMEN (1976)

Director: Richard Donner 

An American Ambassador and his wife learn that their only child, Damien, is actually the literal Antichrist whose soul purpose is to bring about Armageddon. 

19. 28 DAYS LATER (2002)

Director: Danny Boyle

A man wakes in a hospital four weeks after a virus rapidly spread throughout the United Kingdom and, along with other strangers, tries to adjust to a terrifying new world run by zombie-like humans. 

20. IT (1990)

Director: Tommy Lee Wallace

Seven outcasts in a small New England town battle a demon that takes the form of a child-killing clown and, 30 years later, return to their hometown to defeat the evil once and for all. 

Review: GOING TO PIECES: THE RISE AND FALL OF THE SLASHER FILM

I have to admit. GOING TO PIECES: THE RISE AND FALL OF THE SLASHER FILM is a great documentary that focuses on the slasher film boom of the 1980s - how it rose after the mega success of HALLOWEEN and FRIDAY THE 13TH and fell after the decline of films like SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT. It then goes onto chronicle the post-"Golden Age" films, such as A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET, APRIL FOOL'S DAY, SCREAM, and even the more recent SAW franchise. The movie also briefly touches on films like PSYCHO, PEEPING TOM, and the Giallo thrillers from Italy.

However, there are a lot of things missing from the documentary. Take, for instance, no mention of Agatha Christie novels from the 1930s and 40s, such as AND THEN THERE WERE NONE. Or, that while they acknowledge Psycho and Peeping Tom from 1960, they neglect a French film that is basically the original slasher/splatter hybrid, EYES WITHOUT A FACE. How can any real documentary on the slasher genre ignore Eyes Without a Face, which is not only an important film to the genre but also a historically important picture, for it was among the first films of the influential French New Wave.

Going to Pieces also jumped over nearly 20-years of filmmaking with barely a nod at them. We learn of the success and influence of Psycho and Peeping Tom in 1960 and then leap to 1978 with the release and success of Halloween. Yes, Halloween is probably the single-most important slasher film ever made. But there was a lot that led up to Halloween. Take, for instance, the rise of the exploitation film after the success of Psycho, which led to the creation of the splatter genre - Herschell Gordon Lewis' extra gory features from the mid-60s and early 70s, such as TWO THOUSAND MANIACS! and THE GORE-GORE GIRLS. There was also the original "babysitter in peril" flick, FRIGHT, which certainly had an influence on later films like WHEN A STRANGER CALLS, BLACK CHRISTMAS, and, of course, Halloween.

The documentary mentions THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE and THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT, but glances over their impact. Both of these movies had a tremendous impact. They spawned their own imitations such as DERANGED, DON'T GO IN THE BASEMENT, EATEN ALIVE, THE HILLS HAVE EYES, and I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE, among countless others.

Even Black Christmas does not get its rightful due. John Carpenter has admitted that without Black Christmas, Halloween would never have been made. In fact, Halloween originally started out as a sequel to Black Christmas before it took its own story and form.

What the documentary does best is document the actual slasher film craze that ran after the success of Halloween in 1978, boomed with the success of Friday the 13th and PROM NIGHT in 1980, and then died out in 1983 and 1984 with films like SLEEPAWAY CAMP and Silent Night, Deadly Night.

The filmmakers behind Going to Pieces do know their material. They definitely are not hacks. But they also don't have enough time to really make the movie they must have originally set out to make. The film is half the length it should have been. Rather than barely being an hour and a half long, Going to Pieces should have been at least a two and a half hour documentary, maybe even a three hour documentary. There is simply so much history with the slasher genre and its major contributions - and the stories behind them - that any filmmaker needs to have the necessary time to explore the genre in full.

I mean, really, while Scream certainly got its segment, they completely glossed over the post-Scream slashers, only showing a photo from I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER. Whether people like it or not, the post-Scream slasher films like I Know What You Did Last Summer and URBAN LEGEND are apart of the genre's history now. There is no mention of slasher revivals like HALLOWEEN H20 and BRIDE OF CHUCKY (speaking of Chucky, where is the entire CHILD'S PLAY saga in this documentary?).

It would have also been nice to look at the continuing of the franchise - it has now been broken down into four different groups; foreign hardcore slasher films like HIGH TENSION and COLD PREY, straight to DVD films like AMUSEMENT and THE HILLS RUN RED, torture porn like the Saw franchise and HOSTEL, and of course the remake craze like THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE and HALLOWEEN.

It's not that Going to Pieces is in any way a bad documentary on the slasher genre, it's just that its not a complete one. But for your viewing, its probably the best one out there.

Recommendations:
Nightmares in Red, White, and Blue: The Evolution of the American Horror Film (2009)
American Grindhouse (2010)
The American Nightmare (2000)