The Burning
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- For the Seinfeld episode, see The Burning (Seinfeld episode) For the Doctor Who novel, see The Burning (Doctor Who) For the music group, see Rocky Gray
| The Burning | |
|---|---|
 Poster for The Burning. |
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| Directed by | Tony Maylam |
| Written by | Harvey Weinstein Tony Maylam |
| Starring | Jason Alexander, Leah Ayres, Brian Backer, Fisher Stevens, Holly Hunter |
| Music by | Rick Wakeman |
| Release date(s) | 1981 |
| Running time | 91 min. |
| Language | English |
The Burning is a 1981 horror film directed by Tony Maylam, with music by Rick Wakeman and early appearances from Jason Alexander and Holly Hunter.
[edit] Plot
The Burning tells the story of a mean, drunken caretaker at a summer camp (nicknamed Cropsy, after the huge garden shears he carries) who falls victim to a particularly nasty prank which leaves him horribly burned and disfigured. Following his release from hospital, he returns to his old stomping ground and begins a murder spree.
[edit] Controversy
The Burning found itself at the centre of some controversy in the early 1980s, when the British video label Thorn-EMI accidentally released the uncut version of the film on videotape rather than the slightly trimmed version passed by the British Board of Film Classification. The tapes were impounded under the Obscene Publications Act, and The Burning was added to the video nasties list. The two major scenes of contention were Cropsy's frantic (although unrealistic) mass-murder spree in the "raft massacre" sequence, and the sight of a pair of scissors piercing a woman's flesh in the post-title sequence.
Vipco released a truncated version in the early 1990s, missing about thirty seconds' worth of Savini's gore effects, but by 2001 the censor board was ready to pass the uncut version.
