OMG! I watched “The Burning” this past weekend and … my God did it kick some ass!!! “The Burning” came out in 1981 (the same year as “Friday the 13th”) and boast quite a few names with it and it was the first “Miramax” film.

“The Burning” has a very similar story line to the aforementioned “Friday the 13th.” A mad killer stalks the woods at Camp Blackfoot for revenge. You can look for Jason Alexander, Holly Hunter and Fisher Stevens all in early film roles as campers in peril. And that’s one of the many things that I loved about “The Burning” is that it’s the young campers that are the main focus of the killings. All the deaths in “Friday the 13” are directed at the camp counselors and happen before the ‘lil campers even arrive.

But what really makes “The Burning” kick so hard are Tom Savini’s masterful makeup effects. I was totally floored by the masterful “massacre” scene right in the middle of the movie. All the deaths are extremely brutal for a film that played in 1981. Maybe Savini was trying to one-up his own work on “Friday the 13th.” Well … he one-ups it in spades.

So, if you like campers in the woods slasher films as much as I do, then you definitely need to check out “The Burning.”