Combine Tom Savini's genius fx talent with producer and creator Harvey Weinstein's sociopathic cruelness and you get The Burning, a wicked slasher but also an incredibly mean film. The killer's genesis is mean, the kids are mean, the hospital orderlies are mean, the killer himself is mean as hell, and even the erotic sequences are mean. Usually there are some funny hijinks and shenanigans within summer camp movies that give the viewer a break but here they fall flat and don't generate the same light-hearted emotions so that what you are left with is relentless and unforgiving. There is an undeniable cruel streak that runs throughout the runtime, but I think it can be said that without it the film's impact would have been lessened considerably.

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