The Burning

MGM, the Weinstein brothers and none other than Corky Burger have joined forces to bring us this rather weak and derivative attempt at fraternity-horror. "Cropsy", the pretty unpleasant caretaker at a lakeside holiday camp is the victim of a rather cruel prank perpetrated by some spoilt, immature, youth. Scoot on a few years and this now heavily scarred and somewhat narked individual is out for revenge on those who have turned him into a walking walnut. Meantime, there is a new generation of sex-obsessed teenagers frequenting a nearby camp where "Todd" (Brian Matthews) tries to keep them from killing, bullying and/or shagging each other before he, and the others, begin to realise that shower snoopers and mischief makers are most definitely not all they have to worry about. To be fair, it's not a terrible film - it's just really poorly written with some banal dialogue and some stereotypical characters that frankly deserved all they could get from crispy "Cropsy". The wooded scenario lends itself well in creating just the merest hint of menace and the hand-held camera work is quite effective at times as these rather vacuous American beauties face their ultimate challenge. It looked OK when I saw this recently on a big screen, but a few drinks and a storm outside would probably help it just as well on the television in October.