Horror History: THE BURNING is Now 40 Years Old
The seminal slasher flick THE BURNING was released on this day in 1981!
The Burning was released on this day back in 1981. This film inevitably gets compared to
Friday the 13th, as it was released a year after that franchise’s first film and in the same year as
Friday the 13th Part 2. Both
The Burningand the
Friday the 13th movies featured camp counselors being stalked and killed by a psychopathic assailant seeking revenge.
The film was directed by Tony Maylam and marked the feature film debut of Jason Alexander, Fisher Stevens, and Holly Hunter.
5 Cult Horror Movies to Stream on Amazon Prime
Screenshot: Bryanston Distributing Company
In the mood for a cult movie but already seen all the go-to classics? Building on our previous list, here are five offbeat picks streaming on Amazon Prime that will bring you tales of werewolves, Satanists, witches, and two different (but also sorta kinda
similar) underground monsters.
1) C.H.U.D. (1984)
If you write off this sci-fi horror from director Douglas Cheek because you assume it’s purely ridiculous the cheeky name of movie’s boogeymen, the “Cannibalistic Humanoid Underground Dwellers,” has a hand in giving that impression you’ll be denying yourself the joy that comes from watching it. Beneath the streets of Lower Manhattan, a race of creatures spawned from toxic waste have been gobbling up all of the unhoused people who’re living underground; when that supply dries up, they start preying on anyone unlucky enough to walk past a manhole.
The Burning has some unique elements that’ve assured its own cult status.
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First, just to get it out of the way, watching
The Burning in 2021 carries with it the startling site of seeing Harvey Weinstein’s name in the credits; the film, which was produced by Harvey and Bob Weinstein’s then-fledgling Miramax, based its script on Harvey’s original idea. But there’s an asterisk appended to the “original” there the future disgraced mogul actually drew upon a New York-area urban legend centering on a boogeyman named “Cropsey” to come up with the film’s villain. The legend even gets a proper framing within the film when a version of it gets shared around a campfire on two different occasions as the story progresses. (For more Cropsey-related urban folklore, check out the spooky 2009 documentary