The Burning
At Camp Blackfoot, five boy campers decide to frighten the caretaker, Cropsy (Lou David). The group heads over to his cabin with a box, and one boy goes inside, puts the box down, lights something and walks out. They rap on the window until Cropsy wakes up, and sees a wormy skull with lit candles in the eye sockets. He screams and inadverntany knocks over the skull, setting the bed afire and burning a nearby gasoline can which explodes, spreading flames all over the cabin. Cropsy runs out, engulfed in flames, and falls down a small incline into the nearby lake. One week later, at St. Catherine's hospital, an orderly takes a nebbish intern to see a man, badly burnt, who was lucky to survive. As the orderly stands by the curtain to an oxygen tent, Cropsy's charred hand grabs the orderly, who screams in terror.Five years later, Cropsy is released from the hospital, apparently very disfigured from the scorching episode. Cropsy walks the streets at night, dressed in all black clothing with a hat and hiding in the shadows so no one will get a clear look at his face. A prostitute standing by the entrance to a seedy apartment building offers to take him inside. Cropsy enters the prostitute's apartment (being careful to turn out the lights before he enters). As she is preparing, Cropsy gets close and the terrified hooker tells him to leave after seeing his (still unseen) disfigured face. Cropsy struggles with the prostitute, grabs a pair of scissors, and stabs the hooker to death.Several days later at Camp Stonewater, several of the campers are playing baseball, Cropsy is glimpsed crouching in the bushes armed with a pair of garden sheers, but he does not intervene. That evening in the cafeteria, one of the campers, Karen (Carolyn Houlihan) tells the councelor Michelle (Leah Ayres) that she likes the camper Eddy, but she is a little frightened of him because of his macho nature.The next morning, another camper named Sally (Carrick Glenn) wakes up and goes to shower. While showering, she hears a noise and screams "who's there?" She throws back the shower curtain and screams. Michelle, Karen, and the rest of the girls from her cabin run in and they see Alfred (Brian Backer) running away. Coucelor Todd (Brian Matthews) stops Alfred and has a serious talk with him in his office. Alfred says that he just wanted to scare Sally and that people are always picking on him. Todd says that he knows how Alfred feels because, five years ago, when Todd was a camper at a nearby summer camp, he and several of his friends were sent home from camp for a practical joke that went wrong. A little later, Glazer (Larry Joshua), Sally's brutish boyfriend, warns Alfred to stay away from his girl.Later, the campers are swimming in the lake when Glazer pushes Alfred off the dock and into the water. One of Alfred's friends, Dave (Jason Alexander) jumps in and helps Alfred out because he cannot swim. Dave, Woodstock (Fisher Stevens), Eddy (Ned Eisenberg) and Fish (J.R. McKechnie) help Alfred get revenge against Glazer. Woodstock shoots Glazer in the butt with an air pistol while he is on a raft trying to woo Sally.In the cabin that night, Cropsy is hanging around and spying on the campers when Alfred reacts when he sees Cropsy's at the window. But the other campers don't see anything. Glazer asks Fish to buy some condoms from him for his upcoming intimate time with Sally, while Dave and Woodstock play cards. In the cafeteria, the head councelor talks to Michelle, Todd, and the rest of the campers about a three-day canoe trip to Devil's Creek, several miles downriver from the camp.The next day, a large group of campers are out canoeing. At night, around a campfire, Todd tells the story of Cropsy the caretaker. He mentions the prank and that Cropsy survives in the woods, killing animals and eating them raw. Eddy jumps out in a mask and scares everyone. Later, after everyone has gone to sleep for the night, Eddy and Karen take a walk to a nearby small lake where they begin kissing. Karen seems doubtful about wanting to have sex with Eddy, and he decides to skinny dip in the lake. When Karen joins him and remains unsure about his true intentions, Eddy grows angry, and Karen leaves. She finds her clothes scattered around the trees. While looking for them, Karen is attacked and killed by Cropsy who slashes her throat with a pair of garden shears.The next morning, Todd and Michelle ask Eddy where Karen is and he says that he does not know. Soon, they learn that all the canoes are missing, and Todd finally decides that the group needs to construct a makeshift raft to get back to their camp. After helping cutting down some small trees, the group manages to finish the raft. Glazer goes off with Sally to make out with her while Alfred spies on them.Eddy, Woodstock, Fish, and two of the female campers Marnie (Bonnie Deroski) and Rhoda (Ame Segull) leave on the raft to row back to camp. After paddling up river for a few miles, they see one of their canoes and row towards it. But when they reach their canoe (in the movie's most shocking and violently horrific scene) Cropsy, crouched inside waiting, leaps out onto the raft and, in a matter of seconds, slashes, chops, and dismembers all five campers to death.That evening, unaware of the massacre on the raft, Todd and the others wait for help to arrive. Glazer and Sally go off in a sleeping bag for a remote part of the woods for sex. Despite the unsatisfying moments of intimacy, they decide to stay for another. Glazer goes back to the main campsite to get matches to light a fire. While he is gone, Cropsy attacks Sally. Glazer gets the matches, and Alfred gets out of his sleeping bag to follow Glazer to watch him and Sally have sex. Glazer returns to the sleeping bag to find Sally dead, and he is killed by Cropsy who impales him by his neck onto a tree with the shears. Alfred runs back to the campsite to tell Todd that Glazer is dead and the "man with the horrible face" did it. Todd reluctantly follows Alfred back to the site where they find the dead and bloody Glazer and Sally. Cropsy jumps out from behind a tree and swipes at Todd with the shears, nicking him in his forehead. Alfred screams and runs away into the woods with Cropsy in pursuit. Todd wakes up and stumbles off into the woods.The next day, the campers see the raft return as it floats down towards them. Michelle swims out to the raft and finds various parts of the campers on the raft, including the dead and mutilated Woodstock. Todd returns to the camp and tells Michelle and the six remaining campers, Barbara, Tiger, Sophie, Diane, Alan, and Dave, to row back to the camp to get help while he goes off to find Alfred who may still be alive. Todd grabs a felling axe and goes looking for Alfred who is hiding in the woods from Cropsy still hounding him.The campers on the raft return to Camp Stonewater and Michelle warns the supervisor, Jeff, to rescue Todd and Alfred still out there. Jeff and Michelle jump in a motorboat and head down river towards Devil's Creek.Meanwhile, Alfred is grabbed by Cropsy and bound and gagged inside a building which looks like an old copper mine. Todd, having heard Alfred's screams, gets to the mine shaft and goes inside (after finding a dead Karen). Cropsy pins Alfred's left arm to a wall with the shears and goes after Todd with an old blowtorch which is a crudely modified flame-thrower. Todd enters the area near a workshop and stable area and sees Cropsy (whose horribly burned face is finally seen) holding the flamethrower. A flashback shows that Todd was one of the five campers who was responsible for the prank. Cropsy turns off the flamethrower, and Todd hears Alfred scream again. Cropsy reappears again in the shed and turns back on the flamethrower and tries to set Todd on fire while he swings at the manic with the axe. As Cropsy is swinging the flames around, Alfred frees himself and stabs Cropsy in the back with the garden shears. At the same time, Michelle and Jeff arrive at the campsite where she waves down a police helicopter that arrives and disembarks a few policemen who advance into the woods. Back at the mine, Todd and Alfred begin to walk out of the mine when Cropsy revives and attacks Alfred. Alfred moves out of the way as Todd swings the axe, hitting Cropsy in the face and pinning him to a support pillar. Alfred grabs Cropsy's modified flamethrower and sets him afire. Now relieved that Cropsy is finally dead, Alfred and Todd walk out of the mine shaft while the standing-up body of Cropsy continues to burn.In the final scene, the story of Cropsy and his legend is being told around a campfire.
revenge, cult, murder, violence, prank