FILM · 1981 · USA
The Burning
25 archived facts 5 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
25 Interesting Facts About The Burning
Interesting Facts (11)
- #001
The film's ending was shot in the ruins of an old, abandoned copper mine that the production team found while scouting the area.
- #002
In an interview with "Total Film" magazine, Holly Hunter said the following about her first film: "--Well, look, I got paid more than I ever could've imagined on "The Burning"; I was making over a thousand dollars a week, which was unbelievable. I could pay my rent, I didn't have to wait tables for a while, I made a lot of new friends and I was kind of a glorified extra. I got my Screen Actors Guild card. So it was amazing."
- #003
Most of the film's night scenes in the woods were shot day for night. The only exception was the campfire scenes, which were actually shot at night.
- #004
The film's director, Tony Maylam, said there was so much dust in the old abandoned copper mine where the film's ending was shot that he was still coughing several weeks after all the scenes filmed there were completed.
- #005
The film's director, Tony Maylam, said Cropsy had many more scenes that were to be shot for this film, but he decided not to show Cropsy too much in order to make him scarier in the story.
- #006
This film, particularly because of its famous raft massacre scene, was one of the first films to be placed on the United Kingdom's video nasty list.
- #007
In Glazer's murder scene in the film, Larry Joshua pushed himself upward on two wooden planks to make it look as if Cropsy lifted him first, with the garden shears piercing through his neck and physically lifting him off the ground, and then impaled him with them into a tree by his neck.
- #008
It was the film's director, Tony Maylam, who chose the garden shears as Cropsy's weapon.
- #009
This film launched the film careers of the acclaimed producers Harvey Weinstein and his brother Bob Weinstein. Their mother, Miriam Weinstein, was also a pre-production assistant. It is also alleged to be the start of Harvey's decades-long series of sexual abuse against women in the film industry, beginning with him exposing himself in front of a young female intern and then asking her to massage him.
- #010
Although the title sequence at the end of the film says it was shot in western New York, most of the camp scenes were actually filmed at the William H. Pouch Scout Camp in Staten Island, New York, NY.
- #011
In an interview, the film's director, Tony Maylam, recalled that Carolyn Houlihan, who was Miss Ohio USA in 1979, shot her first nude scene in the film and had a very hard time when it came to taking off all her clothes and performing completely naked in front of an all-male crew. She spent hours in the water while the crew shot several takes of the scene from different angles, and walked naked and wet on the shore. By comparison, Carrick Glenn, who shot an outdoor shower scene, was very comfortable being naked in front of the camera.
Production Story (1)
- #012
In 1980 Harvey Weinstein was desperate to get into the film business. Weinstein and his production partner Michael Cohl noticed the success of low-budget horror films such as The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) and Halloween (1978) and began looking for horror stories. Weinstein, who had heard stories about the Cropsy legend as a young camper in upstate New York, brought the story to Cohl, who loved it.
Behind the Scenes (11)
- #013
Special effects makeup artist Tom Savini turned down Friday the 13th: Part 2 (1981) in order to work on this film.
- #014
Special effects makeup artist Tom Savini was not very happy with his work on Cropsy's burn makeup in the film because he was given only three days to do it.
- #015
The scene in which Cropsy's legs kick wildly at the fire was actually performed by special effects makeup artist Tom Savini.
- #016
To create Cropsy's distorted point-of-view shots in the film, the cinematographer smeared Vaseline on the outer edge of the camera lens.
- #017
The film's wardrobe consisted mostly of the actors' own clothing. There was rarely a costumed person on set.
- #018
According to the film's director, Tony Maylam, the reason the film's ending does not take place in a cave as is often assumed is that the cave where it was to be shot was full of bats. Special effects makeup artist Tom Savini also said that another cave scouted for the film suddenly collapsed shortly after it was examined.
- #019
It was special effects makeup artist Tom Savini who swung the axe that kills Cropsy at the end of the film.
- #020
In the scene where Todd is chased by Cropsy at the end of the film, and in the scene where Karen finds his body in the abandoned building, Karen was actually not there during filming, nor was she supposed to be. It was later decided during the editing stage to add her body to the scene, and a frozen frame from her death scene was also used.
- #021
According to special effects makeup artist Tom Savini's DVD documentary Blood'n Fire Memories with Tom Savini (2007), the story of this film, which is similar to the earlier Friday the 13th (1980), was actually written before Friday the 13th (1980) was made.
- #022
Special effects makeup artist Tom Savini played classical music throughout the long process of making plaster casts of the actors' faces.
- #023
Only five canoes were used in the canoe water fight scene in the film, but a sixth canoe is visible in the final shot, during which both canoes capsized and the camera lens got wet.
Characters & Cast (1)
- #024
Composer Rick Wakeman was initially offered a percentage of the film's profits, but he decided to take a flat fee instead because he thought there was absolutely no chance the film would be successful. To Wakeman's complete surprise, however, it became the highest-grossing horror film in Japan at the time.
Deeper Meaning (1)
- #025
The film is quite unusual for a slasher in that most of the women killed in it had not had sex with men before they died (in fact, they had adamantly refused to be seduced into sex). It is also a man with a violent past, rather than the typical innocent, helpless and morally upright "final girl," who takes on the killer and survives to tell the story.
Related pages
- Clown in a Cornfield — The Burning comes up in the facts on that page
- Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma — The Burning comes up in the facts on that page
Sources & editorial notes
Reference databases
- IMDb
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