USA, 1979
82m
35mm film, colour
mono, English
An American horror film directed by Joseph Ellison. Though it was never prosecuted, it skirted around the edges of the UK’s “video nasties” hysteria in the early 1980s.
Plot Summary
A young psychopath, traumatised by being burned as a child by his overbearing mother, takes to murdering women with a flame thrower.
Credits
Crew
Directed by: Joseph Ellison
© 1979 Turbine Films, Inc.
Turbine Films presents
Produced by: Ellen Hammill
Associate Producers: Matthew Mallinson, Dennis Stephenson
Screenplay: Joseph Ellison, Ellen Hammill, Joseph R. Masefield
Story: Joseph R. Masefield
Director of Photography: Oliver Wood
Editor: Jane Kurson
Music Score: Richard Einhorn
Sound Mixer: Jimmy Kwei
Costumes: Sharon Lynch
Hair and Make-up: Maryann Guar
Special Effects Make-up: Tom Brumberger
Special Effects Coordinator: Peter Kunz
Set Design: Peter Zaiba
Art Direction: Sarah Wood
Cast
Dan Grimaldi (Donny Kohler)
Robert Osth (Bobby Turtle)
Ruth Dardick (Mrs Kohler)
Charlie Bonet (Ben)
Bill Ricci (Vito)
Dennis M. Hunter, John Hedberg (workers)
Johanna Brushay (Kathy Jordan)
Darcy Shean (girl in car)
Mary Ann Chin (woman in street)
Lois Verkruepse (woman with kids)
Susan Smith (girl in market)
Jim Donnegan (clerk)
Claudia Folts (body #1)
Denise Woods (body #2)
Pat Williams (body #3)
Colin McInnes (little Donny)
Ralph D. Bowman (Father Gerritty)
Joey Peschl (Bobby’s son)
Connie Oaks (Bobby’s daughter)
David McComb (salesman)
Alternative Titles
The Burning – television title
The Burning Man – working title
References
Periodicals
- The Hollywood Reporter vol.263 n11 27 Aug 1980) p.2
- Monthly Film Bulletin vol.48 no.567 (April 1981) p.65
- Screen International no.280 21 Feb 1981) p.17
- Screen International no.347 (12-19 June 1982) p.20 – note (News in brief)
- Starburst no.44 1982) p.14
- Variety 11 Jun 1980) p.22
Books
- The Aurum Film Encyclopedia: Horror by Phil Hardy (ed.) p.348
- Film Review 1982-83 by F. Maurice Speed (ed.) p.148
- The Films of the Eighties by Robert A. Nowlan and Gwendolyn Wright Nowlan p.151 – credits, synopsis
- Horror and Science Fiction Films II by Donald C. Willis p.106
- Horror Films of the 1980s by John Kenneth Muir pp.83-85 – credits, synopsis, review
- Horror! 333 Films to Scare You to Death by James Marriott & Kim Newman p.222-223
- The Mammoth Book of Slasher Movies: An A-Z Guide to Over Sixty Years of Blood and Guts by Peter Normanton pp.169-170
- Regional Horror Films, 1958-1990 by Brian Albright p.251
- Serial Killer Cinema: An Analytical Filmography by Robert Cetti p.133
- Style and Form in the Hollywood Slasher Film by Wickham Clayton (ed.) pp.228 n.19
- Twisted Visions: Interviews with Cult Horror Filmmakers by Matthew Edwards pp.63-81
- The Zombie Movie Encyclopedia by Peter Dendle p.63
