MovieChat Forums > The Burning (1981) Discussion > Likeable characters in a slasher?

Likeable characters in a slasher?

posted 9 years ago by jackthehack
9 replies | jump to latest

I honestly think this is one of the few slashers in which there are characters who you feel sad for when they get violently killed. Now, they are not three-dimensional living and breathing specimens but they are not ultra-obnoxious and so despicable that we root for them to die. Sure, Alfred is very annoying but even he is not made out to be vile and irredeemable. Even the bad guy has a moderately sympathetic backstory.

Most of the slashers today wallow so much in gore and viscera that they forget that we need atleast somebody to root for. In most of the good FT13 movies, we had likeable characters like Alice, Ginny, Megan, Tommy(From 4 and 6).

Likewise, in the Burning, most of these were normal, decent kids who were getting butchered like Woodstock, Dave, Todd, Sally.

A very underrated slasher.

[–] yggi 9 years ago

I agree. I only saw this movie recently, and I was actually surprised to find that most of the characters were just regular, likeable people.

[–] dazzaler44 9 years ago

Just watched it again and i really enjoyed this cast. Very likable and the raft massacre scene really hit hard!

[–] josephdonavyn 9 years ago

Yeah they felt like real kids, the only ones I weren't really worried about seein go were Eddie & Glazer

[–] buffy1234515 9 years ago

Randy Meeks from Scream - he's a likeable character

[–] jackthehack 8 years ago

Yeah. A rare self-aware character who was not annoying.

[–] Rena_Mahone 8 years ago

I didn't mind a couple of characters in "Just Before Dawn" as well.

🐺 Boycott movies that involve real animal violence (& their directors) 🐾

[–] neiloldfield 8 years ago

cropsy killed Woodstock, what a git! cropsy that is, not Woodstock who is awesome

[–] missnat (1179) 7 years ago

Woodstock was funny.

[–] heyteegs (1207) 4 years ago

Everyone jokes about the small size of Woodstock’s member. When he goes to get the vitamin E he walks straight to the camera which is ‘member-high’ and I thought ‘well, he doesn’t look like he’s that small’. Then I wondered, again, how much input Weinstein had with that scene, considering the communiques that have been released about his size. It’s difficult to look at this movie in an objective light now that I saw it was Created and Produced by Harvey Weinstein.