Back in the day, Craven shocked and awed with the best of them. The mutants from Hill Have Eyes were frightening mirror images of people left behind by their own nation. Michael Berryman was the savage Pluto, the most brutal and violent of the clan, and paired with Cravens fiction-from-fact story they were able to create a memorable exploitation horror flick that became an instant classic for its various disturbing themes and raw violence.
Versus Jason: Much like Saw tooth, Jason would have a tough time taking on the clan more than one at a time. Not only that, but Pluto is a scavenger and a hunter, not only killing families but relying on them as a means for food. While Jason is killing for revenge, Pluto, Mercury and the others are killing to live.
The Burning has a lot going for it in retrospect. First onscreen appearance of Jason Alexander and Holly Hunter and one of the first big Miramax films, produced by one Weinstein and written by the other. Cropsy is a camp caretaker who receives deforming burns across his entire body because of a cruel prank played by the camp kids. He survives and five years later strikes back with a fury. Cropsy is actually pretty badass, embarking on a frantic killing spree near the end of the movie that brings four campers to their demise, and he shakes things up a bit foregoing knives and hatchets for a pair of gardening shears.
Versus Jason: In sheer size, Cropsy is imposing to the normal human but Jason is no normal human being. Youve got to give him credit for slicing and dicing at a speed normal only accomplished by a Slapchop and his weapon of choice gets major points for ingenuity. In Cropsy, Jason just may meet his match in both style and efficiency.
