The story - about a radioactive serial killer who operates in areas near a "mothballed" nuclear plant - is moderately interesting, but the pace is too leisurely and the ending too abrupt, to say the least. Not a bad film per se, but not good enough to merit a recommendation, either. Mediocre. (*1/2)
4 Reviews
Interesting idea, so-so execution.
lost-in-limbo30 June 2020
-"You my friend are looking for something a little more substantial".
-"Like? And make it simple".
-"Simple... like a radioactive, ah, maniac that kills before he screws. Is that simple enough?"
The low-budget (TV-quality) set in Florida feature "BURNDOWN" plays out like a conventional conspiracy-laced thriller with concerns of meltdown implications, as the mothballed power plant tries to cover up a possible involvement of what points to a radioactive serial killer terrorizing a small town. The investigating sheriff (Peter Firth in laidback mode) is put on vacation due to stepping on the toes of the power plant's influential chief of operations (the robust Hal Orlandini) and that of a leaked story by the sheriff's sly small-time reporter girlfriend (the smoking Cathy Moriarty) implicating them.
I don't know how faithful it's to the source material --- Stuart Collin's novel. But the way it was advertised and the opening nighttime attack sequence kind of makes you believe you are getting a serial killer premise. And I wished they had focused on that side of the story more than they did. The thorough script seems to centre on the scheming going on behind the scenes at the power plant. Even then there's more time showing our sheriff on vacation and kicking back with his girlfriend. Those few, effective moments involving the serial killer created intrigue and unease. We get POV shots, catch glimpses of the killer's mutated hand gushing with green ooze. He claws faces, breaks necks and then the screen freezes on an inverted image of victim's face. It's not until the cops arrive on the scene we see the aftermath.
Too bad there's a lot of leisured plotting consisting of surveillance, tailing and securitizing, than anything really resembling suspense. When it comes around to its reveal you can't help but be somewhat unsatisfied with its heavy-handed, if preposterous reasoning and left bemused by the abrupt ending. The actual tone throughout can be a little jarring in what feels like slight moments of morbid humor in the script, yet the material just like the performances do have that going through the motions impression. Context should probably be a lot drearier than what's actually delivered.
The low-budget (TV-quality) set in Florida feature "BURNDOWN" plays out like a conventional conspiracy-laced thriller with concerns of meltdown implications, as the mothballed power plant tries to cover up a possible involvement of what points to a radioactive serial killer terrorizing a small town. The investigating sheriff (Peter Firth in laidback mode) is put on vacation due to stepping on the toes of the power plant's influential chief of operations (the robust Hal Orlandini) and that of a leaked story by the sheriff's sly small-time reporter girlfriend (the smoking Cathy Moriarty) implicating them.
I don't know how faithful it's to the source material --- Stuart Collin's novel. But the way it was advertised and the opening nighttime attack sequence kind of makes you believe you are getting a serial killer premise. And I wished they had focused on that side of the story more than they did. The thorough script seems to centre on the scheming going on behind the scenes at the power plant. Even then there's more time showing our sheriff on vacation and kicking back with his girlfriend. Those few, effective moments involving the serial killer created intrigue and unease. We get POV shots, catch glimpses of the killer's mutated hand gushing with green ooze. He claws faces, breaks necks and then the screen freezes on an inverted image of victim's face. It's not until the cops arrive on the scene we see the aftermath.
Too bad there's a lot of leisured plotting consisting of surveillance, tailing and securitizing, than anything really resembling suspense. When it comes around to its reveal you can't help but be somewhat unsatisfied with its heavy-handed, if preposterous reasoning and left bemused by the abrupt ending. The actual tone throughout can be a little jarring in what feels like slight moments of morbid humor in the script, yet the material just like the performances do have that going through the motions impression. Context should probably be a lot drearier than what's actually delivered.
Inept, phony thriller
lor_11 May 2023
My review was written in April 1990 after watching the film on MCEG/Virgin video cassette.
The threat of a nuclear power plant disaster was never more boring than in "Burndown", a shot-in-South Africa feature debuting in home video stores.
Following the unsuccessful pattern of "Out on Bail" (also lensed in South Africa in 1988), pic pretends to be taking place in the southern U. S., with very unstead accents attempted. Peter Firth is weirdly cast in the traditional Bo Hopkisn role as a local sheriiff investigating tghe murder-rapes of three young women.
A nuclear power plant was closed down five years earlier after a suspected leak, and it turns out one of the female victims is radioactive.
"Raging Bull" star Cathy Moriary shows up as a newspaper reporter ("from Jacksonville") who teams up with Firth to try and unravel the coverup of an explosion at the plant.
Pic lacks action until the finish, when cheap models explode. Ending is perfunctory though theme music for the out credits has apocalyptic lyrics.
The threat of a nuclear power plant disaster was never more boring than in "Burndown", a shot-in-South Africa feature debuting in home video stores.
Following the unsuccessful pattern of "Out on Bail" (also lensed in South Africa in 1988), pic pretends to be taking place in the southern U. S., with very unstead accents attempted. Peter Firth is weirdly cast in the traditional Bo Hopkisn role as a local sheriiff investigating tghe murder-rapes of three young women.
A nuclear power plant was closed down five years earlier after a suspected leak, and it turns out one of the female victims is radioactive.
"Raging Bull" star Cathy Moriary shows up as a newspaper reporter ("from Jacksonville") who teams up with Firth to try and unravel the coverup of an explosion at the plant.
Pic lacks action until the finish, when cheap models explode. Ending is perfunctory though theme music for the out credits has apocalyptic lyrics.
hot in Florida
petershelleyau10 November 2001
This English film was shot in location in Thorpeville, Florida which explains the odd accents, where Irish brogue keeps slipping through the Southern drawl. Thorpeville is a ghost town after the nuclear power plant was "mothballed", yet there remains enough of a population to allow for a serial killer to be on the loose. Attention is focused on the former power plant when the killer's mark is making his victims radioactive, something which director James Allen represents via a white strobe light on contact. He also breaks necks, claws, and enjoys necrophilia. The screenplay by Anthony Barwick and Colin Stewart, based on a novel by Stuart Collins, therefore incorporates Freddy Kruger and The China Syndrome. You can guess from the title that there is much use of temperature metaphors, but also a surprising anal fixation, with repeated "Move your ass". Unfortunately the treatment is more interested in it's sci fi doomsday nuclear plot than the serial killer genre, so it becomes the opposite of titles like Scream where all you get are the killings. Of the killings that are shown, one uses the cliched subjective camera, but at least the familiarity of the convention and the laugh it raises, creates some interest. Otherwise there is a mire of bad guys and multiple surveillance that destroys any tension. Even given that Thorpeville is a dying metropolis, the underpopulation of scenes makes one consider the production's budget limitations. Allen gives us unprotected transporters of a radioactive body where previous exposure had required the Silkwood shower, a man burned to death in slow motion, Hal Orlandini as the head of the plant speaking phonetically, and Cathy Moriarty as the romantic interest for sheriff Peter Firth, whispering her lines.
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