Cropsy (The Burning)
Encyclopedia
| The Burning character | |
|---|---|
| Cropsy | |
| Development Information | |
| First appearance | The Burning |
| Created by | Harvey Weinstein Harvey Weinstein Harvey Weinstein, CBE is an American film producer and movie studio chairman. He is best known as co-founder of Miramax Films. He and his brother Bob have been co-chairmen of The Weinstein Company, their film production company, since 2005... Tom Savini Tom Savini Thomas Vincent "Tom" Savini is an American actor, stuntman, director, award-winning special effects and makeup artist. He is known for his work on the Living Dead films directed by George A. Romero, as well as Creepshow, The Burning, Friday the 13th, The Prowler, and Maniac. He directed the 1990... |
| Portrayed by | Lou David |
| In-story information | |
| Occupation | Caretaker Property caretaker A Property caretaker is a person, group or organization that cares for real estate for trade or financial compensation, and sometimes as a barter for rent-free living accommodations... |
| Signature weapon | Pruning shears Pruning shears Pruning shears, also called hand pruners , or secateurs are a type of scissors for use with plants. They are strong enough to prune hard branches of trees and shrubs, sometimes up to two centimetres thick... |
| Classification | Serial killer Serial killer A serial killer, as typically defined, is an individual who has murdered three or more people over a period of more than a month, with down time between the murders, and whose motivation for killing is usually based on psychological gratification... |
Cropsy is a fictional character
Character (arts)
A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...
and main antagonist
Antagonist
An antagonist is a character, group of characters, or institution, that represents the opposition against which the protagonist must contend...
of the 1981
1981 in film
-Events:*January 19 - Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer acquires beleaguered concurrent United Artists. UA was humiliated by the astronomical losses on the $40,000,000 movie Heaven's Gate, a major factor in the decision of owner Transamerica to sell it....
horror film
Horror film
Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...
The Burning. He was created by Harvey Weinstein
Harvey Weinstein
Harvey Weinstein, CBE is an American film producer and movie studio chairman. He is best known as co-founder of Miramax Films. He and his brother Bob have been co-chairmen of The Weinstein Company, their film production company, since 2005...
and Tom Savini
Tom Savini
Thomas Vincent "Tom" Savini is an American actor, stuntman, director, award-winning special effects and makeup artist. He is known for his work on the Living Dead films directed by George A. Romero, as well as Creepshow, The Burning, Friday the 13th, The Prowler, and Maniac. He directed the 1990...
, and was based on the urban legend
Urban legend
An urban legend, urban myth, urban tale, or contemporary legend, is a form of modern folklore consisting of stories that may or may not have been believed by their tellers to be true...
"The Cropsy Maniac".
Backstory
Cropsy is an alcoholic and an implied pedophile. He was also the caretakerProperty caretaker
A Property caretaker is a person, group or organization that cares for real estate for trade or financial compensation, and sometimes as a barter for rent-free living accommodations...
of the summer camp "Camp Blackfoot." One night a group of boys play a prank on Cropsy; during the middle of the night, they sneak into his cabin and set a rotting skull on fire, only to have Cropsy wake up and accidentally knock the skull onto his gas tank, causing flames to spread all over his cabin. They watch Cropsy, engulfed in flames, stumble out and fall down a ravine into a river, putting out the flames. Five years later, Cropsy is released from the hospital
Hospital
A hospital is a health care institution providing patient treatment by specialized staff and equipment. Hospitals often, but not always, provide for inpatient care or longer-term patient stays....
, wearing a heavy coat, sunglasses and hat to hide his deformities. He murders a female prostitute and sets out back to the camp where he was burned.
Back at the camp
Cropsy makes it to the camp as everyone is playing baseballBaseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...
, and almost kills a female camper, but hesitates too long. Night rolls around, and a camper named Alfred spots Cropsy outside his window, but no one believes him, so he and fellow campers Dave, Fish, and Woodstock go to the mess hall with everyone else. After supper, everyone then goes to sleep, except for campers Karen and Eddy who sneak off into the woods by another lake, to skinny dip
Skinny Dip
Skinny Dip is a caper novel by Carl Hiaasen first published in 2004.-Plot introduction:Set in South Florida in the course of April, 2003, it is about a woman, Joey Perrone, who takes revenge on her cheating husband after he has tried to murder her...
. They begin to fool around in the lake, while someone takes Karen's clothes. Just as Eddy and Karen are about to have sex
Intercourse
Intercourse may refer to:*Sexual intercourse*Interpersonal communication, any kind of human communication and/or interactionPlaces:*Intercourse, Alabama, USA*Intercourse, Pennsylvania, USABooks:*Intercourse , a 1987 book by Andrea Dworkin...
, Karen decides she's not ready, upsetting Eddy who tries to force himself inside her, making her slap him. Eddy is outraged and orders her to leave him, which she does, only to discover that her clothes have been strewn all over the woods. She begins to collect them all, until she reaches her last article of clothing on a tree, where she is grabbed by Cropsy and has her throat viciously slashed.
The next morning, Michelle finds that Karen has not returned, and she and Todd go out and find Eddy, who tells them she left. They take him and go back to camp, only to discover that the canoe
Canoe
A canoe or Canadian canoe is a small narrow boat, typically human-powered, though it may also be powered by sails or small electric or gas motors. Canoes are usually pointed at both bow and stern and are normally open on top, but can be decked over A canoe (North American English) or Canadian...
s have been cut loose and are floating adrift in the lake that surrounds the island the summer camp is located on. Michelle does not believe Karen would do this, so she has all the campers fix up a raft for them to go on and collect the canoes, while other campers and counselors go out to find wood. Eddy, Fish and Woodstock finish the raft and board it, along with two female campers, who then set off to find the canoes. Alfred feels that something is wrong, and begins to explore, while Todd reassures Michelle, that Karen is okay. Eddy and the campers spot a canoe and begin to paddle towards it, only to have Cropsy pop up with his shears and kill them all.
Night falls, and Glazer finally has sex with Sally. He goes to get matches to start them a fire to spark things back up. While he's gone, Cropsy appears behind Sally, and begins to shove the shears into Sally's chest, as she begs for him to stop. Alfred finds the spot where Glazer and Sally were, and watches as Glazer returns, thinking the now deceased Sally is asleep, and uncovering Cropsy, who pops up from the sleeping bag, and rams the shears through Glazer's neck, pinning him to a tree. Alfred sees this and tries to make his way back to Todd and the others, finding them at sunrise the next morning. He awakens Todd, and tells him to go over to the site, and Todd manages to get there, not believing Alfred until he finds the dead bodies. He is then attacked by Cropsy, who hits him in the face with the shears, knocking him out, and begins to chase Alfred.
Alfred is chased all through the woods, becoming extremely dirty, and cut up, while Todd regains himself and chases after Cropsy, finding an axe
Axe
The axe, or ax, is an implement that has been used for millennia to shape, split and cut wood; to harvest timber; as a weapon; and as a ceremonial or heraldic symbol...
before following Alfred and Cropsies footsteps. Everyone else has awakened, and are waiting for the raft to return, and after a while spot it floating towards them, but no one is moving. Dave thinks it's a joke and tries to swim in towards it, only to have a worried Michelle do it instead, who, upon reaching the raft is bombarded with blood and the dead bodies, sending her screaming and swimming back. Once back on the island, she has the kids Todd took out camping grab a canoe that is floating nearby, and begins to row them back towards the campsite. Meanwhile, Cropsy has captured Alfred, in a rocky hill, by forcefully dragging him by the throat towards an abandoned mineshaft. Todd follows nearby, and hears Alfred's screams, finally tracking him down to the mineshaft, where Alfred has the garden shears embedded into his arm, pinning him to the wall.