Star Trek: Starfleet Academy's Holly Hunter Made Her Debut In A Cult '80s Horror Classic
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Holly Hunter is an absolute legend. She won a Best Actress Oscar for her work in "The Piano" and has been nominated three other times at the Academy Awards. Her career spans more than four decades and is arguably as rich as it's ever been. Like many great careers in Hollywood, though, it had a somewhat humble beginning. In this case, in a cult favorite summer camp slasher movie from the early '80s.
Viewers currently know Hunter from her work as Captain Nahla Ake in "Star Trek: Starfleet Academy," which recently made it to TV after a very long journey. But her career started 45 years earlier in director Tony Maylam's "The Burning," a horror favorite amongst hardcore fans of the genre who seek thrills beyond the bigger slasher franchises of the era, such as "Halloween" or "A Nightmare on Elm Street."
Like many similar movies of the era, most notably director Sean S. Cunningham's seminal "Friday the 13th," Maylam's slasher takes place at a summer camp and sees some teenagers pull a prank on the camp's caretaker, Cropsy (Lou David). The joke goes terribly wrong, however, and the teens leave him for dead after accidentally setting him on fire. Several years later, the now heavily scarred caretaker returns to the camp seeking vengeance. Violence ensues, with Hunter playing a camper named Sophie.
"The Burning" was very much made in response to the slasher trend that was happening in the horror genre at the time but, unlike many of the more popular entries in that sub-genre from the era, this one never got a sequel. As for the killer, Cropsy uses a large pair of gardening shears as his weapon of choice, making him stand out in a crowd. Jason loved his machete. Leatherface loved his chainsaw. Chopsy chose shears.
The Burning is a beloved one-and-done '80s slasher
In addition, "The Burning" was noteworthy for being one of the first movies Miramax produced. Aside from Holly Hunter, it also co-stars a young Jason Alexander, who would go on to play George Costanza in "Seinfeld." The now-disgraced former head of Miramax, Harvey Weinstein, even has a story credit on the movie, with his brother Bob Weinstein earning a screenplay credit alongside Peter Lawrence.
"It was a casting director, Joy Todd, who was a wonderful, beautiful person who gave me some real breaks when I first got to New York. She gave me several legs up, and 'The Burning' was one. Because I made more money than I ever made," Hunter explained, reflecting on the movie in a 2022 interview with Will Harris. "I made all these new friends and the paycheck was extraordinary. I had a blast. It was my first movie. I was kind of a glorified extra. I didn't have any responsibilities, really. It was just very exotic."
Hunter also said that she was a "complete nervous wreck" stepping in front of the camera for the first time. "I got a hang of nothing about acting on that movie," she quipped.
Though she was just a glorified extra, to use her own words, Hunter's career took off from there. In the 1980s, she starred in movies like "Raising Arizona" and "Broadcast News" before truly breaking out in the '90s with smash hits like "The Firm." Hunter also voiced Elastagirl, aka Helen Parr, in Pixar's "The Incredibles," which is the most successful original superhero movie in history. But it all started here as part of a group of unsuspecting teens in this little one-and-done slasher movie.