Burn | Film Synopsis & Review
Burn is a….strange film. I honestly have no other words to describe it other than that. It is a film that feels like it’s taking you in one direction but then completely flips the script on you, but not in a good way. Before I get into all that though, let me give a synopsis of the film.
Warning for the following: Spoilers for the film and mention of sexual assult and murder.
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Burn is a 2019 film starring Tilda Cobhem-Hervey and Josh Hutcherson. The film takes place at a small town Ohio gas station called Paradise Pumps. Our main character is Melinda, an employee at the gas station. Melinda, for lack of a better term, is a very strange young woman. Although naively innocent, she seems to have a weird and dark way about her. For example, in the beginning we see her arriving to work and spotting a man gassing up his truck. The man is smoking and she tells him that he is not supposed to smoke near the pumps. The man says that he knows and he’ll be careful. She continues to tell him that’s dangerous and he is more than welcome to come and smoke near her van if he likes and he, quite harshly, turns her down. The whole interaction was oddly sexual on Melinda’s end. After being rejected by the man outside, Melinda makes her way into work.
Here is where we’re introduced to her co-worker Shelia. Shelia, for all intents and purposes, is a complete and total bitch. She makes Melinda clean the dirty bathrooms because she doesn’t want to do it, she makes Melinda deal with a weird customer who comes in to hit on her every night and even outwardly dismisses her every chance she gets. I mean, I know Melinda is weird but the way Shelia treats her is completely uncalled for. As they work the night shift, Melinda tries to converse with another young man who is shopping at the gas station and that interaction is just as awkward as the one she had outside with the man smoking. She tries to talk to him about pistachios being her favorite nut in the store and that they’re a good snack. The young man just kind of plays nice and grabs a bag of pistachios. Melinda tries to continue talking to him but he just kind of walks off and we see him throw the bag of pistachios on a counter and walks out. It starts to feel like everyone in Melinda’s life is overly mean to her.
The only person who is nice to her is Officer Liu, the police officer that always stops into the station on his beat. Office Liu, played by Harry Shum Jr., is a regular who always stops in for coffee. He talks to the girls and we see that Melinda has a little crush on him. Well, not so little. We find out that she has pictures of him on her phone. It looks like Melinda’s been taking photos of him every time he comes into the station and, once she is caught doing this by Shelia, she is called out on it. This is where Melinda’s naive innocence begins to fade away a bit and we see a different side of her. Shelia catches Melinda taking Officer Liu’s photo and demands to see her phone. When Melinda refuses to give it up, Shelia berates her and calls her a freak. Shelia tries to take Melinda’s phone from her but during the tussle, the phone falls from Melinda’s hand and the screen breaks. Shelia continues to berate her but Officer Liu kind of breaks it up, commenting that his phone’s screen is broken too. After Officer Liu leaves, we see a man with a jean jacket, a pierced earring and a black backpack walk into the gas station. The man talks to Melinda as he makes his way inside. At first the man, as we find out later his name is Billy, is very polite and kind but, once the store is cleared of customers he begins to rob the place. Shelia is taken aback but Melinda seems calm, almost too calm. Diverging slightly here but Billy is the most chill armed robber I’ve seen in a film as of late. Although he has a loaded gun on him, he speaks very softly and calmly to the girls as he asks Shelia to empty the registers. Initially he is a little disappointed about the low amount of cash in the drawers, as Shelia tells him they only keep about $100 in the drawers at a time. Melinda then quickly pipes in telling him that there is a lot more money in the safe and she can go get it for him. Billy, a little confused but thrilled about this, gives Melinda his backpack and tells her to fill it up with the cash while he stays holding the gun on Shelia. Melinda does so and, before she gives him the backpack, she asks Billy if she could go with him. Billy is obviously confused and says no but Melinda keeps prodding him asking why she can’t come with him. Billy only gets more confused and begins to lose his temper a little bit. As Melinda keeps going with her awkward plea, Shelia starts in on Billy. She begins to berate him about how he’s not a real man and how tiny his penis must be and Billy just loses it. He grabs Shelia and drags her to the back room while he keeps his gun trained on her. Billy tells Melinda to lock the doors so no one could come in and she does.
At this point Melinda is totally on board with everything Billy is doing, but there’s something kind of off about it. After Melinda locks up, she goes over to the coffee pot and puts her hand in it. She dips her fingers in the hot coffee pot from earlier in the film, but this time she puts her whole hand in it. She seems to be enjoying it until she snaps out of it. Screaming is coming from the back room as Melinda grabs the coffee pot and walks to the back. Billy still has a gun trained on Shelia as she is on her knees in front of him. Melinda walks up to Billy, throws the pot of hot coffee in his face and then promptly hits him in the head with a nearby fire extinguisher. This prompts him to inadvertently shoot Shelia. With Shelia dead and Billy knocked out, Melinda starts to clean up. She wraps Shelia’s body in a green tarp and tapes Billy to a chair, zip tying his wrists to the legs for good measure. Once Billy comes to, he is disoriented and confused. It’s very ironic that the once predator has now become the prey. With the roles flipped, Melinda grills Billy about why he wouldn’t agree to take her with him. From here things really go off the rails; Billy tries to play nice and console this obviously disturbed woman but she’s not having it. He then finally breaks down and reveals that he was robbing the gas station because he owes a debt to a group of bikers. He tells her she needs to let him go because they know he was robbing Paradise Pumps and, if he doesn’t check in with the money soon, they will come there for him. Melinda doesn’t believe this and Billy gets fed up and asks her for some Aspirin. He says his head is throbbing because she hit him in the head and threw scolding coffee in his face. Melinda decides to help him by grabbing a bottle of water and she pulls out some Aspirin from behind the counter but she eyes the caffeinated erection pills that were sitting near the register and decides to take those instead. When she returns she feeds the pills to Billy, who is still trying to talk his way out of the situation. After a few more minutes, Billy comments that his head still hurts and Melinda feeds him more of the erection pills.
Things take a turn for the disturbing when Melinda starts talking about how fire and the act of burning is good because it restores things to their natural state; destroying something to make something beautiful. Billy’s body begins to convulse a bit and he comments that his heart is beating really fast and then the camera pans down to his growing erection. This is the part of the film where I started to say “Oh, no.” Melinda creepily puts tape over Billy’s eyes and mouth, unzips his pants and then promptly unzips hers. You can’t really see much but it’s clear that Melinda is trying to sexually assault Billy. This scene was so incredibly disturbing to me. Not only the act itself but the malicious way it was carried out. Initially, I thought of Melinda as just a lonely, naive woman but this scene really put it into perspective for me. I then began to think about her behavior earlier in the film. She had this weird sexual tone with the trucker smoking outside in the beginning, she was trying to flirt with the guy buying nuts in the store, and she definitely had a weird energy with Officer Liu when he first came by the gas station. I couldn’t believe I didn’t pick up on this earlier, but seeing Melinda try to initiate an unwanted sex act hit me like a ton of bricks. As Melinda tries to assault Billy, he yells and wiggles around until he falls over in his chair and frees one of his hands. He stands up trying to find Melinda in the room but he is still blindfolded and gagged. This allows Melinda to get the jump on him and knock him in the head once more, leaving blood pooling out of his ears. Thinking that she’s killed him, Melinda simply shoves him into the corner of the room and closes the door. From here we get a series of tense situations in which Melinda is nearly caught and must use her cunning to avoid being found out.
First, Shelia’s boyfriend shows up to give her a ride home, Officer Liu comes back saying the car parked next to hers in the front of the building belongs to a criminal he’s looking for, and the biker gang Billy mentioned shows up looking for Billy. Melinda, although very weird about it, is able to use her ability to think fast on her feet to get away with all of this. She tells Shelia’s boyfriend that she went off with some guy to a local motel, a lie he believes after finding her phone on the floor and realizing that they’ve been having some problems in their relationship. When the biker gang Billy mentioned shows up, she tells them the station is closed and the man they’re looking for has not been there. When they call her bluff and point to his parked car saying they know he’s been there, she pulls a gun on the leader and the fellow gang members pull out their weapons as well. The leader quickly tells them to holster their weapons because he notices the security camera. They agree to leave and look around the area for him, but they definitely make Melinda aware that they will be back. Lastly, officer Liu comes back looking for the man whose car is parked next to hers and he searches the gas station. At this point, Melinda is a bit worried because, although Shelia is wrapped in a tarp and almost camouflage, Billy is still tied to the chair. Officer Liu searches all the back rooms and finds nothing. This worries Melinda but she decides to believe that he just didn’t see the chair. He then says he wants to take a look at the security footage just in case the guy he’s looking for came in. Melinda, who was trying to delete the footage earlier but didn’t have the key to the cage it’s in, explains to Officer Liu that only her manager has the key. He calls Melinda’s manager and tells her he needs access to it so she will need to come in. Obviously panicked, Melinda quickly tells Officer Liu she saw the sketchy guy he’s looking for get into a green jeep and head over to a motel down the road. This is the same type of car and location Shelia’s boyfriend had and was going. When Officer Liu asks her why she didn’t offer that information up earlier, she plays it off like she just now remembered. Instead of questioning her about this further, he just believes her and leaves.
Once he’s gone, Melinda grabs a shovel and looks for loose ground in the back of the station. She then heads to the back room, more than likely to drag Billy to the back and bury him, but he is nowhere to be found. This is why Officer Liu didn’t find anything in his search. Melinda looks around for Billy but it looks like he ran off. Knowing that eventually Officer Liu, Shelia’s boyfriend, and the bikers would make their way back, Melinda decides to burn the place down. She grabs a gas can from one of the shelves and fills it up with gas as she sees the biker gang roaming the streets. Melinda pours gas all over the station, making sure to also soak the hard drive cage with the security footage on it, and attempts to set it on fire. Before she can though, she starts to hear noises coming from the ceiling. She quickly pulls out Billy’s pistol and drops it when another loud noise frightens her. The gun falls into a puddle of gasoline and Melinda picks it up and places it on the counter. A few seconds later the power goes out and, out of the blue, Shelia’s boyfriend comes back. He asks her to open up because he believes Sheila is still in there. Melinda tries to tell him to go away but Billy comes out of nowhere and plays the role of innocent victim, telling Shelia’s boyfriend that she killed her and tried to kill him. Melinda pleads with Shelia’s boyfriend at this same time, but Billy snaps and ends up killing Shelia’s boyfriend by shoving an air pressure hose down his throat.
Melinda is horrified and tries to hide. Billy breaks through the glass door and walks into the station. From here Billy starts his bad guy monologue about her beating, drugging and attempted to rape is why he plans to kill her. He gets even more livid once he sees his gun and his backpack full of cash on the counter. Billy deduces that she was going to take his stuff and leave so grabs his gun. Melinda pleads for her life, but Billy decides to simply shoot her. Since the gun was soaked in gasoline, he is set on fire when he pulls the trigger and the gas station goes up in flames. Melinda, trapped in the burning station, makes a brave move to walk through a patch of fire to pick up the fire extinguisher. She grabs it, puts the flames climbing up her legs out, and is able to exit the gas station through the broken glass Billy came in through. As she lays on the ground, legs badly burned, Officer Liu comes back and helps her. He picks her up and gently places her in his car. He wraps her in a blanket and calls in the fire as Melinda sits watching the flames rise higher and higher.
I have so much to say about this film, but I will try to streamline my thoughts in somewhat of a concise manner. Although it has some pretty interesting character development, the overall story and the ending makes no sense. I mean, I was able to deduce pretty quickly that there was something weird about Melinda, but the way in which this is shown is kind of weak. It seems like she’s just this socially awkward girl who is treated like a freak by her co-worker and then, almost out of nowhere, she becomes an attempted rapist. I get that she was lonely and maybe a bit too horney, but what she did to Billy in that back room was a bit extreme. She outright drugs him and attempts to take advantage of him. Side note, the way that scene is shot, I couldn’t tell if she was actually doing the deed with him or if she was about to before he bucked her off and fell out of the chair. In addition to this, I’m really not sure why so many people give her the benefit of the doubt. Her naivety is not strong enough to have the people she comes into contact with trust her so much. I mean, when Melinda finally tells Officer Liu that she did come across the man he was looking for, all he does is ask her why she didn’t say anything before. He doesn’t ask any follow up questions or even think to himself “maybe I should be a little more suspicious of her because she just lied to me”. When Shelia’s boyfriend shows up and finds her phone on the ground, he doesn’t even think twice about questioning Melinda when she tells him she went off with some guy to some hotel without her phone. Hell, he even tells Melinda that Shelia is fused to her phone and would never just leave it to go somewhere. He seems pretty strong in his convictions that Melinda isn’t telling him everything at a certain point but lets his insecurities get the better of him. So much in fact that when he asks Melinda if Shelia went off with a certain guy and she half heartedly nods her head, he immediately believes her and gets upset. I’m just speculating here but I think that due to Sheila treating her like a house pet, Melinda was privy to a lot of Shelia’s personal life while they worked shifts together; this, combined with her mask of innocence, is what Melinda uses to get him to check motels in the area looking for her. Melinda weaponizes her naivety quite a bit in this film but I also think luck was on her side as well. The bikers that show up later in the film could have easily busted up her whole little act but, due to the police officer that frequents the station and the security footage, they had their hands tied. Diverging slightly here but I honestly thought Billy was just bullshitting about these guys just to scare Melinda into letting him go. I did not think that they were real but, when they showed up, I was very disappointed that they were not a more menacing presence. The standoff between a group of armed bikers and this frail little gas station worker was very tense but they left and NEVER showed up again! Seriously, the only time we see them again is when Melinda decides to burn the gas station down and spots the bikers driving down the street looking for Billy.
This was very bad storytelling in my opinion and a waste of time to be completely honest. Next up is Billy. He could have been a total Jack Torrence presence in this film, going from totally normal and cool to completely psycho but they brought it on way too early. I understand that Billy lost his cool when Sheila started making comments about the size of his manhood, but I feel like his turn into a full on horror movie villain came about a little too awkwardly. I mean yes, he was assaulted and nearly raped by Melinda but, when he comes out of his temporary coma, and decides to trap Melinda in the gas station by placing the dumpster in front of the back door and cutting the power, he kills an innocent man who could have helped him and then tries to kill Melinda in a serial killer style. I just wish his character would have had a more gradual progression to his insanity instead of it seemingly coming out of nowhere. Since Billy is a main character and played by a pretty well known actor, I think he was wasted in this film and his character development was played out poorly. Speaking of wasted characters, I’d like to spend a minute discussing the uselessness of Officer Liu. Officer Liu could have been a much more threatening force whenever he showed up but, for some reason, they decided to make him way too gullible and stupid for the situation. Although he’s a rookie, he should have had better instincts when things were clearly weird with Melinda when he asked her about the man he was looking for and if she saw anything suspicious. Also, at the end when he “rescued” her, I was really surprised that he didn’t even try to connect the dots.
Burn is a film with so much potential that could have been a lot more menacing than it actually was. It could have been a chilling thriller with a large air of suspense but instead they decided to waste characters, include useless plot points, and create an ending that was not only dull but completely uninteresting. In fact, I’m going to do something that I don’t normally do in my reviews and outline how I think the film should have ended.
First of all, I would get rid of the biker gang entirely. They were absolutely useless and only contributed to a very weak part of this film. I would write Billy as a drifter who is, like he was at the beginning of the film, charming and calm but also manipulative. I would have had him show up to the gas station without a car, and terrorize/emotionally manipulate Melinda and Shelia. Maybe he had been staking out the gas station for a couple of nights and got to know their schedules and who would be working there. I like the idea of him robbing the station and nearly getting caught when Sheila tries to tip off a customer by writing “Call 911” on the back of his receipt, but I would make him not care about the money. He would be there for a more malicious reason and Melinda’s weird and predatory nature could act as a kind of foil to him. I would definitely still have Shelia die, but maybe by Melinda instead. Billy could have been playing a sick game of russian roulette with his gun in the back room and Melinda accidentally kills her when she tries to shoot Billy and they wrestle for the gun. The customers that come in, Officer Liu and Shelia’s boyfriend could be obstacles that Melinda has to navigate with Billy being a looming threat. I would basically write the film as a giant chess match between this psychotic man and this awkward, sociopathic woman. The ending could culminate in Melinda getting the upper hand on Billy, nearly killing him, and then confessing that the security cameras in the store caught everything and her manager looks at the footage each morning. Billy calls her bluff and attempts to attack her but she knocks him out. He wakes up tied to a chair in the back room and begins to smell gas. Melinda filled up a gas tank and poured gas all over the station. She monologues about fire being a restorative force and Billy, for the first time, shows real emotion and gets scared. Instead of Melinda attempting to sexually assault him, Melinda hands him his gun. She makes him play russian roulette, like he made her do with Shelia. He pretends to participate but, just like Melinda did earlier, he turns the gun on her and fires but the gun backfires and ignites the gasoline he’s covered in. Instead of Melinda accidentally dropping the gun in gas, she purposefully douses it so this would be the outcome. Billy burns and the room begins to go up in flames. Melinda begins to make her way outside but then sees Officer Liu walking in with his gun drawn, yelling out for someone. Melinda, who had been gaslighting him all throughout the film, would contemplate letting him burn as she slipped out the back door, but decides to play victim and run into his arms in full on panic mode. She makes up a story about Billy trying to kill her and that the whole place is going to go up in flames. Officer Liu carries her to his squad car and calls the fire into the station. As the gas station flames rise, Melinda stares at the flames and gives a sinister smirk as her gaze switches from the fire to the camera. Fade to black. End. Personally, I think this would be a much better progression of events and ending to this film than the one we got.
Burn is definitely an interesting film that, although is not perfect, at least deserves a “There’s nothing else on” watch.
