Burning Sands

The world of fraternities is a closed, alien one to people like me - a Brit who has never lived in the USA, and never really liked the whole old boy networks that run so many things in the world. Hazing - ritualised bullying and abuse - only makes it seem more distant, and that's the subject of this film which tells the story of a Hell Week which spins out of control. It's distinguished by some good performances and some subtle direction; I'm not a great deal clearer on how these rituals have got to this place, though the film wants to make a case that driving them underground has made them worse. That's a valid view, but this is a film that wants to show rather than discuss. It shows well - uncomfortably, unnervingly, chillingly and powerfully. But it falls short of what it could be, and what this subject matter needs.

Absolute waste of time. It's just one torture scene after another. It gets old real fast And the ending is just terrible. Unless you like seeing college-age kids getting tortured, skip this one.

Can't speak about the accuracy of its portrayals but it's fairly well-acted, though the film does a poor job of setting up its scenes for audiences that don't already know what to expect. Character development also is lacking some.

This movie had a lot of potential to be an emotional and enlightening piece, but it just didn't deliver. The performances weren't bad, but they weren't great either, and I couldn't really feel the relationships between characters as much as I think I should have been able. It takes a very surface-level condemnation of hazing without really diving deeper into the environment that has allowed this to happen.

A must see for any parent sending kids to college and for any kid wanting to pledge while in college.

Thought the young actors did a great job. Insightful movie, would have liked to see how they handled the whole deal afterwards but I see what the writers wanted us to do. Make the decision for ourselves.

Burning Sands tells the story of deep into Hell Week, a favored pledgee is torn between honoring his code of silence or standing up against the intensifying violence of underground hazing. Overall, Burning Sands displays a message of compassion and dedication. Burning Sands in my opinion was an alright film. At some point, the film lacks a lot of absence from delivering a dramatic approach, which somewhat shows that McMurray is trying to play Burning Sands a little on the safe side, to keep it's limits. However, McMurray showed a lot of dedication and time to his first-feature film. Burning Sands does get its jobs done, but falls very short of completing it, by lacking its dramatic force, that it originally started with.

No resolution, it's just two hours of hazing.

Very entertaining. I don't know about Greek Life but I enjoyed this movie.

Kind of a fucked up and infuriating movie. Its good but its upsetting. It's like a frat version of Boyz N The Hood.