The Outing (1987)

Sadly Over-hyped

Go in cold, and you're likely to emerge with your blood boiling. This has to be seen to be believed.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

A deadly and powerful evil genie terrorizes a handful of high school kids trapped inside a closed museum at night after it gets unleashed from its lamp. Director Tom Daley maintains a brisk pace throughout and makes good use of the central museum location. The cheesy gore, tacky (not so) special effects, plenty of laughably lousy acting from a lame no-name cast, Warren Chaney's silly script, an opera-singing security guard, and a giant hokey demon puppet all give this honey a certain lovably rinky-dink charm. Moreover, the murder set pieces are quite gruesome and imaginative, with the definite splatter highlights being when one hapless lass is attacked in a bathtub by a gaggle of poisonous snakes and a reanimated mummy biting a guy's throat out. Better still, three fetching females all bare their boobs in the name of leering exploitation. The attractive Andra St. Ivanyi makes a favorable impression with her winningly perky portrayal of the spunky heroine. The bouncy ooga-booga synthesizer score by Bruce Miller and Joel Rosenbaum hits the spirited shivery spot. Herbert Raditschnig's sound cinematography provides a neat polished look. A fun slice of prime low-budget junk.

"The Outing" is supremely cheap 'n' cheesy, crude 'n' clumsy, no budget horror entertainment. Granted, it's slow to get started and the good stuff is mostly saved for the second half. But once the mayhem begins, it proves to be quite amusing. The actors aren't the most professional one will ever see, but who would choose to watch something like this and expect any different? The important thing is that the movie *does* entertain the viewer, if on a somewhat modest level.A trio of rednecks attempt to rob an old woman. They try to make off with her genie lamp, but they all get slaughtered. Eventually the lamp makes its way into a museum. The curators' daughter Alex (Andra St. Ivanyi) is possessed, or something, and entices her friends into spending some time after hours in the museums' basement. Soon the djinn, or genie, within the lamp is free to continue the body count.The action in the second half can boast showmanship. The swooping camera-work isn't bad at all and the special effects and gore are substantially enjoyable, no matter how tacky they may be. Among the highlights are a boy chopped in half, a girl attacked in a bathtub by snakes, an opera singing security guard impaled by a spear, and a scientist shoved through a ceiling fan.The movie also stars the bland James Huston as curator Dr. Wallace, Deborah Winters (from such pictures as "The People Next Door" and "Blue Sunshine") as his love interest,Eve Farrell (Winters also plays the young and old Arab women), and Danny D. Daniels ("Retribution") as Wallaces' colleague Dr. Bressling. Tom Daley handles the directing duties.All in all, this is diverting enough to appeal to die hard genre devotees.Six out of 10.

The Outing is a textbook example of how great artwork can entice you to pick up a movie from your local mom and pop video store's shelf. Now, the status of the movie inside said case could be questionable, but how can you pass up that art? Luckily The Outing is not that bad. Granted, the acting could use some touching up and the formula is an old one, but the gore effects stand out and the sheer eighties-ness of the piece shines through. The Outing (aka The Lamp) is about a group of high school students who decide to spend the night at the local museum. Unbeknownst to them the newest piece at the museum is a genie lamp harboring an evil Djinn. Keep in mind that this was many years before Wishmaster was made. When the horny teens decide to split up and explore the place (and each other) the Djinn is set loose to work his evil magic. That's the formulaic part. But there are some interesting moments along the way. Highlights include: A man getting ripped in half under water, a scientist being thrown into a ceiling fan, and a nubile teen taking a bath with snakes. It's just campy enough to keep me watching and gory enough for me not to give it a bad review.

I was worried that this film might be just an eighties version of the crappy nineties horror 'Wishmaster', but as it happens; it would have been a better film if it were. The problem with this film, ironically considering it's a trashy eighties horror film, is simply that it's boring. It starts out slow, and even when the rudimentary bunch of dumb teens start to get picked off, the film never really picks up. It's a shame really as the idea of an evil genie wreaking havoc is actually quite a good one, but this film just doesn't do it justice. The plot focuses on a magic lamp which is stolen from an old woman's house. The lamp ends up in a museum when the thieves are killed. When the museum curator's daughter is possessed, she invites a bunch of friends for fun and games in the museum basement, and everyone ends up coming a cropper. I can live with bad acting and nauseating dialogue, even crappy special effects...but the story needs to be good to compensate, and this film is far too simple. The genie itself looks about as scary as your average lump of plasticine, and while the film features a few moments of gory horror; overall, it's not good enough. The Lamp certainly doesn't come recommended.