I love this movie so much

Sorry, this movie sucks

Simply Perfect

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

This movie had me reminiscing about my youth and before we get onto the review I will admit I've added a point for the warm feeling the film left in my soul. This is the type of movie we would walk miles for on a Friday night back in video's heydey. I even know which of my friend's house I originally watched this movie at because his mum loved horror films. God bless you Mrs A.This is not a great horror film and came at a time when the industry was asked to cut down on the graphic violence so most of the nasty stuff is done off-camera and your imagination has to do some "fill-in-the-blanks" work. This isn't usually a bad thing as it can have the ability to bring the audience more into the story, however, here the director doesn't do such a great job and at these time the film feels dislocated and disjointed. Especially with the fan scene and the torn in half shot of a student, this mainly due to not knowing how this exactly happened. One shot and he's whole, the next and he's been halved... by what and how?I am unsure if this is how the director, Tom Daley, filmed it or if the special effects ended up on the cutting-room floor, as the cuts are so sharp it feels as though there was more to the scenes. Quite a few films of this period have this kind of feel and is one of the reasons Friday 13th VI wasn't as visceral as it's predecessors.These cuts harm the film in a way which could have been fatal, had the story and the direction not been enough to keep it alive... though not kicking so hard. That said there are quite a few interesting kills... the skeleton scene is pretty well done and the axe to the head is inventive.The opening scenes on a steamboat and then at the estate of an heiress as she is murdered and robbed are nicely done and give the backstory of the how The Lamp finds it's way to the museum. Most horror films just get on with it and fill the audience in vocally, should there be a history to be told.The acting isn't too bad. Most of the time it's wooden and the stereotypical baddies are portrayed in the usual style of the time - over-the-top, we're bad... but we're only having fun... No Oscars were ever going to find themselves into any of the actor's homes on the basis of this film. Though I have seen much worse.On the whole, the special effects are good, though I do feel the better scenes may have been cut. The worst effect it the computer program used to decipher the legend on The Lamp. Why it had to be prettied up I have no idea, but in today's gadget and app tech-age, this looks dated and laughable... I think it was laughable even then. If you like 80's horror films then this could be for you, but if you like the Jinn mythos then do yourself a favour and watch the wonderful and brilliant Wishmaster. If this film had that type of Jinn and half the humour then it would have been a much better movie.

I was attracted to this film through the very pretty VHS box artwork which made it look like something different, something new. But the truth is that THE LAMP plays more like a typical '80s slasher than an actual monster movie. The standard plot can be categorised in two halves: the first has a build-up to the events; the killer is introduced; there are typical high school fights and stuff. The second half is the isolated group of teenagers having sex and getting killed. Just substitute the genie for a masked killer and you've got your Friday the 13th, you've got The Burning, and countless others.So did I like this film? Yes, I did. It's nothing above average of course, but it has a sense of fun and you have to give the makers credit for creating a mildly entertaining film on such a low budget (even the boom mike shows a couple of times). I liked watching this film because it's so bad. Actress Deborah Winters plays four characters and is the assistant producer, which gives you some idea of the home made feel to this film. There are lots of things to watch for, be it the stupid deaths or high school punks, or perhaps the genie himself, an absurd creation which looks like Yoda on steroids and is obviously being wheeled along on a trolley. If you like cheesy slasher movies then THE LAMP is for you. It's got all the right ingredients from nudity to gore to atrocious dialogue, which come together to make a satisfying, if not particularly tasty, meal. If you're into this genie lark then you might want to check out WISHMASTER, too.

The Outing is set in Texas & starts late one night as three hoodlums break into the house of an old lady (Deborah Winters under plenty of ageing make-up) in order to rob her money but are disappointed only to find an old Lamp with a jewelled stopper in it, trying to take the seemingly valuable stopper out the Lamp is rubbed & an evil Jinn is unleashed & kills everyone... The police send the ancient Lamp to the state Museum of Natural Science where foremost archaeologist Dr. Wallace (James Huston) takes an interest in it, apparently dating from 3500 B.C. the Lamp may be of significant historical importance & value. Dr. Wallace's daughter Alex (Andra St. Ivanvi) & some of her friends decide to spend the night in the museum & the evil Jinn from the Lamp starts to kill them off, Alex & her dad have to translate the engravings on the Lamp to discover how to defeat the Jinn & end it's ancient curse..Directed by Tom Daley I suspect that this was actually shot under the title The Lamp which it was released under just about everywhere apart from the US where it was retitled to The Outing & I suspect that the three prologue that was cut as mentioned on the IMDb's 'Alternate Versions' page was done so as the title The Lamp actually appears over this shot in the same font & style as the rest of the credits, anyway I have to say I rather liked The Outing or The Lamp or whatever it's called as it delivers in most areas. The opening fifteen minutes are fantastic with a deserted galleon strewn with dead bodies, a robbery, nudity, strangulation, axes in heads & a guy is torn in half but predictably the film can't keep the pace going like that forever & it does settle down into 80's teen horror clichés with ex-boyfriends, silly pranks & a daft idea with little to no motivation behind it to spend the night in the basement of a museum which takes up a fair amount of time but once the evil Jinn show's up again the killing starts it doesn't let up until the final credits with a death or a monster every few minutes. The kills are pretty good & gorier than expected to with some actual proper special effects used & the body count is quite high although we never see what happens to that black bird who was getting raped, do we? At less than 90 minutes it's short enough, it's to the point & has slightly more going on than you may expect with love triangles, romance, evil Jinn's, sex, death, demonic possession & there's even an opera singing security guard (stick around for the end credits as after they finish there's a somewhat random & very brief shot in which he takes a well deserved bow!). The character's are OK but nothing special, the dialogue awkward at times & you really won't mind seeing anyone in this die (in the context of the film obviously, not in real life).Another thing about The Lamp that I liked was that it's pretty original, in a decade that brought audiences many teen slashers with various masked killers the idea of an evil supernatural Jinn was quite cool & before anyone says it The Outing/The Lamp was made a decade before Wes Craven used the idea in Wishmaster (1997). The deaths are pleasingly gory, there's a guy ripped in half in a swimming pool & his legs sink to the bottom in a cloud of blood, people's get axe's stuck in their heads, there's zombies, bitten off fingers, bitten out throats, someone face is cut with a ceiling fan, someone is impaled with a spear, a naked woman is bitten to death by zombie snakes in a bath & a guy's head is crushed inside a helmet & his head is twisted right round plus there's a decent amount of blood splatter to go with the kills. There's a few scenes of nudity as well plus an attempted rape scene. The special effects are good too, when the evil Jin appears at the end it looks a little rubbery but is still a decent enough monster although it's silly voice makes it hard to understand at times. There is actually a bit of atmosphere here as well, the opening sequence set on an old boat one foggy night as in one long shot the camera moves onto the boat & moves around it is rather cool actually & sets the film up nicely.The IMDb says this had a budget of about $2,000,000 which I find hard to believe, that's a lot of money actually although it is well made with decent effects so it's possible I suppose. Apparently shot in Texas although there's some 'Californian Crew' credits at the end. The acting isn't anything special & most of the performances are stiff lets say although Andra St. Ivanvi pulls some odd faces at times which is quite unsettling.The Outing (The Lamp is a much better title) is a decent little hard to find 80's supernatural horror teen slasher with a good body count, nice gore, some nudity & an OK monster. The middle third drags a bit but the opening & closing twenty odd minutes are great, I reckon this ones worth tracking down & watching.

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.