A lamp, a genie and many dead

This is a movie I watched as a kid, but I missed the ending. I recently tried to search for it, using some keywords, because I couldn’t remember the title and voila: I found it. So today I’m going to talk about “The Lamp”, also known as “The Outing”.

The film was released on April 28, 1987, in the United Kingdom, with the title “The Lamp”. On September 11 of the same year, the version for the United States was released, with the name changed to “The Outing”, some cuts and a different introduction.

The locations of the film were Houston and Galveston, in Texas and Los Angeles.

On August 8, 2013, the Scream Factory released the DVD version, along with the films “The Vagrant”, “The Godsend” and “What ‘s The Matter With Helen?”. On July 14, 2015, they also released a Blu-ray version along with “The Godsend”. In 2021, Vinegar Syndrome released a Blu-ray version with the original title.

Reception

The film received many negative reviews. To be honest I can’t blame them: It seemed much better in my childhood memories than when I watched it again: From a monster capable of killing with magic, one would expect impossible deaths, like the ones we can see in the Wishmaster saga. However, they waste the djinn so much, that the story feels more like a slasher than a supernatural horror movie. Still it has a certain charm.

The plot

In 1893, an Arab girl arrives in Galveston by boat, along with her mother. The mother is dying, while a bracelet on her wrist comes off. Meanwhile, someone we can’t see clearly murders the rest of the passengers and crew. The girl, however, manages to escape and takes the bracelet and an old oil lamp with her.

Many years later, three criminals (a man named Harley, another man, and a woman) break into the mansion of the girl, who is now an old lady. They try to get the woman to tell them where the money is, but she doesn’t understand what is happening and Harley kills her with an axe. He then searches the house and finds a chest behind a false wall. Inside the chest, he finds the lamp. As he tries to open it, the other two go to the pool.

And things got very porn

He gets into the water and it doesn’t take long for her to get topless. He invites her in, but by then, Harley has opened the lamp. First, the genius gets into the corpse of the old woman and kills Harley with the same axe that is stuck in her head. Then he jumps into the pool and rips the other man in two. He then goes for the woman, who starts to run away while her tits sway. But she doesn’t survive either.

The police arrive at the scene after a long time and do not understand what could have happened. They process the evidence and, once the case is deadlocked, they donate all the items in the house, including the lamp and the bracelet, to the Museum of Natural Sciences.

The museum’s curator, Dr. Bressling, along with an archaeologist, Dr. Wallace, receive the lamp and begin to study it. Just then Wallace’s teenage daughter Alex arrives.

Be careful what you wish for…

An argument ensues between Alex and her father. She feels that her father’s job takes him away from family life. In the midst of her anger she says that she wishes her father died. Immediately, she and her father make peace, but it’s too late: The genie has heard her and the fact that she finds the bracelet and puts it on doesn’t help at all. To top it off, she is not able to take it off.

The next day, Ted, Alex’s boyfriend, picks her up in his car. As they drive to school, Mike, Alex’s ex-boyfriend, along with his friend Tony, catches up with his car and tries to cause an accident. The police resolve the situation, but then another fight breaks out at the school and the principal has to intervene.

During Professor Eve’s class, the topic of ancient myths comes up, and Alex asks about the legends about Lamps and wish-fulfilling genies. Eve tells that the original myths are actually much darker and that genies don’t grant wishes but rather cause chaos and destruction.

The clues

At the end of class, Eve reminds them that Alex’s dad is taking them on a field trip to the museum. When Eve meets Dr. Wallace at the museum, we learn that they are dating. They plan to go on a date that night. Meanwhile Dr. Bressling tells Dr. Wallace that the lamp dates from 3500 BC and that it may have been owned by an evil wizard.

Meanwhile, Ted and his friends, Babs, Ross, Gwen and Terry, ask Alex if they could stay the night at the museum. Alex isn’t sure: she’s afraid her father will punish her if he finds out. Alex then walks into her father’s office and finds the lamp on his desk. The lamp plug starts to turn and Alex pulls on it. The plug comes out of the lamp and so the genie, who then possesses the girl.

As Eve and Dr. Wallace are about to leave together, the genie causes a Mammoth tusk to come loose from the wire it was hanging from and fall very close to them. It is not clear which of the two he tried to kill, but they both are safe, for now.

The Outing

Alex talks to his friends again and proposes a plan to stay at the museum overnight. Mike hears about the plan and decides to stay as well, along with Tony, to sabotage the party.

Meanwhile, Dr. Bressling returns to Wallace’s office. There, the genie levitates him until his head touches the ceiling fan that is now working at full speed, bathing the entire office in his blood.

At the end of the field trip, Alex tells Eve that her father will take her home. The other students take the school bus, but Alex’s friends return and wait at the back door. Alex visits the security guard and tells him that her father needs him at the lab. As the guard leaves, Alex opens the door for her friends. Mike and Tony also manage to sneak into the museum. Alex’s friends try their best to avoid another guard, but not for long, as this guard walks into Wallace’s office, where the genie kills him with a spear.

Alex takes her friends to the basement, where they can spend the night, since no one will go there once the door closes. Alex, still possessed, notices Mike and Tony, spying on her. So she leaves the door open for them to come in too. But once these bullies get past, the genius comes out of Alex and closes the door. Alex is now confused: she doesn’t know why she did what she did. But the party has already started and her friends are happy, so she doesn’t give much importance to the matter.

Some time alone

Babs gets a beer on herself, and with the excuse of cleaning herself up, Alex sends her and her boyfriend, Ross, to a bathroom located behind the specimen room. There the genie cuts Ross in half and revives a snake preserved in formaldehyde, to sting Babs while she was bathing.

Gwen and Terry want to be alone too, so Alex sends them to another room. There they begin to make love, but Gwen stops because she wants a drink. Terry goes to the specimen room to ask his friends if they have a beer. There he finds them dead and horror prevents him from realizing that the snake is getting into his pants. Thus, Terry dies too.

Meanwhile, Mike and Tony have locked the door to the room where Alex and Ted are and also the door to the specimen room. Then Mike gets a tribal mask and Tony gets a torture helmet. Gwen is trying on an Asian princess outfit she found in the room when Mike and Tony walk in, wearing their masks (and only that). Mike attempts to rape Gwen, but the genie interrupts, tightening the screw on Tony’s helmet until it crushes his head. Then the genie kills Mike and Gwen.

Too late

Alex and Ted hear the screaming and manage to open the door to go help their friends. But all they find is horror. They decide to call the police, but when they come out of the basement, the genie possesses a mummy and kills Ted. The phones don’t work.

Meanwhile, during their date, Professor Eve and Dr. Wallace realize that Alex lied. They start calling their friends’ houses. Nobody knows where they are. They try to call the museum and no one answers. Dr. Wallace knows that the guard always answers the phone. Something’s wrong. They decide to go to the museum.

The revelation

When they arrive, they find Alex completely hysterical. The genie then takes on a monstrous form (though not as impressive as I used to remember it). The genie reveals to Alex that by wearing the bracelet, she is now the guardian of the lamp. He also tells her that he is going to fulfill her wish. Alex doesn’t know what he’s talking about, but the genie repeats the argument she had with her father, in which she wanted him to die. Alex tries to explain that she didn’t mean it, but that’s not important for the genie.

The three of them try to run away, but get separated and the genie kills Dr. Wallace and takes on his form to confuse them. The creature captures Eve. This buys Alex time to run away. She decides to check Dr. Bressling’s computer, looking for any clues on how to defeat the genie, in the files of the doctor’s research on the lamp. Thus, Alex discovers that to defeat the genie, she must destroy the lamp. Will she be able to put an end to this madness before the genie causes even more damage? You’ll have to watch it to find out.

here the trailer:

Bibliography

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Outing_(film)

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