THE
LAMP (1987) Blu-rayDirector: Tom Daley
Vinegar Syndrome
The djinn is out of the bottle again when THE OUTING returns to Blu-ray as THE LAMP from Vinegar Syndrome.
The grisly murder of an elderly Arab woman in her house by three quickly dispatched robbers reveals a horde of antiquities from the Middle East including a 3,500 year old lamp. The items wind up at the Texas Museum of Natural History where Dr. Wallace’s (James Huston, THE BOSTONIANS) BLOSSOM-hat-wearing daughter Alex (Andra St. Ivanyi) rubs the lamp and unleashes a malevolent djinn (voiced by THE PREY's Jackson Bostwick). The djinn possesses Alex and convinces her high school friends to spend the night with her in the museum. They are not the only unwanted visitors since Alex’s rapey ex-boyfriend Mike (Red Mitchell, FOREVER EVIL) and his buddy Tony (André Chimène) have also snuck into the museum in order to get even with Alex and her boyfriend (Scott Bankston). The djinn, however, has plans for all of them.
Released overseas under its original more fitting title THE LAMP but retitled THE OUTING for its domestic release – no more commercial a title, and not to be confused with Byron Quisenberry’s literal 1981 sleeper released as SCREAM for which THE OUTING was the original title – the film should be a guilty pleasure with attractive teens having sex and being gorily dispatched (it also predates WISHMASTER with its malevolent djinn character). That said, its exploitation elements are often simply unpleasant: from Mike’s battering of Alex (despite his subsequent ass-kicking) to the rape of one of her friends even though gory retribution is quickly visited upon the perpetrators. Associate producer Deborah Winters (BLUE SUNSHINE) plays three roles in the film (well, two in the US version) – Alex’s ass-kicking teacher (who is secretly dating her father), the elderly Arab woman under make-up, and the latter's mother in the opening flashback cut from the US version – however, she seems more to be “filling in” since her principal character actually has little influence on the story (which pretty much precedes exactly how one expects it will). The film does feature some interesting and attractive production design by Robert Burns (THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE), make-up effects by John Naulin (FROM BEYOND) and Gabe Bartalos (LEPRECHAUN), and visual effects by exploitation director David L. Hewitt (THE WIZARD OF MARS).
THE LAMP was released in two versions internationally: the US R-rated theatrical version from Skouras Pictures (87:57) was released on VHS by International Video Entertainment in 1986, and the international version which bore the original title THE LAMP (88:52) and featured a period flashback sequence under the opening credits in which a ship carrying artifacts from Damascus reaches the Texas Gulf Coast port with the crew slaughtered, and a young Arab woman as the only survivor (the American version starts with the credits on black and then cuts to the thieves on their way to the old woman's house). While an unauthorized DVD of the international version was released in the U.K. (with BBFC-mandated additional cuts to the rape scene including some flash of frontal male nudity and some gore), the hazy 1" tape master of THE OUTING was presumably the source from the version on Scream Factory's two-disc, four-film collection with the British Cannon horror film THE GODSEND, the blackly comic THE VAGRANT, and Curtis Harrington's WHAT'S THE MATTER WITH HELEN as the odd one out.
In 2015, Scream Factory gave the film an HD bump-up from MGM's materials with the original THE LAMP opening sequence grafted on from a video source in a double bill with THE GODSEND. While it was more colorful and brighter than the video master, it was obvious that MGM or Shout did little restoration work with some jitter and not much in the way of shadow detail at times. When Vinegar Syndrome remastered the film for their current 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.85:1 widescreen Blu-ray release, they were unable to find the original negative and had to resort to MGM's interpositive of the R-rated American version; however, they were able to discover film material for the original THE LAMP opening sequence as well as a handful of trims that were physically cut out of the lost negative and have been reinstated here bringing the running time up to 91:56 versus the earlier composite's running time of 88:54.
None of the reinstated material is gore or nudity, consisting mainly of minute extensions and cutaways to the lamp in some scenes denoting either its influence over Alex or its awareness of others. Gone is the haze that blanketed the previous video master, and the image is sharp enough to betray the pattern of the scrim used to diffuse the light in exterior day scenes in a few shots. Colors pop in the scenes in which production designer Burns is allowed to clutter the location or set with artifacts and decoration while exterior locations and some practical locations reveal look flatter and the few optical effects look a little gritty. Shadow detail is better than the previous HD master but it appears that there are some places where the interpositive does not have much. The DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 encoding of the Ultra Stereo can be quite adventurous when it comes to the presence of the djinn with the chiming musical motif, gliding POV shots through the museum corridors, and some directional effects. Optional English SDH subtitles are included.
The Scream Factory Blu-ray was barebones for the film but Vinegar Syndrome have produced new extras with several surviving cast and crew. First up is an audio commentary by writer/producer Warren Chaney, his actress wife Winters, and actor Barry Coffing, moderated by Zack Carlson. Chaney discusses his inspiration for the film as an old film version of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, also noting that the lamp itself was supposed to be the one from the tale, a lost scene connecting the three characters played by Winters, not wanting to make a slasher but being aware of the conventions of the genre, the contributions of production designer Burns, and working with both the thirty foot djinn effects creation and voice actor Boswtick. Coffing recalls the difficulties of filming his death scene and contributing a song to the soundtrack, while Winters chimes in about both the acting and working behind the scenes in many roles including the film's casting.
There are a lot of gaps early on in the track with moderator Carlson asking in vain for details; however, the documentary "All in the Family: Taking an Outing in the Lamp" (36:36) is a more satisfactory extra. Chaney discusses his Hollywood career, his dissatisfaction with studio productions, and wanting to bring film production to Texas with partner Fred T. Kuehnert (THE AURORA ENCOUNTER). Winters discusses her approach to the casting as it was informed by her Hollywood experience and the local talent pool. Coffing, Chimène, and Hank Amigo – who plays one of the robbers in the opening – discuss coming out of the same Texas talent agency with the latter two having also appeared in the earlier Texas-shot exploitation film COMPUTER BEACH PARTY while Watkins discusses shooting her death scene and having her mother come see the rushes. St. Ivanyi recalls being a college student at the time and going to a group audition as an extra only to end up as one of the leads, and how the disappointments of her subsequent acting experience lead to her becoming a writer instead. All have some nice stories to share about director Tom Daley (who died in 2014) who had come from music videos and television commercials. The disc also includes the film's original theatrical trailer (1:49) as THE LAMP. The cover is reversible, including the more stylish THE LAMP artwork and the more slasher-y THE OUTING poster, while the first 5,000 copies ordered directly from Vinegar Syndrome include a special limited edition embossed slipcover designed by Earl Kess. (Eric Cotenas)