The Outing Blu-ray Review

An evil genie slaughters a group of over-grown teenagers

The Outing is one of those bad horror movies from the 1980s you might have come across on late-night cable. It’s a trimmed version of The Lamp. An ancient genie is unleashed on a group of unsuspecting teenagers inside a museum of all places and mayhem ensues. It’s a forgettable monster romp with uneven special effects and poor acting.

The film opens with a bizarre, almost incomprehensible scene due to some strange editing choices. Tom Daley’s film revolves around a magical lamp and the evil genie found inside it. Three thieves break into an old woman’s home. Apparently the old woman has been protecting the lamp for years, guarding it. The thieves kill the woman and unleash the terrible jinn found inside the lamp, a malevolent creature that isn’t the friendly wish-granting creature of popular entertainment.

The dialogue is inane, mostly delivered by a cast that is amateurish at best.

The lamp then comes into the possession of Dr. Wallace (James Huston), head archaeologist at a museum. Alex (Andra St. Ivanyi) is his daughter and she is bringing her high school friends on a trip to the museum. For some reason her friends want to stay after the trip is over and sleep over in the museum. Much killing ensues as the genie unleashes terror on the clueless high school kids.

There isn’t much to recommend in The Outing beyond its occasional flashes of skin and a couple of decent death sequences. The dialogue is inane, mostly delivered by a cast that is amateurish at best. Another problem is that the actors playing high school kids look closer to thirty than school age. This was a low-budget production that suffers from cheesy special effects. They would have been dated in the Seventies and look rather poor for a film from 1987.

I guess some might have fond memories of seeing this in their youth, but everyone else should probably not waste their time.

Movie

The Outing shares a single BD-50 with The Godsend in this double-feature from Scream Factory. Included here is the 98:54 cut of the film, presented at 1.78:1 in 1080P resolution. Scream Factory gave this movie a new HD transfer from erratic film elements. The opening reel is incredibly soft and murky, likely from a heavily-used film print. Clarity and definition improve once the plot moves to the museum but still remains minimally serviceable. The AVC video encode averages 31.87 Mbps, which is still not enough to cope with the thick grain and rough elements in a completely transparent manner.

The transfer exhibits telecine wobble and very heavy grain, sometimes producing inconsistent noise. The shadow delineation ranges from nothing to acceptable. The dim contrast does eventually improve.

The Outing wasn’t looking for pristine perfection and age hasn’t been kind to its fuzzy cinematography. The transfer is unfiltered but from poor elements, possibly even a film print. I guess these are the best elements they could find for this particular cut.

Video

The audio comes in the form of a satisfactory 2.0 DTS-HD MA soundtrack. The dialogue is low in the mix, at times overwhelmed by audio effects. The corny soundtrack sounds like every two-bit horror movie ever made.

Optional English SDH subtitles display in a white font.

Audio 

No special features are included for The Outing per se. This is a double-feature with The Godsend.

The Godsend Theatrical Trailer (01:55 in HD)

Extras 

Full disclosure: This Blu-ray was provided to us for review. This has not affected the editorial process. For information on how we handle review material, please visit our about us page to learn more.

Click on the images below for full resolution screen captures taken directly from the Blu-ray. Images have not been altered in any way during the process.