The Lamp (1986 film)

Plot

The Lamp’s introductory scenes suggest the film is a tall tale steeped in mythology and exaggerated mayhem that parody slasher films of the 1990s. The picture opens on board a cargo ship sailing from the Middle East (Damascus) bound for the old shipping seaport of Galveston, Texas. On deck, dead sailors litter the planks. One crate that appears to have been ripped open from the inside indicates that it was bound for a Houston museum.

The silence of the fogbound night is broken by cries of pain near stairs leading into the ship’s hold. A young Arab woman (Deborah Winters), struggles to pull herself up the ship’s stairwell as a heavy booted man passes her by. As she raises her arm to stop him, jewels on a golden bracelet emit a faint tinkle and eerie glow before dropping from her wrist as she dies.

A ship’s captain (Ron Shotola) rushes through scattered cargo and down the ship’s plank. He clings to a burlap wrapped package as he scurries along the dock and then stumbles into a heavy stack of crates. A peculiar sound like that of a cat mixed with a wolf’s growl causes the panicked man to spin around whereupon he recognizes the source of his fear. The camera cuts away as a massive amount of blood and gore splash across the cargo crates.

Beside the Captain’s body is the unfurled burlap wrap stretching along the wooden plank walkway. At its end, lies an old lamp, reminiscent of the Arabian magic lamp stories of Aladdin or Ali Baba. However, this lamp conveys an appearance of evil rather than best wishes. Abruptly, tiny hands of a little girl enter the scene and remove the lamp. On her wrist is the shimmering tinkling bracelet.

The film’s setting dissolves to the early 1980s where the lamp is discovered by policemen investigating the murder of an elderly Arabic woman (Deborah Winters) and three would be robbers. Inside the home, two officers, Detective Adams (Blue Deckert) and Detective Charles (Warren Chaney), investigate the crime scene. Charles spots the lamp, lifts it and peers inside. From the old lantern’s interior, a “presence” observes the two and begins traveling up the spout when Charles finding the lamp’s bright ruby insert, re-plugs the opening and tosses the object aside.

The antique lamp is transferred to the Houston Museum of Natural Science along with the jeweled bracelet, found near the body of the murdered Arab woman. Dr. Al Wallace (James Huston), the museum’s curator and his assistant Dr. Theo Bressling (Danny D. Daniels), examine the lamp but are interrupted by Wallace’s teenage daughter Alex (Andra St. Ivanyi). Alex reminds her father of the upcoming Museum visit by her high school class the following day. When her father and Dr. Bressling leave for an administrative meeting, Alex is left alone with the lamp. She discovers the bracelet, admires it and tries it on. When she tries to remove it, she cannot. For the rest of the day and following morning she attempts to conceal the ornament under a long sleeve blouse.

Eve Ferrell (also portrayed by Deborah Winters) is one of Alex’s teachers who dates her father on a regular basis. Eve takes her senior class on a field trip to Dr. Wallace’s museum. Once at the museum, strange things ensue. The lamp summons Alex via her bracelet and when she enters her father’s office she discovers the lamp. As one under a “spell”, Alex rubs it causing the lamps ruby insert to glow and twist in the small socket at the end of the lamp. She removes the insert whereupon she is met and overcome by the presence within the lamp.

Under the influence of the Lamp, Alex returns to the tour group. She suggests to her boyfriend, Ted Pinson (Scott Bankston) and other close friends that as a prank, the group hang back, hide and then spend the night in the museum. Her friends, Babs (Charity Merill) and her boyfriend Ross (Barry Coffing), agree as does Ted’s friend Terry (Raan Lewis) and his girlfriend, Gwen (Tracye Walker). Overhearing the plans are two not so friendly teens, Mike Daley and Tony Greco (Red Mitchell and Andre Chimene), the film teen neer-do-wells who decide they will do the same unbeknownst to the other kids.

Unexpectedly, abnormal events ensue as a giant tusk unexpectedly falls from its hanging perch, nearly impaling Eve Wallace. Dr. Bressling works on translating the Lamp’s inscriptions in his office when he us suddenly drawn upward into a ceiling fan that spins ever faster as he is pulled into the large steel blades.

Alex secretly escorts her friends to the museum’s basement as the class is leaving and shows them where to hide. Unknowingly, Mike and Tony follow them closely. Each of Alex’s friends have lied to their parents telling them they are spending the night with another of the group, thus creating a mass alibi.

The museum closes and night falls. The once familiar interiors appear to changes patterns and shapes within the dimly lit display halls of the giant structure. An operatic singing museum guard strolls the hallways singing the lyrics of Figaro from the Rossini opera, The Marriage of Figaro. When he checks Dr. Bressling’s office he finds the scientist’s body but is killed before the can push the alarm.

The teens separate by couples to different rooms and are no sooner hidden that one by one, each is killed by the Lamp’s presence in some inconceivable way. At one point, Mike and Tony accost Terry’s girlfriend Gwen when she is alone. During the attempted assault, a museum medieval mask worn by Tony as a joke tightens around his skull crushing him. Mike is slaughtered next and Gwen is left screaming as she faces an unknown death.

Alex and Ted discover their friends’ bodies and attempt to escape but find that all the museum’s entrances and exits are sealed. Ted is killed during the attempt.

Dr. Wallace has taken Eve to a nice restaurant and has just proposed marriage. Abruptly, both receive unexpected calls from parents and discover that Alexs friends never returned from the trip. The two decide the teens must have remained behind at the museum and leave to investigate.

At the museum, Alex desperately seeks to flee the galleries of horror. Her father and Eve arrive but cannot enter. At first, the entrance is locked but then a security switch inexplicably trips causing the doors to swing open. Both enter and encounter Alex who explains what has happened. Without warning, the lights dim as the unseen entity sweeps into the room in a swirl of green mist that takes the form of an ancient Jinn or Genie. Dr. Wallace provides temporary distraction and leads everyone from the scene, escaping to a safe room for the museum’s most priceless relics. Once there, Wallace accesses his dead assistant’s computer files containing translations of the lamp’s writing. The father deciphers finally one of the lamp’s inscriptions, “Destroy the lamp to destroy the Jinn.”

The three attempt to escape via a small escape hatch as the Genie fractures successive steel doors. Wallace is killed in the escape as is Eve. However, Alex manages to reenter the building and rushes through the dark halls toward her father’s office. Once there, the daughter snatches the lamp and sprints toward the incinerator room. Alex and the Genie reach the incinerator simultaneously but before the Genie can stop her, Alex tosses the lamp into the fire destroying it. With its destruction, the Genie disintegrates causing the bracelet to drop from Alex’s wrist.

With the Jinn’s death, the museum lights brighten. A hand abruptly touches Alex’s shoulder startling her. It is Eve who explains, “The Genie left me when it realized that it was more important to stop you than kill me.”

Police cars, emergency vehicles and swirling helicopters crowd the museum’s entrance in the early morning hours as Eve leads a tearful Alex to a waiting squad car. As she enters the car she is startled to hear the sound of the bracelet’s tinkle. Alex turns toward the sound and observes truck drivers unloading tinkling glass bottles of soda for the museum’s vending machines. A look of dread and fear pass across Alex’s face as the frame freezes and the screen fades to closing credits.

At the credit roll finale, the singing guard appears to complete the final musical refrain of Figaro. As he sings the final note of the operatic song he takes a bow and the screen goes to black.

Distribution

Skouras Films distributed the original film The Lamp, throughout the world except in the United States. Under a separate arrangement, The Movie Store (TMS) (now defunct) distributed the movie after cutting 18 minutes of its running time and changing its name from The Lamp to The Outing (film). Both films appeared to fare well and enjoyed distribution lasting into the early years of the 21st Century. The Lamp continued in distribution in Europe and Asia through the end of the 21st centurys first decade.

After both films fall 1987 theatrical run, the movie was released on videocassette in the United States in 1988 by International Video Entertainment and in Canada by Cineplex Odeon.

An English speaking DVD was released uncut in Japan under its original title, The Lamp and a DVD was released in the United Kingdom, under its original title as well. There are no plans to release the DVD in the United States. MGM Home Entertainment has released The Outing to DVD for the first time on August 20, 2013.

Reviews

Reviews were favorable for The Lamp in Europe and Asia but decidedly less so for the edited version, The Outing in the United States.

With passing years, each film has developed a cult following as viewers have had an increasing opportunity to view the original film. Anne Clark of Screen Times Magazine writing for Theiapolis Cinema said, "I must admit that it took me a second view to understand the brilliant humor in this film. This is of no fault of the filmmakers inasmuch as an opening 20-minutes of film is missing." She continues, "The screenplay written by Warren Chaney is unique, clever and different. The film’s director, Tom Daley does a capable job enjoining actors to produce a satirically over-the-top performance. Cinematographer, Herbert Redichnick, keeps the mood dark and eerily creepy." Early 2000 viewers of the film appear to mirror early reviewers.

A NY Times movie user review from the Film Review Journal states, "Overall, this film is carried out in a rather sophisticated way so that the “parody humor” may elude those just looking for blood and lust. Yet the observant cannot help but notice the “over” ample supply of blood, violence and heavy body count. I suspect that with time, more viewers will come to understand and appreciate “The Outing” as one of the truly great cult classics of film history." But perhaps, Robert Mundo writing from Honolulu summarizes it best when he simply says, "A hidden gem of a movie if you are into the late 80s horror genre. The Europe version is much better." The hard core website, Oh the Horror wrote, “The Outing is proof that not all entertaining slasher films have been released on DVD yet.”

Production

The Lamp was filmed on location in 1985 in Houston and Galveston, Texas and in Los Angeles and Marina del Rey, California. Actor casting was carried out in Hollywood and locally in the Texas area.