The Outing
Director: Tom Daley
Writer:Warren Chaney
Starring: Deborah Winters and James Huston
Body Count: 14
Review: The film begins with a gang of backwoods yokels breaking into an elderly woman's house to steal "the jewels." When they don't find "the jewels," the leader of the gang starts to get violent, rumaging through the woman's stuff until he discovers a lamp hidding behind a wall (meanwhile, the other two are skinny dipping in the woman's swimming pool). Well, you know about lamps....the guy rubs it, and whatdoyouknow, that's when the evil starts.
Cut to the next day (or, maybe the next month...who knows, there are know captions here telling us where we are or how much time has passed between events), and we find the same lamp showing up at a museum. The head archeologist is intrigued, but not as intrigued as his daughter, who examines the lamp a little too closely while her class is on a tour of the museum, and ends up getting possessed by the evil genie inside and inviting the girl's friends to spend the night in the museum.
Or does she? See, that's where the film is even more unclear. We are told that the ancient genie (or djinn) can assume any form it chooses...but does that mean it can shape-shift, or does it simply possess the people? Who knows?
Anyway, she gets possessed and invites her friends to spend the night in the museum. Unbeknownst to them, a couple of totally 80s bullies are there (complete with their Flock of Seagulls outfits--where the hell did they come up with these clothes?) with the goal of crashing their party.
All of this comes to a head once the museum is closed and the blood starts to flow. There's surprisingly a lot of blood in this one, and some creative death scenes (one involving a bath of snakes--very cool). The teenage tension between the characters leaves a lot to be desired (no doubt due to the terrible acting), and the special effects really aren't too special (wait till you see the genie--whose voice you can't understand at all!), but overall the flick does deliver. It'll hold your attention for an hour and a half...and besides, you've got to see that snake scene!
