Scream Factory seems to have grabbed a bunch of films that had awesome VHS covers, no matter how good the movie was. Is that a bad thing? Not at all! I love cheesy 80s flicks, as evident by the number of glowing reviews I give to terrible movies. This time around, the two films included are The Outing, which was also called The Lamp, about a jinn getting released, possessing people, and causing a bunch of a havoc on some teenagers that decide to spend the night in a museum. It’s a pretty bad movie, but tons of fun if you give it a chance. The next movie is called The Godsend, which is based on a book of the same name, and is about a mysterious woman who gives birth at some people’s place, and leaves the baby there. The couple, who already have four kids, takes in the child, and what do you know, the child is crazy and starts killing off the kids. It’s a convoluted plot, but it’s not the worst movie I’ve seen. With all that said, let’s dive into this Blu-ray and movie review…
PRODUCT INFORMATION
DISCS: 1
RUN-TIME: 87 / 93 min
ASPECT RATIO: 1.78:1
RESOLUTION: 1080p
AUDIO: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0
SUBTITLES: English
REGION: A
RATING: R
PRODUCTION DATE: 1980 / 1987
RELEASE DATE: July 14th, 2015
PLOT SUMMARY
THE OUTING (AKA The Lamp)
1987 / New HD Transfer!
An ancient genie is released from a lamp when thieves ransack an old woman’s house. They are killed and the lamp is sent to a museum to be studied. The curator’s daughter is soon possessed by the genie and invites her friends to spend the night at the museum, along with some uninvited guests.
THE GODSEND
1980 / New HD Transfer!
When a strange woman has her baby at the Marlowe’s house, then disappears, Kate Marlowe is forced to keep the baby, Bonnie. She loves the child, but when her own children are systematically killed, suspicion turns to Bonnie.
MOVIE
Let’s start with the first movie on the list, The Outing. Released first overseas under the title of The Lamp, which makes way more sense to me, as the other name makes it seem like it’s about a person who’s secret is found out. The Lamp looks like it was longer in length, but the truth to that is lost in time, as the version of The Outing on the disc runs roughly 88 minutes or so, and it includes the original The Lamp intro, which gives you a tiny bit of backstory about the lamp.
The story is rather simple in a way. A lamp falls into the hands of a curator at a museum, and his daughter rubs it and unleashes the jinn. The jinn has the ability to possess people and objects. It possesses the daughter and convinces her friends to spend the night at the museum. That’s about it for the plot. As for everything else, like the acting. Well, let’s just say for the most part, you’re going to be cringing a lot. From there, cue some random killings, which are fun to watch, and some cheesy special effects, which are fun to laugh at. It’s honestly a pretty bad movie, but I enjoyed it enough to want to watch again down the road, preferably with some friends and a few drinks.
Before I jump to the next movie, I do want to point out two of my favorite parts in The Outing. The first is a funny goof. A couple of teens are driving their car, and a group of jerks try to run them off the road. When the car veers off the road, a blatant shot of the stunt man is seen, as it’s a convertible, and the teenage driver seems to have aged by about 20 years (it’s like they are not even trying.) The next is the use of brute force at the school by a teacher. The jerk teenagers from before are caught fighting in the school, and a teacher goes ninja on their asses, and beats the living crap out of them. Honestly, this tactic of teaching needs to come back to schools. Teachers should be allowed to Van Damme kids asses all around the schoolyard.
Okay, enough about that movie, lets get on with the next movie, The Godsend. Is this movie a gift from Heaven, or a curse from Hell? A little bit of both actually. The biggest problem with The Godsend, is the plot is all over the place. We got a mysterious lady giving birth to a clearly evil child, but it’s never explained what or why the evil exist and who this lady is. Also, you got a couple of parents who seem to take the act of their kids dying with a smile on their face. Plus, what is up with the mother just pulling her tit out and breast feeding this random baby left at their house? Also, don’t get me started on them trying to have sex, while the evil ash coloured spawn of Satan is sleeping right next to them in the same bed. Honestly, I kind of understand why she probably goes crazy and kills off the children, who are obviously not the father’s. I mean come on, two of the kids are curly red headed, freckled nightmares. I’m willing to bet the milkman is a ginger.
Anyway, back to the “plot.” Kids are dying left and right, and the only person to figure out the truth is the “father,” but the mother doesn’t want to believe it. She loves her little darling devil, spite the fact that the evidence is clearly stacked against this monstrosity. That’s pretty much how the rest of the movie plays out, albeit even more confusing. Did I enjoy The Godsend? Meh, it was alright. I do think the story could’ve played out a little better, but the problem is, we’ve seen it all before (*cough* The Village of the Damned *end cough*) and that was a much better movie than this one.
BLU-RAY
Scream Factory originally released these two movies on a 4 pack DVD titled All Night Horror Marathon: Vol 1, which also featured the movies The Vagrant, and What’s the Matter with Helen. The versions on that disc were full screen and pretty crappy from what I’ve heard, so the copies released on this Blu Double Feature are much improved, especially given the fact they are in widescreen with new HD transfers. The films aren’t going to win any awards in clarity, as they are still a little rough around the edges, with some scratches, dirt and blurriness. Besides that, the movies themselves are looking the best they will ever look, and with the DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0, nice and clear sounding, with only a few instances of muffled speech, especially in The Godsend.
Features on the other hand are missing. The only thing included is a trailer for The Godsend. BOO!
BLU-RAY SPECIAL FEATURES
– The Godsend –
- Theatrical Trailer
VERDICT
The Outing / The Godsend won’t be for everyone (I feel like I say that for a lot of my reviews,) but it’s a fun romp through the wastelands of 80s horror films. It’s bad, but so bad you can have a lot of fun with these ones. The Blu from Scream Factory is light on features, but the video and audio make up for most shortcomings. Recommended for 80s cheese fans.
RATING
