Tweet
Released by: Shout! Factory
Released on: July 14th, 2015.
Director: Tom Daley/Gabrielle Beaumont
Cast: James Huston, Deborah Winters, Malcolm Stoddard, Angela Pleasence
Year: 1980/1987
Purchase From Amazon
The Movies:
Scream Factory presents two more low budget eighties horror offerings previously released on DVD on one handy-dandy Blu-ray release!
The Outing:
The first feature begins with a scene where a trio of hillbillies - two guys and a woman named Faylene - breaks into the home of an old woman. One of the guys knows she's got money there because he's delivered groceries to her plenty of times. They storm the place and when she won't tell them where the loot is, they take an axe to the wall. Coincidently, they find an old chest, hack it open and wow, look, a fancy old lamp. Could that lamp possibly contain an evil genie? Yes it could! It's unleashed and before you know it one guy has been cut in half, the other guy has got an axe in his head and poor Faylene is running around topless and screaming.
Cut to a scene where we meet a teenage girl named Alex (Andra St. Ivanyi) and her dad, Doctor Wallace, a museum director. It turns out Alex's mother passed away and things just haven't been the same since, but hey, she's got a boyfriend named Ted (Scott Bankston) and a cool teacher named Mrs. Ferrell (Deborah Winters) whose got the hots for her old man so things could be worse. When that teacher takes the kids to the museum for a trip, Alex and her friends devise a plan to hang out there overnight, unaware that a certain lamp has been brought into the building for examination. Making matters worse is the presence of Alex's ex-boyfriend, a sleeveless shirt/skinny-tie wearing guy named Mike (Red Mitchell). When Alex gets possessed by the genie, things hit the fan and more people wind up ripped in half, topless, raped and covered in snakes!
Presented here in its longer international version under the alternate title of The Lamp, this is a fairly gory, trashy picture highlighted by a good bit of gore and some pretty neat stop motion animation any time the actual genie appears on screen. Some awesome, if horribly dated, optical effects are put into motion to show Alex as possessed, so lots of goofy, glowing green eyes can be seen but some of those murder set pieces are surprisingly strong. The movie is played pretty much completely straight, heading into territory that's considerably darker than a lot might expect given that this is basically a movie about promiscuous teenagers getting offed by a monsters.
There are some decent production values here in addition to the keen effects. The museum setting is pretty effective and allows for the artifacts displayed there to be worked into the kill scenes in interesting ways and it also makes for a neat location for all of this to play off of. The lighting is fairly atmospheric at times and the score compliments the movie rather well. The acting is nothing to write home about - no one here stands out as particularly impressive but no one really embarrasses themselves either. This might be a minor entry in the pantheon of eighties horror pictures but it is at least interesting, somewhat original and plenty gory.
The Godsend:
Based on author Bernard Taylor's novel of the same name, 1980's The Godsend, spearheaded behind the camera by prolific TV director Gabrielle Beaumont, sees an unnamed woman (Angela Pleasance, who looks an awful lot like her father) show up at the home of Alan (Malcolm Stoddard) and Kate Marlowe (Cyd Hayman). Shortly after she coerces Kate into letting her in, she gives birth to a baby and then more or less mysteriously disappears. Unsure what to do about all of this, the Marlowe's care for the child and name her Bonnie (Wilhelmina Green) but soon realize that something is not right, made all the more obvious when the youngest of their own three children winds up dead.
This is the first of many unfortunate incidents that begin to plague the Marlowe's after Bonnie comes onboard and after a few more, they decide to move to London to hopefully get away from all of this. Of course, whatever is cursing them has followed the family, and as Alan starts to figure out just who is responsible for all of this, he and Kate come to blows as she refuses to believe that little Bonnie could ever have had a hand in something so devious as murder.
The Godsend is a decent enough slow burn horror picture even if it is absolutely predictable, and therefore devoid of some of the suspense it really needed to completely succeed. We get a few interesting murder set pieces and a couple of interesting twists to help create some tension, but ultimately we know very early on where all of this is going and who is behind all of the mayhem our poor unwitting Marlowe's are subjected to. The film is fairly slow, deliberately paced you could say, and at times it does feel padded but the performances aren't half bad. Cyd Hayman does a good job of showing us how her concerned mother would understandably not want to believe that a young child could kill, while Malcolm Stoddard does a fine job of showcasing the pressure that his Alan finds himself in once he's stuck between a rock and a hard place. We really do get the impression that he cares about what happens here, he never snaps into 'action man' mode or anything like that. As such, it's easy to sympathize with him and with Hayman as Kate.
This isn't the most stylish or colorful picture you're ever going to see, sometimes it looks a little flat, but the camera work is, if never flashy, at least competent. The score is alright and while this was probably made on a modest budget, overall the production values are decent enough. Had this been a bit more original it likely would be better remembered but as it stands, it's a decent 'killer kid' movie.
Video/Audio/Extras:
The Outing and The Godsend arrive on Blu-ray in AVC encoded 1080p high definition framed at 1.78.1 widescreen. The Outing looks pretty rough, it's soft and murky and frequently a bit on the dark side with fine detail getting a bit lost in the shadows. Lighter scenes look okay, showing decent detail and nice colors but having some trouble in the darker scenes with some washed out blacks and hot looking contrast. The Godsend looks much nicer here, showing more consistent black levels and noticeably stronger detail and texture throughout. The image is also much cleaner, crisper and colorful than the first feature and the transfer has a lot less print damage.
Audio options are provided for each movie in English language DTS-HD 2.0 stereo with optional subtitles provided in English only. Both movies sound pretty solid here, with some nice directional effects occasionally creeping into the mix to add to the fun. Hiss and distortion are non-issues and the levels are balanced well.
The only extra here, aside from menus and chapter selection, is a trailer for The Godsend.
The Final Word:
Shout! Factory's Blu-ray release of The Outing and The Godsend won't win best release of the year but it does present two fun eighties horror offerings in high definition transfers that beat previous home video releases in terms of quality. Both movies are worth seeing, with The Outing in particular taking things to pretty ridiculous heights.
Click on the images below for full sized Blu-ray screen caps!
