TheOuting

The Outing (1987)

I was really excited to check out this killer Genie movie. I mean other than the Wishmaster series there just aren’t that many good Genie movies. The problem with the Outing is that it ends up being a terrible mess of a movie. It starts off with some crooks that break into an old woman’s house to steal money from her. They end up killing her and letting a Genie out of the lamp. It kills them and then for some reason locks itself back in the lamp (not very smart!). Later the woman’s possessions end up at a museum where the curator’s daughter unleashes the Genie and is possessed by it (sort of). Thru a crazy series of coincidences and the fact the Genie likes killing people a bunch of the girls friends get locked in the museum and are picked off by the now free roaming Genie.

The movie starts off interesting, but as soon as we are introduced to the girl and her soon to be dead friends the movie slows down and gets rather dumb. Between the opening killings and getting locked in we are treated to 50 minutes of silly back-story between the girl and her father, as well as an ex-boyfriend. Not only is this stuff not at all interesting, but also it is really poorly acted and comes off super cheesy. Now of course I do dig cheesy movies, but there is just too much of it here without any real action. I really can’t say that a single member of the cast is able to deliver a line without appearing that they are delivering dialogue, which makes the whole movie feel wooden and stiff. When I’m struggling to stay awake after years of bad movie conditioning you know a movie has to be awful. Now when the Genie does get out the movie picks up and provides us with a nice bit of gore and nudity. But it is too little too late to save the movie.

Speaking of effects some of the kills are decent, but the design on the Genie is lousy. We don’t get to see much of it, which is an obvious choice by the director given that his big bad monster looks like a bald muppet. The puppetry is terrible and the Genie is obviously gliding around the sets on some sort of cart. Now there is a cool effect with an animated mummy taking one of the kids out, but that is about it.

Bottom line is that The Outing isn’t worth checking out unless you are a real fan of bad 80s horror movies. For everyone else I recommend taking a nap, you will get the same effect.

1 out of 4

reviewed by John Shatzer