A Night In The Museum: The Lamp (1987)

The Lamp (AKA The Outing) (1987)
Rating: ***
Starring: Deborah Winters, James Huston, Andra St. Ivanyi

In 1893, an Arab migrate on board a boat to America was harboring a lamp that contains a powerful evil. This being, somehow, got released and nearly murders the an entire boat crew, with the only survivor being the migrant's young daughter.

Fast forward to the present, the girl was now an elderly woman living alone in the woods, soon becoming a victims of a brutal home invasion when a trio of hillbilly hicks decides to rob her. When the thieves find the accursed lamp, they unknowingly release the evil residing in it once more which then proceeds to kill everyone in sight before retreating back to the lamp.

As morning comes, the cops clear up the massacre and the lamp is moved to a nearby museum where Dr. Wallace, the curator, plans to add it to the other oddities displayed. His daughter Alex, visiting his museum as a part of her class' field trip (which I find odd seeing they're a little too old for field trips), finds a trinket tuckered along with the lamp. Upon wearing it, she's under the lamp's influence and tricks her into convincing her friends to staying in the museum overnight for some mischievous fun. (Cuz, as we all know, precious antiques and dusty fossils make perfect make-out atmosphere!)

Unknowingly staying with them are two racists skinheads who wanted to get revenge on their African American principal by raping his daughter. But just as these groups of sex-hungry kiddies were starting to enjoy themselves, the being in the lamp got released from its bounds again and goes for another killing spree. When Alex is all that's left, she must come face to face against a demon that will stop at nothing to finish everyone off.

By all means, the story did sound interesting; a demonic djinn with powers to make anything come to life with a blood lust to match, or levitate any objects as its murder weapons, released in a museum where it can freely terrorize and dispatch as many victims as it wants. What could go wrong?

While the story is decent enough to be a fun bodycount-friendly horror-slasher, the execution can be a tad complicated; first, you can't have a good movie if none of the characters are likable or at least interesting; the teenagers are horny yet bland cardboard pop-ups and the supposed final girl isn't all that root-worthy either. The film also have a mean-spirited streak by featuring not one, not two, but three evil stereotypes under the form of evil rednecks, a duo of horrible skin-heads, and a monstrous entity. I guess it's the filmmaker's way of showing that the main supernatural villain cares very little whether the victim deserves their death or not but from a viewer's point of view, this can look depressing. Due to this, The Lamp (1987) often feels too dark to be humorous, and yet too cheesy to be taken seriously.

While the story was poorly directed and the characters are thin pieces of sliced cheese, the film however did great in keeping the kills as lively and creative as possible, which basically the reason to see it. The production value looks and feels very decent, with the special effects and gore being plentiful despite the low budget, make-up master behind some of my favorite Henenlotter films Gabe Bartalos imaginatively puts some murderous use to the museum's exhibits such as displayed spears, dinosaur fossils and even some mummies, messily doing away one victims at a time until the cheesy climax that involved the djinn revealed, which is underwhelming but workable enough.

This said, The Lamp (1987) is best remembered for its kills and special effects, though if you're also looking for a 'no holds barred' kooky bodycounter that manages to be both hammy and nasty, this is your movie have or rent! May it be a treasure best forgotten or found will be all up to you!

Bodycount:
1 male seen dead
1 female dies (cause unknown)
1 male mentioned decapitated, blood splatter seen
1 elderly female axed on the head
1 male forced head first into an axe
1 male torn in half
1 female strangled
1 male lifted to a ceiling fan, shredded
1 male speared on the chest
1 male seen torn in half
1 female attacked by snakes
1 male attacked on the groin by a snake
1 male had his head crushed with a medieval mask, his neck twisted
1 male impaled on the gut by a flying horned tribal mask
1 female killed offscreen
1 male found with jewelries impaled to his face
1 male had his neck bitten open by a revived corpse
1 male found dead
Total: 18