The Lamp Movie Review

Trailer here.

The Lamp or The Outing is a 1987 horror film directed by Tom Daley and starring Deborah Winters, Andra St Ivanyi and James Huston.

The film begins in Galveston, Texas in 1893. An Arab girl and her mother arrive there and the mother releases an evil jinn from her bracelet. It kills people. The girl takes a lamp and the bracelet with her and runs away. Cut to years later and three people are going to break into a house. An old lady lives there. She gets attacked by them. The burglars find a chest with a lamp inside it.  The old lady gets killed and the burglar rubs the lamp. He releases the evil jinn who inhabits the old lady. The burglars are all killed. The cops come and they seal up the lamp. The lamp ends up at the Museum of Natural Science in Houston. A man called Dr. Wallace(Huston) and his colleague examine it.

Alex(St Ivanyi) is Dr. Wallace's daughter and she comes to visit him. She sees the lamp and the bracelet. She figures out that the two are connected. The lamp starts to open. She puts on the bracelet and it glows. Alex has an ex boyfriend called Mike, who won't leave her alone. She is with a new boyfriend called Ted. Mike attacks him and gets thrown out of school. He threatens her and her friends. Alex asks her teacher, Eve(Winters), about the magic lamp. Her teacher tells her that it is called a djinn and it is evil. The class are going on a field trip to the museum. Alex wants her friends to visit it after dark and stay there for the night. They decide to do it. Alex visits the magic lamp and the spirit goes into her.  Her ex boyfriend Mike hears about this and he is going to stay there too.

One of the curators in the museum is visited by the jinn. He gets killed. Alex pretends that Ted is bringing her home when she speaks to her father. She then stays behind in the museum so she can let her friends in. She tells them that they can stay in the basement. Alex sees her ex Mike and his friend. She leaves the gate open for them. A security guard gets killed by the jinn. The group of friends split up. They start to get killed. Alex and Ted search for her friends. They find them dead. Dr. Wallace is worried about Alex so he calls home but there is no answer. He goes to the museum with Eve, who also happens to be his girlfriend. They look for Alex. Ted gets killed. Alex meets her dad. The jinn turns up in its true form. It wants Alex. They need to destroy it. It gets into Dr. Wallace. He ends up dead. Alex has to destroy it. She throws it into the incinerator. It explodes. The bracelet drops off her wrist. Eve is still alive. They leave the museum together and go off in a police car.

This was a fun film. There were some good moments. I liked the idea of the genie in the lamp and all that. Overall, this is worth a look for fans of 80's films. I will give it a 5/10.

Blood Tracks Movie Review

Trailer here.

Blood Tracks is a 1985 horror movie directed by Mats Helge Olsson and Derek Ford. It stars Jeff Harding and Brad Powell.

A man attacks his wife in front of his sons. She stabs him and he dies. She runs off into the wilderness with all of her children. Cut to 1985 and the family have been hiding for forty years. People are coming to the area. They are a movie crew who are going to shoot a music video. A rock band , Easy Action, arrive in Colorado to shoot their video. The locals warn them that there might be an avalanche. The film crew spot an old, abandoned factory and decide that it is a perfect place to film, even though it has been condemned. A few actresses turn up to star in the video. They are shooting when there is an avalanche.

Their pilot is called John(Harding) and he tells them that there is nothing to worry about.

The weirdo family are watching them. A guy called Nick is shooting footage in the factory when he gets hit on the head. Two others get caught in the avalanche and they have to be dug out.  Nick looks at his camera footage and realises that there are other people in the factory. They see a face. The sound guy, Dave goes to the factory to check the sound and he is killed. One of the girls, Carrie finds his stuff and goes back to tell the others that Dave is missing. Nick and Bob try to get the radio working so they can call for help.  Then they decide to go and look for Dave. They tell the others to stay together. Another one of the group gets killed by one of the psycho family. A girl is next. Nick meets a sticky end also,

Carrie gets captured by the family.

More people die as the family are determined to get rid of them. Carrie wakes up and tries to escape. One of the group contacts John on the radio but there is interference and he can't really hear but he tells her that he is coming. Carrie wanders around the factory but manages to get herself caught again and this time, there is no escape as she is killed. The family get into the cabin. John arrives and he talks to Bob. Bob fills him in about what is happening. John gives him some flares and he tells him to let them off if he hears a helicopter. Suzie is the next to be caught by the family. Bob goes to the factory once again but leaves a girl called Sarah with the flares. The family are killing once again. Sarah gets attacked but she manages to get to the snowmobile and she takes off.  She gets caught. John wanders into the factory and he gets attacked. He fights his attacker and manages to kill one of the weirdos. Bob shoots one of them.

One of the weirdos is called Lee and he witnesses Bob killing his brother. He kills Bob. It turns out that Suzie is still alive. She tries to escape. She finds John, who is badly injured. They use the radio to contact the helicopter. The weirdo mother fights with another of the group and she gets burned. John shoots Lee and blows off his arm. The survivors leave. This is a somewhat entertaining film. There isn't too much to it but there were some good scenes. It's pretty standard stuff. Now, you could make some comparisons to The Hills Have Eyes, but this film is nowhere near as good.  It is really average so take that into consideration before you watch it and lower your expectations. It's good for fans of 80's horror, like me. I will give it a 4/10.