Outing Reviews

Although this film may look like just another slasher-in-the-woods splatter film, it is actually about a monstrous genie in a lamp, and most of the action takes place in a natural history museum. When an ancient lamp ends up in a museum curated by Dr. Al Wallace (James Huston), its genie escapes and possesses the curator's teenage daughter, Alex (Andra St. Ivanyi). THE OUTING brings some badly needed variety to the splatter genre by using the antique genie to dispatch its cast of nubile young teenagers, rather than employing the usual knife-wielding psycho. The film also earns some bonus points for setting the action inside the dark museum, and director Tom Daley makes fairly good use of the creepy location. The special effects are unremarkable, with the 20-foot-tall genie (actually only eight feet tall) looking very inanimate as it is rolled around the set through an eerie cloud of liquid nitrogen gas.