THE LAMP (1987)

Director: Tom Daley Screenplay: Warren Chaney Starring: Deborah Winters, James Huston, Andra St. Ivanyi Runtime: 87 minutes Make a wish...if you dare!

As editor of this site and a devoted genre fan, I watch an awful lot of horror movies (obviously). In October, however, I make a conscious effort to watch even more than usual. I love Christmas, but there has always been something special about the run-up to Halloween. And what better way to get into the spirit of the season than by watching a horror movie every day throughout the month? That’s exactly what I’ve been doing for the past four or five years, taking part in Nightmare on Film Street’s #31DaysHorror challenge.

The idea is to plan your entire month of viewing around a series of prompts. For example, the theme on the 7th was ‘Bloody Bride’ (for which I watched [REC] 3: Genesis), while the prompt on the 10th was ‘Trouble in Paradise’ (which led me to Sweetheart). On the 12th, the theme was ‘Monkey’s Paw’ - those delightfully twisted horror stories in which wishes go horribly wrong. Think Wishmaster (1998) and Obsession (2025). Having already seen both, I decided to do a little digging for something new. One of the joys of this challenge is discovering films I’ve never got around to watching, and this particular prompt led me to a title that was completely unfamiliar to me: 1987’s The Lamp.

By the end of the 1980s, the slasher movie was in decline. Films in the genre were still being churned out at a reasonable rate, but their quality and appeal were beginning to wane. Audiences were growing tired of watching human psychopaths dispatch teenagers, and filmmakers increasingly looked to add supernatural elements to breathe new life into the formula, perhaps hoping to replicate the success of the A Nightmare on Elm Street franchise. Killer Party (1986) is a delightfully bonkers example of this approach, while Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II and Death Spa (1989) are two other entertaining efforts. Jason Voorhees was also now rising from the grave to battle final girls with psychic powers in Friday the 13th Part VII, while Michael Myers developed a psychic connection with his niece in Halloween 4. Ghosts, occult forces, telekinesis, curses - all manner of supernatural elements were being combined with more traditional slasher tropes, with wildly varying results. The Lamp is very much a product of this era, and while it’s hardly a great movie, it’s certainly a lot of fun.

Our story begins in Galveston, Texas, in the late 19th century. A young Arab girl and her mother are aboard a boat when they find themselves at the mercy of a malevolent, unseen presence. Everyone on board perishes, with the young girl the sole survivor. She escapes with a brass lamp and a bracelet that belonged to her mother. Fast-forward to the present day - or, more accurately, the 1980s - and three assholes attempt to burgle the rather palatial home of an elderly woman. The poor old dear tries to fight them off, but to no avail. The intruders steal her bracelet and discover a locked box concealed behind a wall. Inside is a brass lamp. Yes, you’ve guessed it: the old woman is the little girl from the opening scene! One of the douchebag burglars unwittingly releases a genie from the lamp, but we’re not talking about one of those big, blue, wisecracking characters from Aladdin. No, this is a djinn - the evil kind of genie you really don’t want to summon. It promptly possesses the elderly woman and proceeds to lay waste to the burglars. And by ‘lay waste’, I mean impaling, ripping apart and bludgeoning them.

Given their apparent historical significance, the lamp and bracelet are sent to the Houston Museum of Natural Science, where experts determine that the lamp is an astonishing 5,500 years old. Museum archaeologist Dr Wallace is soon visited by his teenage daughter, Alex, who can’t resist trying on the bracelet. Uh-oh! The following day, Alex returns to the museum with her classmates on a school trip. Before long, the group decides it would be a great idea to sneak back in after hours for a private party. As you can probably imagine, this turns out to be a spectacularly bad idea...

You know what? For what is essentially a trashy, regional supernatural slasher, The Lamp (also known as The Outing) is surprisingly enjoyable. The film’s second half essentially becomes a sleepover horror movie, and I have a real soft spot for these. The Slumber Party Massacre (1982), The Fun House (1981), One Dark Night (1982), Chopping Mall (1986) and Annabelle Comes Home (2019) are all ones I get a kick out of. There’s something inherently entertaining about this sort of setup. These films are often self-contained, take place after dark and transform otherwise safe, everyday locations into potential deathtraps. With few, if any, adults around to save the day, the characters are left to fend for themselves.

In The Lamp, a couple of grown-ups do play important supporting roles, namely Alex’s archaeologist father and his teacher girlfriend, played by the lovely Deborah Winters. The former is a little stuffy, but the latter gets a few memorable moments of her own. One particularly satisfying scene sees her and the school’s headteacher give a couple of racist, misogynistic students a well-deserved kicking. The performances across the board are actually pretty solid, which isn’t always something you can say about low-budget regional horror. Some of the younger cast members are a little rough around the edges, but on the whole, everyone does a perfectly serviceable job. For a low-budget B-movie about a murderous genie, that’s a welcome bonus.

But let’s be honest: we’re not here for award-worthy acting. We’re here for schlocky, daft entertainment and a generous helping of outlandish kills.

Thankfully, The Lamp delivers on both counts. Perms, scrunchies, denim, smoke machines and cheesy dialogue - it’s got the lot. And while the djinn remains effectively unseen until the final ten minutes or so, that doesn’t stop him from having a thoroughly good time dispatching the cast in the meantime. His methods are often wonderfully inventive, making use of historical artefacts that just happen to be lying around the museum. One character meets their end courtesy of an ancient spear, another suffers devastating consequences after trying on a helmet, and one particularly unfortunate soul is attacked by a swarm of snakes while taking a bath. The latter is arguably the film’s standout sequence.

The practical effects are commendable, too. At one point, a character is folded backwards in on themselves, and it looks terrific! Later, some skeletal remains are reanimated in another impressively executed sequence. There are a few dodgy digital effects towards the end - glowing green eyes being the most obvious offender - when the djinn finally makes his presence known. Thankfully, the creature itself is realised through practical effects and animatronics, and he’s an absolute delight. Looking like a cross between Pumpkinhead and the djinn from Wishmaster, he’s a suitably grotesque creation and a fitting centrepiece for this wonderfully daft little movie.

It’s worth noting that the film also features a rather unpleasant subplot involving the aforementioned racist teenagers who later invade the museum with the intention of harming (and sexually assaulting) the central group of kids. It’s a mean-spirited element that sits rather uncomfortably alongside the film’s more gleefully ridiculous antics. There’s also some gratuitous nudity, because, well, it is the 1980s after all.

Still, these are relatively minor gripes in the grand scheme of things. The Lamp may not be a lost horror masterpiece, but it’s an entertaining slice of late-’80s supernatural schlock, packed with inventive kills, enjoyable practical effects and plenty of gloriously cheesy atmosphere. It’s exactly the sort of offbeat discovery that makes the #31DaysHorror challenge worthwhile. If you’re in the mood for a killer-genie movie with a distinctly retro flavour, you could do a lot worse. The Lamp is available on Plex