The Outing / The Godsend Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		3.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		2.0

The Outing / The Godsend Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman July 23, 2015

Note: The scores above are averages for the two films in this double feature put together. See the individual reviews for each film (linked below) for scores for that film.

The term “lesser of two evils” can be taken more than one way when assessing the strange and frankly at best middling double feature of The Outing and The Godsend offered by Shout! Factory’s imprint Scream Factory on this Blu-ray release. There are of course “evils” abounding in each of these films, courtesy of either a demonic genie or a demonic child. But neither film ever whips up much suspense, despite appealing enough premises (however derivative they may be). The Outing has a somewhat convoluted history that helps to explain at least some of its incoherence, and The Godsend has a tamped down approach that keeps its problematic subject matter of little kiddies getting killed one by one in a kind of weirdly traditional British stiff upper lip ambience, but neither film ever ends up delivering the goods, either dramatically or (more importantly for a horror outing) from a fright perspective. As with so many horror films that Scream Factory has released over the past couple of years, each of these outings (sorry) has attained a considerable cult following, though as with many horror film cults, watching The Outing and The Godsend now in the cold, clear light of day, and without the rose colored glasses of youthful samplings of nascent cable television fare, may prove to be eye opening (and not in a good way) for even the most ardent fan.

Reviews for each of the films included on this double feature can be accessed by clicking on the following links:

The Outing Blu-ray review

The Godsend Blu-ray review

The Outing / The Godsend Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Video quality of each film is assessed in the above referenced reviews.

The Outing / The Godsend Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Audio quality of each film is assessed in the above referenced reviews.

The Outing / The Godsend Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

There is no supplementary material related to The Outing, and details on the The Godsend's sole supplement (its trailer) can be found in that review, linked above.

The Outing / The Godsend Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

A lot of the Shout! Factory and Scream Factory double features have had some kind of link, albeit tangential, but it's hard to see what the common thread is between The Outing and The Godsend, other than that neither film is very good. While these are advertised as sporting "new HD transfers," fans of either (or both) will probably want to study screenshots (especially for The Outing) before deciding whether this two-fer warrants a purchase.