Late Night Classics – The Lamp

Known for his exceptional make-up effects work in the Frank Henenlotter films Brain Damage and Basket Case 2, Gabe Bartalos has gone on to have one of the most distinguished careers in the pantheon of latex slingers. He has branched out to the role of director [Skinned Deep], producer [The Mercy Man], and he is the head honcho of his own effects house [Atlantic West Effects].

Being the reflective kind of guy I am, I wanted to chat it up with Gabe about a motion picture that is collecting dust in some studio vault just waiting to be rediscovered. Like a genie in a bottle, it lays idle waiting for someone to rub it the right way and let it loose so everyone can see the best genre picture involving a djinn [sorry, Wishmaster] ever made.

Gabe and I pulled up a chair at his shop for a geek-out about The Lamp, and I tell you it was the coolest thing to be bordered by monsters from his past, present, and future.

Jason Bene: How did you become a part of this rarely seen horror film?

Gabe Bartalos: I came out to California from New York and worked on Dolls and Crawlspace for John Buechler’s MMI. We were also prepping From Beyond in Italy. Then I got a call from Reel EFX and they do physical effects, and they were located at the Raleigh Studios lot. They were doing work on Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives and The Lamp. Frank Mancuso Jr. lassoed them in for Friday the 13th Part VI, while they were hired for The Lamp by a company called Hit Films out of Texas. We prepped both of those films at Raleigh Studios, and then a team went off to do Friday the 13th Part VI. Then another team, me included, were supervised by Jim Gill, who now runs Reel EFX; went down to Houston, Texas for The Lamp.

Jason Bene: Was that a real museum you filmed at?

Gabe Bartalos: That was a real museum that they got access to. It was shot at various locations on the streets and roads with the kids chasing each other around.

Jason Bene: There are an abundant amount of physical make-up effects in the movie. What did you work on exactly?

Gabe Bartalos: We were getting a lot of mileage out of a torso mold that we made. For Friday the 13th Part VI, we orchestrated an effect where a sheriff gets bent backwards. We utilized the ground and buried him half-way and had these cosmetic legs bent the wrong way and all he had to do was lay back. It’s really all about the sound design. It made this horrible cracking noise and it was very effective. Out of the same mold we ran legs for the underwater scene where it is suggested the guy is cut in half at the top and his bleeding legs go to the bottom. Those were urethane foam and they had blood packets inside, so when we let it go into the water, the blood mixed very theatrically.

The kid in the sweat pants who gets bent backwards was almost the same effect as in Friday the 13th Part VI. We had him through a fake floor and we got him comfortable. We had him sitting upright enough so it looked like his body was architecturally going one way. He just kind of leaned back. The death was off-camera, but you see him bent backwards.

The iron maiden scene was a simple effect, but totally effective. You see the dials on the mask twisting and tightening and we had blood tubing on the inside the mask that we pumped off-camera. We had him gesture and motion like he was in pain and blood began to flow out underneath it. A simple gag that worked pretty well.

Then there is the genie spirit that takes over the professor and pulls him in the air, and with that one, they let your imagination fill in the blanks. We shot a small air mortar of blood and goo at the wall and it splat as it hit.

It was great working with snakes. They had a plexiglass isolation tank and the camera was very close for the snake striking. It was a real snake and then it was an insert puppet snake that the wrangler knew would be very effective for inserts. We used those to strike at her and then you see her topple out of the bathtub. She came to the make-up trailer and we had her there for about two hours and we applied about eight medallion sized prosthetics glued all over her body to suggest snake bites. We took her back on-set and right before the cameras rolled we dressed them with fresh blood so as she fell gravity helped the blood flow and it looked like it was coming out of the wounds. That was a good effect in the sense that it bothered people because of the nudity and vulnerability of it. I think everyone imagined much better things to do with her than snake bits.

The mummy was cool because we took a real skeleton and Jim Gill put on a pneumatic rig at its waistline so it would sit up and have its arm come around. It also bites off a kid’s finger. We wanted to give the mummy an interesting look. Instead of just building up and adding on to the skeleton, I took the skeletal face and added clay to all the undercuts and molded the face and cemented the features of the skull. Then I sculpted shriveled skin and the collapsed eye sockets. I basically did a make-up on the skeleton. It was super cool! During the kids tour it comes to life.

The lamp itself was designed by Barbara Bock and she is an illustrator who worked at Reel EFX. I have worked with her a lot since with storyboards. She was brought in to conceptualize a lot of the stuff. She did tons of drawings of the lamp and the ones that production picked are the ones that were manufactured. I believe it was sculpted from scratch and molded and then ran on urethane and fiberglass. It was kind of cool.

The genie itself was built at the Reel EFX facility at Raleigh Studios. It was funny because it was so vast we just drew the attention of everyone on the lot. It was literally about twelve feet tall, it was a big sculpture. It was molded in fiberglass panels and we made what is called a core. A core is a shape that occupies the negative space inside of it so when you pour latex and urethane you dictate how thick it is. It was put on the boom arm of a dolly and all the controls were on the left and right side of the dolly. It was pretty amazing! For a long time some of the most fun I ever had on-set was on The Lamp because we were allowed to shoot in the museum, which was kind of incredible. It was all done after hours. We were pushing this dolly and we were hanging off the side, and we were hidden underneath by a giant cheesecloth while nitrogen oxide poured out of. It looked like a smoke effect that he was floating on. It was cool because it was such a big, cable-controlled creature. It pounds through a wall and I remember I was in charge of that. I was able to bash the wall in and that was fun! I remember our deadlines were tight. We sculpted, molded, and poured the foam in Los Angeles, then loaded it on a truck. We had prepped time down there before the genie was needed, but we were needed on-set. I would do a make-up effect on-set, and then if I had a day off we would pull the genie out and seam it and paint it. I painted it as it was needed. They were like, “Well, Gabe, we need to see the arm bust through a door.” Jim Gill, who was supervising the project and designed all of the mechanics, would then work on that arm. We would get it out and then I would paint that arm and we would shoot it. Then we knew we had to see the head and the chest, and then the thing got painted together like a jigsaw puzzle. By the time it was seen in its entirety it was all set. They shot it well with the camera low and they had it rising up. It was pretty unique.

Jason Bene: Who came up with the actual design for the djinn?

Gabe Bartalos: The director left a lot of the interpretation to us. I think it was Barbara Bock again. I just remember tons of drawings and they would say, “We like the hand and we like the head.” We were all flexible. We thought everything we were submitting was cool, so whatever they picked it what we would go with. I would actually say the design was all Barbara. She really did the heavy lifting of all the drawing, and then when it came to sculpting everybody attacked it because there was so much clay to be moved.

Jason Bene: Does anybody own any of the props from the film?

Gabe Bartalos: For a long time the genie was at Raleigh Studios in an adjacent soundstage hoisted up. You could see it for years, but now I don’t think it is there anymore. Every time I was on the lot for a screening or work I would see it and kind of tip my hat to it. I had such a personal connection with it. Years ago, which was years later, I didn’t see it. I would imagine it started to decompose. If anything is left of it I would be surprised.

Jason Bene: Did The Lamp receive a theatrical run?

Gabe Bartalos: It did and I think that is how I saw it. The first time I saw it was in New York City during its first run and I just happened to be back on the East Coast, so that was exciting to see it in the theaters. I saw it years later as a double feature; there was probably another print rolling around. I was obviously more interested to see it than other people. Ten years ago I came across the VHS and a bought it.

Jason Bene: Was it released as The Lamp or The Outing?

Gabe Bartalos: I think it was already The Outing. I don’t know if The Lamp ever stuck. I think The Lamp was just a production title because I remember being surprised that it was called The Outing. I think Cinefantastique did an article on it and I believe they may have done a set visit.

Jason Bene: Both of the posters for the movie were amazing. Drew Struzan was the king of 80′s poster artwork design.

Gabe Bartalos: For some reason they must have had a deal with him because he did three of their films. He did the poster for Meatballs 4, so maybe he was a buddy of theirs. I really liked it when there was care in the posters. To get a good image that was painted or illustrated was great. We are in a pretty sorry state for movie posters these days.

Jason Bene: There is still no DVD and it is stuck in distribution hell.

Gabe Bartalos: I have to look at my tape cassette. It is one of those films that if people catch it again they will probably be pleasantly surprised. The Lamp was pretty weird in the sense that it had this one death with a security guard who is established as an over-eater, and later on he is found dead with his throat totally swollen. I made a prosthetic that wrapped around underneath his jaw and around his neck and literally inside the prosthetic was skittles, twizzlers, and jellybeans; it was pretty surreal. The film also had its fair share of strangeness going on.

Jason Bene: For someone who has never seen the film, what are they in for?

Gabe Bartalos: It’s a badass genie film that has a lot of interesting deaths and quirky characters in it. It takes place in a museum, which is always nice for production value. It was shot in Houston, Texas in 1986, and it has a lot of creative deaths leading up to the big finale where the full genie is revealed. It’s pleasantly surprising in its practical effects and its sure size.

Gabe Bartalos was cool enough to let Killer Film share with everyone these Exclusive, never-before-seen photos from the set of The Lamp!