User reviews

I've got to be honest here: I first saw this movie in my teens and loved it, so I might be a bit biased here, ignoring it's flaws. Just saw it again, over 10 years later, and I gotta say, while it didn't have the 'wow' effect it gave me before, It still holds up as a decent movie. This movie is fast paced and just crammed with awesome ideas that sometimes work, and sometimes could have been used more effectively.

What do we have?

• An insane serial killer - This guy just oozes evil, amazing bad guy.

• A very cute psychic - man did I have a crush on her!

• Plenty of mysterious happenings and scares (though not very scary for seasoned moviegoers)

• Cool action sequences. That ceiling fan scene is so awesome.

• Satanic superpowers. How is that not super cool?

• The pacing is great, with lots of interesting scenes.

• Nice touches of humor now and then.

So What could be better?

• The ending is a bit unsatisfying.

• Things could be bigger and more epic.

• While decent, Lou Diamond Philips could be replaced with many other actors, and there are more charismatic ones out there.

• Seeing it again, it wasn't that scary, but I remember that it was the first time. Could be scarier though, I guess.

• If you analyze things too much, there are lots of small plot holes.

This movie is like an older, more low budget version of 'End of Days' with Arnold Schwarzenegger (which I liked as well). If what I told you sounds interesting, this movie is a great way to spice up a boring Sunday evening!

Some movies get a bit lost in the shuffle and The First Power seems to have suffered from bad timing if anything. Released at the start of the 90's when horror was on the decline, it didn't seem that there was much of an audience for this kind of movie, but it's not a bad movie at all and a lot of fun.

Lou Diamond Phillips plays a cop whose track record for finding and imprisoning serial killers is some sort of legend. He gets an anonymous tip from a mysterious woman about the whereabouts of a killer named The Pentagram Killer, but warns him to only catch him and imprison him - not to kill him. He catches him, but the killer ends up getting executed in prison and his evil spirit is now free to torment and kill more people - this time, by jumping into other people's bodies.

The First Power might have a few missteps here and there (the killer's need to crack jokes reeks of late-stage Freddy Krueger and the nun character only seems to show up when necessary and is pure plot device), but the pacing is pretty even and the performances aren't bad with Phillips holding down the fort well as the lead and Tracy Griffith does well as the psychic.

Jeff Kober ... doing his thing as is Lou Diamond Phillps. Funnily enough I had never seen this and it looks and feels like a movie I would have cherished in the late 90s - video store glory days and all that.

It seem to be infamous enough (to get a release by 88 Films and being talked about a lot too), but hey: better late than never, right? So this is as out there as it gets and the movie really needs you to suspend your disbelief. You may need as much time as Lou Diamonds character needs in this movie ... it may still not be enough to wrap your head around it though.

This is flawed and has not aged gracefully. Still it can be campy 80s/90s throwback fun, if you let it. Not much in the story department, apart from that idea of ... supernatural madness.

It bills itself as a horror/supernatural/possession movie, but it feels much more like an 80's style action movie with a detective chasing a criminal who happens to have supernatural powers.

I'll be the first to admit this one is dumb. It's filled with contradictions. It breaks its own rules. It's not for the thinking man. However, if you manage to turn your brain off and just enjoy the ride, this one is a lot of fun. Lots of fun action sequences!

Jeff Kober is a real highlight! He makes a great bad guy and has a blast with the role. The other actors are more hit or miss.

At the end of the day, I have to recommend this one even if many people won't like it. It's worth a try!

The only thing that The First Power really has going for it is that it affords Jeff Kober an opportunity to play one of his lovely variety of psychotic villains that he's done so well in the last 25 years. Kober is a worthy successor to Lyle Bettger who specialized in those parts back in the Fifties.

But it's not enough, The First Power is a souped up slasher flick that has Lou Diamond Phillips wasted as an LAPD detective who has a specialty in catching serial killers. Kober is his latest catch, but Kober's in league with a lower power and they're going to team up and make Lou's life miserable for him. Even after Kober is given the gas chamber, his spirit comes back in all kinds of guises.

Mykelti Williamson is on hand as Lou's partner who meets a nasty end involving a demon possessed horse and Tracy Griffith as a psychic and Elizabeth Arlen as a nun with insights are around to help Lou. Will he succeed in battling forces from beyond?

By the time the film ends, you no longer care. Lou really got trapped in a turkey. Maybe the devil made him do this film.

A Los Angeles serial killer, who carves Satanic pentagrams onto his victims' bodies, gets the death penalty but is able to continue his murder spree by possessing bodies of the living. It is down to cop Lou Diamond Phillips and psychic Tracy Griffith to stop him once and for all. The idea of body hopping is nothing new, straight out of Shocker. And there are a number of horrific dream sequences, reminiscent of the Elm Streets. The First Power is as much a crime thriller as it is horror movie, well enough acted with some good stunts. However I just found it overall rather unremarkable and does look pretty dated now.

Entertaining movie, which has a sort of dream-like quality, a good share of scary moments and is quite well thought out. A serial "Pentagram" killer is sentenced to death. It doesn't end here, though, as he's resurrected by the Devil himself and comes back for vengeance. Lou Diamond Phillips is convincing and red-headed Tracy Griffith is a babe. The arch-villain will give you the creeps. Personally, I quite enjoyed this and have it in my personal video collection. Good choice for all occult fans! Rating: 7 out of 10

When I stumbled upon the 1990 movie "The First Power" here in 2022, I opted to sit down and watch it, for what turned out to be the second time actually since 1990. I had entirely forgotten about the movie, but as I started to watch it, it started to come back to me.

Writer and director Robert Resnikoff managed to churn out an interesting enough storyline for "The First Power", although it was a little bit far out there. But hey, it made for adequate entertainment, and that is what movies are about.

While the storyline is semi-adequate, then it was actually fun to watch the cast ensemble in the movie on the screen, which included the likes of Lou Diamond Phillips, Tracy Griffith, Jeff Kober, Mykelti Williamson and Elizabeth Arlen, so there are some familiar faces from the 1990s cinema here.

And in "The First Power" if felt like the production crew didn't even bother to try to make the stunt doubles resemble the actors that they were suppose to stand in for. It was just hilarious to watch, especially since it was so painstakingly obvious that it was a whole different performer doing the stunts.

I will say that "The First Power" is certainly enjoyable enough for what it turned out to be. Sure, you're not in for a grand cinematic experience here, but the movie is actually entertaining enough.

My rating of "The First Power" lands on a five out of ten stars.

You can only see a movie for the first time once and so I have to admit that THE FIRST POWER worked on me the first time I saw it in theaters. It moved with such lightning speed that I didn't have time to ponder its snowballing silliness. The director, Robert Resnikoff, knows how to construct an action film--the cinematography is first rate and the editing superb-- he just doesn't know when to stop. There are car chases, horse and buggy chases, foot chases and innumerable shoot-outs, and at one point the killer even brandishes a ceiling fan as a rather laughable weapon and all the action movie huggery-muggery sits rather uneasily on top of the supernatural elements.Lou Diamond Philips, though a tad young-looking to be such a seasoned detective, gives a competent performance. Jeff Kober is obviously having fun playing the killer and it shows; he has a toothy menace that's suitably creepy. Probably the best thing going for THE FIRST POWER is a truly unnerving and effective soundtrack from Stewart Copeland. The director pulls off some nasty mind-trips on the character played by Philips, one where he wakes to find his apartment seemingly covered in blood and another in a confessional booth when he goes to get some answers from a local priest.

A Los Angeles detective (Lou Diamond Phillips) teams-up with a winsome psychic (Tracy Griffith) to nab a nutso serial killer who was executed, but uncannily continues to manifest for more slayings.

"The First Power" (1990) is a fast-paced crime thriller with occult-oriented horror. It takes "The Night Stalker" (1972) template minus the vampire angle and mixes it with the real-life Richard Ramirez case, "Spellbinder" (1988) and "The Hidden" (1987).

It's as entertaining as any of those three movies, as well as more amusing, but it's hampered by predictableness. For instance, when the protagonist goes into the confessional you know exactly what's going to happen. Then there are some unlikely bits, like a vat of acid strategically placed in a sewer that explodes. Why Sure! Meanwhile the final scene leaves a sour taste.

Nevertheless, likable Lou works well as the driven detective while Redhead Tracy Griffith is a highlight. You might remember her from "Sleepaway Camp III: Teenage Wasteland" (1989).

The film runs 1 hour, 38 minutes, and was shot in Los Angeles.

GRADE: B-

Sister Marguerite is convinced that the events of the Revelation is occurring but her superiors would rather ignore it. An anonymous woman calls LA police detective Russell Logan (Lou Diamond Phillips) with a tip on a serial killer. His team catches serial killer Patrick Channing (Jeff Kober) who is eventually put to death. The mysterious woman had warned against the death penalty. Channing's spirit lives on and is killing Logan's team one at a time. Tess Seaton (Tracy Griffith) reveals herself to be the psychic who called him with the tips.

This is filled with the leftovers of a supernatural serial killer thriller. It doesn't have much in the way of originality or surprises. The style is pretty bland and Lou Diamond Phillips is second rate as the action lead. Tracy Griffith is a pretty woman but not a great actress. The beginning is tied up with an uninvolving serial killer case. It would probably be better to leave most of it as flashbacks. It needs to get the movie to the cop and the psychic much faster. It does have some fun with a supernatural killer and the movie keeps me somewhat interested. If it commits more fully with the Jason-like killer, this could be a better horror and a more exciting thriller. The horror effects are more cheesy than scary. It does have one good sequence in the middle.

In my opinion this is a very good film. A super underrated flick and that is usually going to be one of those ones that go under the radar the end up being a very good movie.

I'm going to agree with Ava de Lara (no relation): Jeff Kober as the serial killer Patrick Channing is the best thing about this movie. He completely understands how this material is to be played (tongue in bloody cheek), and he has great energy. The movie is just not as good when he's not onscreen. (My favorite scene is the one in the confessional.) Overall, the movie's "rules" for the killer are not well established. I never completely believe Lou Diamond Phillips as a cop. He does crack a few good lines though. Tracy Griffith is OK, but she gets increasingly shrill as the movie goes on. It shows up on TBS a lot, and I recommend you watch it for Jeff Kober's performance. This is the first of his "serial killer returning from the grave to exact demonic revenge" characters, which he's also done as a guest shot on POLTERGEIST: THE LEGACY and CHARMED.

I jotted down a few notes here on THE FIRST POWER, Lou Lambada Diamond Phillips' 1990 satanic serial killer yuppie hell-fest ...

1) Lou Diamond Phillips was recently indicted for beating up his wife and may serve time in prison. I only hope that he can find Armani prison wear to go off in style with: One of the guilty pleasures of this movie is seeing his police detective clad in $4500 designer overcoats, a $7300 designer silk suit, and seeing his $3500/month Los Angeles bachelor pad loft with interior design by Mies Van Der Roeh.

2) Leading lady Tracey Phillips has gorgeous porcelain skin, flowing red hair that always seems styled even when mussed, and amazing breasts that are hi-lighted in the 2nd half of the film by a designer silk pullover that sadly remains in place over her torso even when she was being prepared to be sacrificed to Satan. At least back in the 1970's our demonic killers undressed their victims before doing away with them, though there is something to be said for leaving a bit to the imagination. By the final 10 minutes of the movie all I could think about is what her breasts probably would look like.

3) Professional Psychics living in Los Angeles can afford $4 million dollar condos on Mullholland Drive overlooking Los Angeles with a view that would make Brad Pitt decide that he was roughing it. As a matter of fact the condominium used in this film looks exactly like the same one seen in David Lynch's MULLHOLLAND DR., which at least had the good sense to make it's condo resident a successful movie director. The only Professional Psychics I have encountered outside of this movie are all currently serving prison sentences for wire fraud.

4) I forget his name but the villain in this movie is wonderful, and his "How's it going', Buddy Boy?" line could be the best overlooked movie phrase since "THANKS FOR THE RIDE, LADY!!" from CREEPSHOW 2.

5) Underneath major metropolitan cities there are huge vats of simmering acid that will explode into huge fireballs if someone throws a lit Zippo lighter into them, which is why major public waterworks plants all have no smoking signs plastered all over them even though the idea of smoking around water being dangerous is of course preposterous. And since Zippo lighters need to be manually filled with lighter fluid that can often leak out and be absorbed by ones clothing, the idea of a carrying one in the pocket of your $7300 Gucci silk suit strikes me as being much more dangerous.

6) The stunts in this movie are impressive to say the least, and one of the fun things about watching it is remaining yourself that you are not viewing computer aided special effects but actual stuntpeople risking life and limb to contribute to a movie that earned nearly universal BOMB ratings from critics when released.

7) Movie satanists always amaze me: Here is a guy who has tapped into some Luciferian bid for power, and yet instead of using it to do something useful like making himself rich or causing fashion models to engage in free form sex with him, he instead possesses bag ladies and have them levitate outside of people's apartments. Speaking of which here is a guy who is indestructible, can fly, and is able to put his being inside of other people's bodies -- and yet he obliges star Lou Diamond Phillips with an ordinary fistfight in the film's conclusion, yet does not have the good sense to inhabit Arnold Schwartzeneggar or Apollo Creed to ensure that he wins.

And on and on ... To be watched in the company of wise-cracking friends while consuming beer. You'll have fun so long as you steadfastly refuse to take it seriously.

4/10

I really expected this film to be horrible after not having seen it for many years. I was thinking about dumping if from my collection and decided to watch it again. Surprisingly its still as good as I remember it. I have to say its practical effects are impressive as well as the stunts. The story is very similar to that of Fallen with Denzel Washington but this precedes that (also a good film) by 8 years. I wouldnt say its scary but it is creepy and exciting and if you go along for the ride it will keep you on the edge of your seat.

Regular Horror/Thriller that has some decent scenes for the Horror fans. First, it deals with the devil and possession after death. Lou Diamond Phillips is a man tormented by his past and his belief in God is in predicament. He thinks his father didn't deserve to die. In fact, that event causes a series of situations like his mother turning crazy. Could he find the serial killer he is after to? Could he solve the mystery of the First Power?

Watch it and find it. Not a good Horror flick but sure it's entertaining. My only beef is that it doesn't have a creepy atmosphere or a dark setting; the plot asks for it! Also, there's a point where it's necessary to have some Horror related scenes but the movie focuses more on drama and thriller.

Lou Diamond Philips' performance is the best thing about the movie. Mrs. Griffith also delivers a nice performance and helps a lot that she's very beautiful and charming.

Delivers some chilling scenes but relies on the dramatic side more. Be warned you could be bored if you are looking for a straight Horror movie. Still it has a creepy vibe and very well done plot.

Give it a chance.

'The First Power' is an underrated and entertaining supernatural thriller flick that blends elements of action and horror together into one hell of an entertaining thrill ride with impressive stunts, exciting action sequences, a cool concept and a great cast. The movie is also well-paced and despite some questionable moments here and there, it does manage to keep you on the edge of your seat until the final act.

The plot - An L. A. detective Russell Logan (Lou Diamond Phillips) teams up with a psychic Tess (Tracy Griffith) to stop a demonic serial killer Patrick Channing also known as the Pentagram Killer (Jeff Kober) who after being executed on death row has been given the power of resurrection and possession to continue his killing spree.

Despite the outlandish premise the movie does manage to handle it in a more gritty and realistic way and delivers a good mix of action and horror, even if it does become very predictable as the movie progress and the third act does lose momentum, but there's enough tension and satisfying moments to keep you hooked all the way through.

Lou Diamond Phillips turns in a solid performance with the material he's given and makes for a believable hero. Jeff Kober is also a standout here as the Pentagram killer with the right amounts of menacing, creepy and flamboyance , he adds some real personality to the character and a blast to watch. Tracy Griffith as the psychic is also great and provides a great foil to the male lead and both have great chemistry together.

Overall this may seem a bit cliched by today's standards, but don't care as I found it highly enjoyable and quite scary at the same time, I would highly recommend it.

Why won't Lou Diamond Philips just light that cigarette?

Kept me entertained while it was on, just not the most memorable horror movie I have ever seen as I only have a few images of it stored in my mind. The movie was about a serial killer with powers that made him rather hard to kill and get rid of, some religious stuff and this and that and Lou Diamond Phillips looking rather bored in this one for the most part. The movie needed more horror...wow what a surprise for me to say, eh? Actually, I say it quite often on movies of these types, ones that can not decide whether to be thrillers or horror movies. So you get some scenes of creepiness, but not many. You mainly get Lou and a helper try to find a way to stop the seemingly unstoppable killer. I would like to be more specific in what went on, but the main thing I remember is the ending and while not great I would still rather not ruin it for anyone. Just a forgettable movie that is decent enough to keep one's brain occupied for a bit, you just are not going to remember the movie long after.

People hate on this movie but through my perspective I think it's a fkn awesome flick! A great satanic movie (if you're into that stuff) as well, with great one liners, characters and sequences.. Worth a watch if you're a true horror, cult classic kind of person!

This is no oscar-winner but is an entertaining movie, if you overlook several cheesy moments (like a cross/knife wielding nun?) I think this could have been an even better movie with a little more work on the script, because it is well-directed and all the actors are excellent. And this movie gets bonus points for co-starring Tracy Griffith, one of the most gorgeous actresses in Hollywood! But hey thats just my opinion.