User Reviews

Patrick Channing,born out of an incestuous relationship, and living through an emotionally scarring childhood, gives in to Satanic forces and becomes a murderer known as The Pentagram Killer.

He becomes the main target of Detective Russell Logan, whom engages in a battle of wits with Channing in life and after death.

It appears that Channing can't be stopped, because sentencing him to death gave him the titular power...

If the summary sounds familiar, that's because it was remade in 1997 as the Denzel Washington film 'Fallen'. And while that film is the better known and has the bonus of a more 'talented' cast, this one is by far the most fun.

Finally after years of being sandwiched between Kiefer Sutherland, Diamond Phillips gets his own action vehicle, and he's loving every minute of it.

His Logan is your atypical yuppie late eighties cop. Wearing trousers up to his chin, holding a gun in a very silly way while running down dark alleyways with Melanie Griffiths less famous sister.

And the film gets straight to the point with an outstanding film stealing performance from Kober as the antagonist. Kober must have known that this would have been a breakout performance for him, so he gives it his all, absolutely owning every scene that he's in.

Phillips is good, but he's just playing the straight second fiddle cop to the maguffin of the film, namely the killer. So whilst we are following the narrative from Logans point of view, what your really waiting for is what he will discover next, and whose body will be taken over next.

It's a good looking film, especially when you consider the budget, and the fact that it could have easily have been stuck in a fashion/music time capsule (there is the trousers though).

some of the stunt work is pretty jaw dropping, even today, particularly the car chase, the way once the killer is reborn he knows martial arts, and the films standout scene, the jump from the building, which is alone worth watching the film for.

So all in all, it's a forgotten slice of early nineties cheese, but thanks to the recent release of the Blu Ray, it may finally get the recognition it deserves.

Before I go into an explanation of this movie, I will discuss the belief system behind this movie. Basically it comes from the ancient Persian religion of Xorastrianism. Some people still follow this religion (such as the late Freddy Mercury) and it is focused around two gods, a good god and an evil god. These two gods are of equal power and are at constant war with each other. Some people believe that Christianity evolved out of this religion, but it did not. More likely this religion evolved out of Judaism. The reason I say this is because Satan is nowhere near as powerful as God, and even though he has a immense amount of influence in this world, he cannot do anything without God's say so. Job 1&2 show us how Satan has to get God's permission to inflict suffering onto Job, and even then God tells Satan how much he is allowed to do. Has God go the right to do that? Well if we read the book of Job through we learn that through his suffering, Job is strengthened in his faith, and the blessings he receives at the end far outweighs anything that could have happened to him. Some say God is not powerful and is not in control because of the suffering that occurs in this world, but the truth is that a lot (but not all) of the world's suffering is because of us, humanity.

Anyway, the theology behind the First Power is that God and Satan are of equal powers and give gifts to people to do their will. Satan's power in the world is growing but the church does not want to get involved. He has given a man, Channing, the power of possession. He is killing people in the city of Los Angeles in the form of a Pentegram, but a Psychic, Tess Seaton, can see it. A cop, Russell, is pursing Channing and captures him with the help of Tess, on the condition that he does not receive the death penalty. Russell ignores this and Channing is executed. Because of his power, Channing returns in spirit form and can possess people. If the body is killed then he can possess somebody else. He is practically immortal, and now he is after Russell and Tess.

This movie is good as an action movie, but there are a lot of flaws in its logic. It claims that Channing is seeking the power of resurrection to gain immortality, but because he can possess people he does not need to be resurrected. He can gain fleshly pleasures where ever he goes anyway. It claims that Jesus has all three powers, but Jesus may have been able to tell the future and he rose from the dead, but he never possessed anybody. It also assumes that Jesus was a man blessed with powers by God, when Jesus was in fact God himself.

The psychology of the film is interesting because Channing constantly plays with Russell and Tess. He is very powerful as is and gets into his victim's minds and twists what they see. He can alter what they see so even though he is possessing a body, he can alter what his victims see so they don't know who he is possessing at the time. What is really impressive about Channing is that way he constantly mocks and plays with his victims. He is not insane, he is just corrupt with power and he knows that he cannot be killed. And the people he possesses are practically dead anyway.

Even though there are some flaws in the movie, I do like it. The ending leaves you wondering whether he is dead or not, as we know that he was killed before and he came back. Russell and Tess are forced to the edge of sanity and begin to wonder what is happening. Russell begins to question his faith again, while Tess finds herself unnerved and thrust into Russell's arms. At first they fight, but when Channing's power is fully realised, they realise that they need each other. Especially when Tess fortels Russel's death. This is a decent movie, it is a shame that it only appears on at midnight.

When childhood memory tells you this was a scary movie; it's touch and go whether you should revisit it. Anyway, I remembered a scary scene involving a homeless person and a cool villain played by Jeff Kober.

"The First Power" is not a very good movie, sad to say. It's chock full of those cop clichés and a very poor script with holes a truck could drive through (along with countless convenient "twists" that help the story run along). Lou Diamond Phillips is the over-confident bad ass cop who sends baddie serial killer Kober to the gas chamber only to find out he was a minion of Satan himself and now has the power of resurrection along with the power of possessing every weak minded person who he comes across. Through in the mix a very poorly realized psychic who helps with the case.

Ahhh, this is trash. But enjoyable as such, especially if you have fond memories of it. It scared me as a kid and that scene with the homeless person is still pretty good. As for any kind of logic here; forget it, just about every scenario is thrown in for good measure and you end up with a cross between a Steven Segal action flick and a 70's demonic flick. And who on earth thought it was a good idea to cast Lou Diamond Phillips in the lead here? Needless to say he's not convincing at all but he tries his best and I've never had the problem with the guy so many reviewers here seem to have. As for Tracy Griffith as the psychic, the less said the better. But Kober is pretty good as the killer; always liked that actor.

"The First Power" may be just what the doctor ordered after a hard day's work and a "brain switch-off" is needed. Beer will most likely enhance the viewing experience and I'll definitely have loads of it the next time I give this movie a spin. All in all; not a good flick but a somewhat guilty pleasure for nostalgic fans who were easily scared as kids. "See you around, buddy boy"!

Well...I was kinda lookin forward to this one but by the end my attention was diverted away from the screen doin other things. When this happens...it's a stinker of a film.

Where to start. Right off when you see the year of the film and Lou Diamond Phillips then you know this was his heyday of his starring in films. Not long after this he was relegated to worse B movies and straight to video status. He's not bad in this he's just the same as he always is. He's put in a movie with a really stupid script/concept.

I think the part of this film that makes it not work is the concept itself. Basically what you get is a quasi Devil worshiper fella who has a nasty habit of killing whenever and to whoever he wants. LDP's character comes in and saves the day and then he diverts his attention to all his friends/co-workers to try and kill all of them. He meets up with a psychic who tags along throughout the entire film to a believability factor of "0".

The funny part of this film is the editing. There are major stunt scenes in this where they switch the characters with stunt men but they don't even come close to makin it work. A scene were the killer busts out of the Gas Chamber and the character is suppose to break through the glass and they switch to the stuntman and he's taller and doesn't look remotely close to the guy playing the killer's role. They let the scene/camera role for so long you can clearly see that this isn't the same guy. There's a scene where the Devil/Killer does some martial arts super kick towards the end of the film. It's a laugh. How many Satan/Beelzebub/Lucifer characters in history do you know of who can do this stuff? LOL..There so many stunt scenes where it's plainly evident that it's s stuntman it's just sad. BTW...some of the stunts in this are just fantastic. It's the only reason to see this film.

Bad Casting...Stupid script and terrible editing make for a waste of 90 minutes of your life. Take that time instead and watch Ishtar :D

Detective Russell Logan(Lou Diamond Phillips)has a major problem on his hands. The serial killer, Patrick Channing(Jeff Kober), for whom psychic extraordinaire Tess(Tracy Griffith)helped him capture, has been resurrected with The First Power(..given to him by Satan after his execution in the gas chamber)and can possess the bodies of the weak. Somehow, Russell, who joins forces with Tess(..who has an understanding of what they are up against), will have to stop Channing or many women will continue to die at his bloody hands. They will seek help from Sister Marguerite(Elizabeth Arlen)who has tried to inform her superiors in the Catholic church of The First Power, but has been denied access to a weapon that can stop Channing..a cross with a blade that can penetrate the heart of Channing ridding the world of his evil. She'll take it anyway and lend a helping hand to Russell, who'll need all the help he can get when Channing kidnaps Tess preparing her for some sort of Satanic ritual/ceremony.

In the film, Mykelti Williamson, always a reliable welcome supporting actor, gets the partner of Russell role..so you know what will happen to him. As in films of this type, everyone around Russell is dying, but when he attempts to kill Channing, he's merely murdering the weak host of some other poor soul he possesses.

Pure occult rubbish..stupid from the gate to the finish line. Phillips and Griffith try, I'll give them that, but in a flick like this they don't stand a chance. Kober, who is normally often always effective as the heavy, is really handed nothing more than a goofy villain who leaps in the air and tosses rotten quips.