An uneasy blend of traditional cop thriller and the-killer-who-wouldn't-die horror, "The First Power" also steals from liberally from "The Omen," "The Hidden" and Brian DePalma's "Carrie," "The Fury" and "Dressed to Kill."
As you might imagine, quite a mishmash ensues, and the results are less than satisfying.
What is most surprising about "The First Power," however, is the stiff lead performance of Lou Diamond Phillips, a normally reliable performer who has shown some of his stuff in pictures like "La Bamba," "Stand and Deliver" and "Young Guns." For some reason he seems uncomfortable throughout "The First Power."
The story has Phillips as a Los Angeles police detective investigating serial killings when an anonymous phone tip leads him to the killer (Jeff Kober).
Kober is captured, convicted and sentenced to death. For some reason the gas chamber seems to rejuvenate him instead of killing him. But at the end of the scene it is revealed to be only a dream Phillips is having. So what happened? Was Kober actually executed?
Apparently he was, but like a couple of other moments in the film, it's rather confusing for awhile.
Somehow Kober has aligned himself with Satan and is given a series of powers. After his execution, he is a spirit, able to kill only when he inhabits another's body. Later, he will be given the power of resurrection. And the only thing that can kill him is a special crucifix/dagger the Catholic Church keeps hidden away.
Right.
So Phillips reluctantly teams up with psychic Tracy Griffith as they track down Kober, delve into his personal history (wouldn't that have been done much earlier?) and try to figure out a way to do him in.
One of the many inconsistencies here has to do with Kober inhabiting the physical bodies of others. Sometimes Phillips sees him as Kober, sometimes as the person whose body he inhabits, but there doesn't seem to be any reason for one over the other.
The single worst element here, however, is the dialogue. The attempts at humor are very weak and there is none of the snap and wit to the wisecracks we've come to expect in even low-budget cop thrillers.
Still, as derivative and silly as "The First Power" is, there are a few good action sequences. Writer-director Robert Resnikoff is most at home when cars are crashing or suspense is building with something ominous lurking right around the corner, or in the film's most effective moment — when Kober's stunt double leaps from the top of a 10-story building and lands on his feet.
Dialogue is not Resnokoff's strongsuit and he uses far too many visual cliches — would you believe the old standby of a cat jumping into a scene is intended as a big moment here? And, as mentioned, he doesn't appear to be able to put his actors at ease.
Phillips and Griffith are both far too intense and there is never any chemistry between them. Better is Kober, gleefully nasty as a killer every bit as evil as the one in last year's "Shocker" — another film this one resembles far too closely.
"The First Power" is rated R for violence, profanity and brief nudity.