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      The First Power

      R 1990 1h 39m Horror List
      25% 12 Reviews Tomatometer 45% 5,000+ Ratings Audience Score A Los Angeles policeman (Lou Diamond Phillips) hunts a killer (Jeff Kober) brought back from the gas chamber by Satan. Read More Read Less

      Critics Reviews

      View All (12) Critics Reviews
      Owen Gleiberman Entertainment Weekly Rated: D Sep 7, 2011 Full Review Entertainment Weekly Rated: D Apr 6, 1990 Full Review Rene Jordan El Nuevo Herald (Miami) A huge tease; because there is no necessity to explain its boisterous absurdity. [Full review in Spanish] Dec 1, 2022 Full Review Nicholas Bell IONCINEMA.com Silly and forgettable, unless you're a fan of vintage Phillips or curious to see 1990 Los Angeles, The First Power is a chore to sit through. Rated: 1/5 Nov 3, 2020 Full Review Brian Orndorf Blu-ray.com A digestible take on screen menace, using Phillips and co-star Jeff Kober quite well in this unremarkable but effective B-movie. Rated: B Sep 21, 2020 Full Review Steve Newton Georgia Straight When you get right down to it, make-up and masks aren't nearly as scary as a human countenance hiding a black heart. Rated: 3/5 Feb 20, 2014 Full Review Read all reviews

      Audience Reviews

      View All (81) audience reviews
      Greg R A very enjoyable thriller of its time. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 03/06/21 Full Review Audience Member This is a bad film made worse in that it's boring. Supposedly a Satanic thriller, the uneven performances, especially from lead Lou Diamond Phillips, never lead viewers to have any investment in the characters. The plot jumps around angularly, and characters are introduced out of nowhere. Not even worth late night accidental viewing as you likely won't stay awake. Rated 1 out of 5 stars 01/28/23 Full Review Audience Member Fun, sometimes cheesy thriller that you can tell influenced David Fincher and Scott Derrickson's filmmaking style. The story always keeps you interested, and supernatural elements never become over bearing and only go over the top when necessary. Sure Fincher and Derrickson made similar movies that were better (a lot better), but The First Power still has a charm of its own. What's not to like when killer starts chasing our heroes with a ceiling fan? Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/24/23 Full Review Audience Member Decent little thriller from the 90s. A little cheesy and cliche in parts, but I can think of worse ways to waste some time... Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 02/01/23 Full Review cory t Body swap horror is nearly a genre unto itself with 'The Hidden' as the forefather. 'The First Power' is a moody, but dull-witted hybrid of police procedural and supernatural thriller. A priest name-drops Geraldo Rivera within five minutes which really time-stamps the film. Logan (Lou Diamond Phillips) is not an acute detective insofar as he fumbles incompetently on a city map until he finally realizes that the occult killer's pattern is an inverted pentagram even though his modus operandi is carving them into his victims. The serial killer Patrick Channing (Jeff Kober) inexplicably adorns himself with a crusty-old-man mask which is a needless flourish. Apparently recovery from almost fatal abdominal stabs is practically instantaneous. Plotholes abound with a psychic informant (Tracy Griffith in a pitiful performance) who isn't forthright and explicitly state that Channing will be eternally resurrected if he receives the death penalty. Despite her clairvoyance, Griffith is shocked when Logan and his partner Oliver (Mykelti Williamson) are rummaging through her house. An extremely schlocky death is when Oliver's internal organs are stomped by a carriage-hitched horse. The lone commendable aspect in this otherwise joyless enterprise is the lithe stuntwork (ex. A death-defying leap off a six-story building). The cat-and-mouse chase is predominantly listless because there is no depraved symbiosis between Phillips and Kober. Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review Audience Member a combo of a crime thriller and a supernatural horror movie Rated 5 out of 5 stars 01/18/23 Full Review Read all reviews Post a rating

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      The First Power

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      Movie Info

      Synopsis A Los Angeles policeman (Lou Diamond Phillips) hunts a killer (Jeff Kober) brought back from the gas chamber by Satan.
      Director
      Robert Resnikoff
      Production Co
      Interscope Communications
      Rating
      R
      Genre
      Horror
      Original Language
      English
      Release Date (Streaming)
      May 4, 2017
      Box Office (Gross USA)
      $20.6M
      Runtime
      1h 39m
      Sound Mix
      Surround
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