"The First Power" (1990)

I recall watching this movie in the theater when I a sophomore in high school. It's funny, it was one of the few things I remember of that time. I recall liking it a lot but watching the "Siskel & Ebert" review afterwards and wondering why they hated it so much.

As an adult now, I understand why it's dumb. At the time, I was enamored with redhead Tracy Griffith (which by the way is related to Melanie Griffith in some way). She seemed busted and sad. As a teenager, these are the girls you wanted to hang with. Now...BIG TROUBLE.

The movie stars Lou Diamond Phillips as a police detective trying to hunt down a killer that has been linked to the occult which gives him...well, the power to live beyond death. The silliest moment of this movie is after apprehending the human form of this killer...he is sentenced to death and put down (what is presumably) a week later. A simple solution would've been...maybe...a subtitle that tells you "ten years later" or something. The chose simply to ignore...THE AMERICAN JUSTICE SYSTEM! It was pointed out to me, as I laughed about this, that many movies of that era did the same thing..the most contemporary of that era was "Shocker." If only executions were carried out that swiftly. Anyway, the killer is played by that born-to-look-like-a-ghoul Jeff Kober. This guy is massively creepy. And he's still works in the industry. Let that be a lesson to anyone who wants a steady gig: It is FAR better to be a character actor than a leading man. The odds of leading man to a career is shorter than character actor.

The premise itself is really awesome. Killer can't be caught because he inhabits the body of easily manipulated people and uses them to commit murders. We see them as the killer but in death, they are back to who they were. It's easy to get confused and paranoid as to who is who. That's where psychic to the stars Griffith comes in. She has the power to see gruesome murders. They obviously team up to stop this monster.

Had it not been the 90's and our inability to not see Lou Diamond Phillips as RITCHEEEEEE Valens, I think it may've found an audience. As it is, it's pretty hokie. The effects are hokie. The dialogue, EXTRA hokie. I think, after the success of "Silence Of The Lambs" the bar was set pretty high. So I don't blame them for trying to ride on those coat tails. But DAMN did we look dumb in 1990. Hair, clothes, cars, the whole magillah.