In the annals of late-’80s/early-’90s horror cinema, The First Power holds a strange and sacred place. It’s the kind of movie that wears its neo-noir trench coat proudly, even though the buttons are falling off, and drags us into a Los Angeles where serial killers, psychics, and nuns all seem to share the same hair stylist. On paper, this is just another “cops vs. Satanic lunatic” thriller. On screen, however, it’s Lou Diamond Phillips running through L.A. while Jeff Kober—playing the Pentagram Killer with the twitchy intensity of a man possessed by cocaine and Satan in equal measure—chews the scenery like it’s communion bread.
The reviews at the time were brutal, but honestly? They missed the point. The First Power is ridiculous, unhinged, sometimes offensive, and—most importantly—fun. It’s a horror movie that takes itself deadly serious, which ironically makes it one of the more entertaining slices of supernatural cheese from 1990.
Lou Diamond Phillips: Cop, Lover, Skeptic, Messiah
Lou Diamond Phillips stars as Detective Russell Logan, a hotshot LAPD officer who specializes in catching serial killers—a strangely specific résumé line that sounds like something his agent invented. He’s cocky, smug, and way too attractive to be a man who spends his nights staring at autopsy photos. In other words: perfect casting.
Logan captures Patrick Channing, the Pentagram Killer, with the kind of reckless bravado usually reserved for heroes in Marlboro commercials. But in classic horror irony, Logan immediately breaks his promise to Tess, the mysterious psychic who tipped him off. He swears the killer won’t be executed, then gleefully sends Channing to the gas chamber anyway. Moral compass? Broken. Hair? Impeccable.
Lou Diamond Phillips plays Logan as a man perpetually five seconds away from either kissing someone or punching them, which makes his transition from “skeptic cop” to “guy fighting demonic possession with a crucifix knife” surprisingly smooth.
Jeff Kober: The Devil’s Method Actor
Jeff Kober as Patrick Channing is the kind of villain you get when Satan’s casting director decides to go off-script. Kober is gaunt, bug-eyed, and constantly sweaty, which makes him look less like a menacing Satanist and more like a bass player in a failed thrash-metal band. But damn if he doesn’t commit.
Channing is gleeful about being caught. He’s positively aroused by the thought of execution, and when he comes back from the dead (via, you guessed it, Satanic rituals and “the First Power”), he goes full Looney Tunes. He possesses everyone from cops to bag ladies to nuns, giving Kober free license to ham it up in every scene.
One minute he’s cackling like the Joker; the next he’s leaping off skyscrapers like a satanic stuntman. If you’ve ever wanted to watch a demon-possessed Jeff Kober body-swap through L.A. while tormenting Lou Diamond Phillips, this movie is basically the Criterion Collection edition of your dreams.
Tracy Griffith: Psychic, Plot Device, Hair Goals
Tracy Griffith plays Tess, the psychic who exists solely to be right about everything while Logan refuses to listen. She’s the classic horror-movie Cassandra—blessed with visions, cursed with no one believing her. The irony, of course, is that Tess is correct from the jump: executing Channing only made him stronger, and now his spirit is free to possess half the supporting cast like it’s a demonic version of Freaky Friday.
Griffith does what she can with the material, but the script treats her less like a character and more like a supernatural Alexa. Her job is to drop exposition, look concerned, and get kidnapped at the worst possible moment. Still, she brings a certain warmth and dry wit, and her ’90s power hair could probably stop Channing without a crucifix.
The Horror: Possession, Pentagrams, and a Horse-Drawn Carriage?
One of the joys of The First Power is that it feels like five different horror scripts stitched together in a séance gone wrong. We get:
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A police procedural where Lou Diamond Phillips broods in alleys.
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A satanic-possession movie where Jeff Kober body-hops like a demonic Uber driver.
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A Catholic guilt drama complete with nuns, crucifixes, and enough fog machines to make The Exorcist II jealous.
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And, bizarrely, a horse-drawn carriage death scene in downtown L.A. Because why not?
The horror isn’t scary so much as it is surreal. Every time Channing shows up, you’re less afraid and more entertained, waiting to see what lunatic stunt he’ll pull next. It’s like watching a Saturday morning cartoon directed by Clive Barker on Ambien.
The Nun With the Knife
Elizabeth Arlen plays Sister Marguerite, a no-nonsense nun who conveniently possesses the only weapon that can kill Channing: a crucifix dagger. This is the kind of B-movie logic you have to love. Forget the police, the courts, or common sense—when evil rises, only the church’s secret collection of holy cutlery can save us.
Marguerite eventually gets possessed herself, leading to a gloriously bonkers climax in a water treatment plant. (Again, why not?) The image of Lou Diamond Phillips stabbing a possessed nun while shouting about God feels like it should’ve been on the VHS cover.
Neo-Noir Meets MTV Horror
Visually, The First Power tries to be both grimy neo-noir and glossy MTV music video, with mixed results. There’s lots of backlighting, slow-motion, and dramatic smoke effects—as if Robert Resnikoff raided Tony Scott’s leftovers and decided, “This is fine.”
Still, the aesthetic works in its own trashy way. The movie looks exactly like the kind of late-night VHS rental you’d stumble upon in 1993, sandwiched between Shocker and The Serpent and the Rainbow. It’s stylish enough to trick you into thinking you’re watching something slick, right up until Jeff Kober shows up in another ridiculous disguise.
The Ending: Ambiguous or Just Confused?
The film closes with Logan stabbing Channing (again) and surviving a police shootout, only to end up in the hospital. Tess visits him, and we get a dream/premonition sequence where Logan might be possessed. Or maybe not. The ambiguity is less “haunting” and more “we ran out of budget for a real ending.”
But honestly? It works. The idea that Lou Diamond Phillips might become Satan’s new vessel is almost too delicious to pass up.
Final Thoughts: The Power of Camp Compels You
The First Power is not a good movie by traditional standards. The dialogue is clunky, the plotting is messy, and the religious overtones are about as subtle as a sermon shouted through a megaphone. And yet, it’s also one of the most enjoyable supernatural thrillers of its era precisely because of those flaws.
Lou Diamond Phillips is charismatic, Jeff Kober is unhinged, and the whole enterprise operates with a sincerity that elevates its camp factor into something weirdly endearing. It’s like The Exorcist went on a bender in Hollywood and woke up in a cheap motel room with a trench coat, a crucifix knife, and a VHS distribution deal.
