Horror in the 90s: 'The First Power'

The First Power (1990)

Directed by Robert Resnikoff

Written by Robert Resnikoff

Starring Lou Diamond Phillips, Tracy Griffiths, Jeff Kober, Mykelti Williamson

Release Date April 6th, 1990

Box Office $22.4 million

Right off the bat in The First Power, we are off to a bad start. The film begins on a massive info dump of exposition. A Nun, Sister Marguerite (Elizabeth Arlen), is speaking to a group of Priests, her church leadership, one can infer. She lays out the state of the universe. 15 people in Los Angeles have been murdered and their bodies have been mutilated with a symbol of the Devil, the pentagram. Sister Marguerite believes that this a sign, a symbol of, perhaps, the rise of Satan and the start of an apocalypse. The church leaders dismiss her concern and send her back to her convent.

We know, by knowing the movie that we've chosen to watch, that this Nun is right, and the Devil is indeed inspiring this killer to kill. So, why dump exposition like this? Laziness? Clumsiness? A disrespect for audience intelligence? Yeah, probably. Making things infinitely more insulting however is how awful the acting is in this moment. Now, to be as fair as possible to Elizabeth Arlen, no actor, of any level of skill could deliver this kind of dialogue while emoting, and trying to communicate a character, and come off well. She was at a grave disadvantage.

Why choose to start what is supposed to be an atmospheric chiller about a demon possessed serial killer like this? No music, neither the main character or the killer is on screen, and reams of exposition delivered by a main character to several non-characters. It doesn't tell us anything about the church, it tells us little about Sister Marguerite, aside from how much her actor is struggling to fight through the scene. Writer-Director Robert Resnikoff has done a grave disservice to Ms. Arlen by placing the burden of starting the movie entirely on her when he has a movie star, Lou Diamond Phillips, at the ready.

The scene immediately following the opening is WAY more intriguing and effective. Detective Logan (Lou Diamond Phillips) is looking over a map of recent killings. He has crime scene photos laid out, a visual indication of who he is and what he is doing. Logan gets a phone call from a mysterious woman whom we will learn is a psychic named Tess Seaton (Tracy Griffith). She tells Logan that she knows where the killer is and will tell Logan if he promises not to kill him, and not to push for the death penalty when he captures him. Logan agrees and the two agree to meet.

Who is this woman? How does she know what she knows? The crime scene photos tell us he's violent, brutal, killer, the phone conversation tells us he's dangerous and has a very specific M.O. Logan crosses lines on a map based on what the woman on the phone has said, the X's marking the map are places where bodies were found. Each can be connected with lines that come together to form a Pentagram. In less than 2 minutes of cryptic but intriguing visuals and dialogue, we've been brought into The First Power far more effectively that in the opening scene.

These two scenes could be a commentary upon each other, a lesson to be taught about removing scenes that aren't necessary. The opening scene is rendered entirely superfluous by the scene that immediately follows it. Had writer-director Resnikoff thought more about it, he could have beefed up the second scene visually to lay out more of the universe. He could use more crime scene photos, maybe shown Logan's badge and gun lying on a table, and maybe a pile of research that shows he's been considering a religious angle on the killings but had not connected all of the dots.

If I were teaching a film school class, I don't think I could better illustrate how to make editing choices in screenwriting, or the final cut, any better than the opening two scenes of The First Power does. Show students the script for The First Power in final form and tell them to take out what they feel isn't necessary and the smart, intuitive, future filmmakers would cut the opening scene and go right to the second scene. The best students would beef up the second scene, just a little, to make sure that the religious themes that will be part of the rest of the film are, at the very least, implied in our new opening scene.

This is an excerpt from my planned book project, tentative, but not officially, called "Horror in the 90s." In the book I will include segments like this along with discussions of the actors, writers, directors, and others who shaped the horror genre in the 90s. I will talk about themes and subgenres, famed franchises, successes, failures, and the ideas that drove the horror genre in a very unique and strange decade for the genre.

With that said, I can't write this book without your help. I need some financial backing to get this book to its final form. Thus, I will be posting pieces from Horror in the 90s here with the hope that you generous readers might want to support an independent author with some big ideas and insights into a beloved film genre. Through Vocal you can donate to me either via a monthly pledge or by leaving tips. Everyone who pledges or tips will get a mention, a credit, in the final book. Every little bit helps, a dollar, two dollars, 50 dollars.

You can also make suggestions along the way by leaving comments on this and other pieces I post here on Vocal. So please, be Vocal and support this project. I promise that I have a lot to say and a lot of research and insight to share. This is my second piece from the book. You can read the first piece on Henry Portrait of a Serial Killer, linked here. Follow me on Twitter at PodcastSean. I also am part of the podcast, Everyone's a Critic where I and my co-hosts discuss new release movies every week. If you need further convincing about my film writing, you can read more than 20 years worth of my back catalog of online film reviews at SeanattheMovies.blogspot.com.

Thank you.