Patrick Channing,born out of an incestuous relationship, and living through an emotionally scarring childhood, gives in to Satanic forces and becomes a murderer known as The Pentagram Killer.He becomes the main target of Detective Russell Logan, whom engages in a battle of wits with Channing in life and after death.It appears that Channing can't be stopped, because sentencing him to death gave him the titular power...If the summary sounds familiar, that's because it was remade in 1997 as the Denzel Washington film 'Fallen'. And while that film is the better known and has the bonus of a more 'talented' cast, this one is by far the most fun.Finally after years of being sandwiched between Kiefer Sutherland, Diamond Phillips gets his own action vehicle, and he's loving every minute of it.His Logan is your atypical yuppie late eighties cop. Wearing trousers up to his chin, holding a gun in a very silly way while running down dark alleyways with Melanie Griffiths less famous sister.And the film gets straight to the point with an outstanding film stealing performance from Kober as the antagonist. Kober must have known that this would have been a breakout performance for him, so he gives it his all, absolutely owning every scene that he's in.Phillips is good, but he's just playing the straight second fiddle cop to the maguffin of the film, namely the killer. So whilst we are following the narrative from Logans point of view, what your really waiting for is what he will discover next, and whose body will be taken over next.It's a good looking film, especially when you consider the budget, and the fact that it could have easily have been stuck in a fashion/music time capsule (there is the trousers though).some of the stunt work is pretty jaw dropping, even today, particularly the car chase, the way once the killer is reborn he knows martial arts, and the films standout scene, the jump from the building, which is alone worth watching the film for.So all in all, it's a forgotten slice of early nineties cheese, but thanks to the recent release of the Blu Ray, it may finally get the recognition it deserves.

Before I go into an explanation of this movie, I will discuss the belief system behind this movie. Basically it comes from the ancient Persian religion of Xorastrianism. Some people still follow this religion (such as the late Freddy Mercury) and it is focused around two gods, a good god and an evil god. These two gods are of equal power and are at constant war with each other. Some people believe that Christianity evolved out of this religion, but it did not. More likely this religion evolved out of Judaism. The reason I say this is because Satan is nowhere near as powerful as God, and even though he has a immense amount of influence in this world, he cannot do anything without God's say so. Job 1&2 show us how Satan has to get God's permission to inflict suffering onto Job, and even then God tells Satan how much he is allowed to do. Has God go the right to do that? Well if we read the book of Job through we learn that through his suffering, Job is strengthened in his faith, and the blessings he receives at the end far outweighs anything that could have happened to him. Some say God is not powerful and is not in control because of the suffering that occurs in this world, but the truth is that a lot (but not all) of the world's suffering is because of us, humanity.Anyway, the theology behind the First Power is that God and Satan are of equal powers and give gifts to people to do their will. Satan's power in the world is growing but the church does not want to get involved. He has given a man, Channing, the power of possession. He is killing people in the city of Los Angeles in the form of a Pentegram, but a Psychic, Tess Seaton, can see it. A cop, Russell, is pursing Channing and captures him with the help of Tess, on the condition that he does not receive the death penalty. Russell ignores this and Channing is executed. Because of his power, Channing returns in spirit form and can possess people. If the body is killed then he can possess somebody else. He is practically immortal, and now he is after Russell and Tess.This movie is good as an action movie, but there are a lot of flaws in its logic. It claims that Channing is seeking the power of resurrection to gain immortality, but because he can possess people he does not need to be resurrected. He can gain fleshly pleasures where ever he goes anyway. It claims that Jesus has all three powers, but Jesus may have been able to tell the future and he rose from the dead, but he never possessed anybody. It also assumes that Jesus was a man blessed with powers by God, when Jesus was in fact God himself.The psychology of the film is interesting because Channing constantly plays with Russell and Tess. He is very powerful as is and gets into his victim's minds and twists what they see. He can alter what they see so even though he is possessing a body, he can alter what his victims see so they don't know who he is possessing at the time. What is really impressive about Channing is that way he constantly mocks and plays with his victims. He is not insane, he is just corrupt with power and he knows that he cannot be killed. And the people he possesses are practically dead anyway.Even though there are some flaws in the movie, I do like it. The ending leaves you wondering whether he is dead or not, as we know that he was killed before and he came back. Russell and Tess are forced to the edge of sanity and begin to wonder what is happening. Russell begins to question his faith again, while Tess finds herself unnerved and thrust into Russell's arms. At first they fight, but when Channing's power is fully realised, they realise that they need each other. Especially when Tess fortels Russel's death. This is a decent movie, it is a shame that it only appears on at midnight.

Kept me entertained while it was on, just not the most memorable horror movie I have ever seen as I only have a few images of it stored in my mind. The movie was about a serial killer with powers that made him rather hard to kill and get rid of, some religious stuff and this and that and Lou Diamond Phillips looking rather bored in this one for the most part. The movie needed more horror...wow what a surprise for me to say, eh? Actually, I say it quite often on movies of these types, ones that can not decide whether to be thrillers or horror movies. So you get some scenes of creepiness, but not many. You mainly get Lou and a helper try to find a way to stop the seemingly unstoppable killer. I would like to be more specific in what went on, but the main thing I remember is the ending and while not great I would still rather not ruin it for anyone. Just a forgettable movie that is decent enough to keep one's brain occupied for a bit, you just are not going to remember the movie long after.

What this movie fails to explain more than anything else is why this killer, who is oh-so-powerful and immortal and has even Satan on his side would waste so much of his time taunting this relatively unimportant cop instead of quickly killing him off and moving on to more "productive" activities. His silly pranks (the karate expert "bag lady" asking for "a kiss") often turn this supposed horror film into a comedy. The director plays arbitrarily with the genre's cheapest clichés and shocks (dream/illusion/reality flips, cat jumps, sudden appearances/disappearances), but the film simply isn't scary. One good scene: the jump off the roof. And one good line: "so the most likely victims are alcoholics and junkies? Great, that narrows it down to half of L.A!" (**)