The Power (1984)

Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.

Boring

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Three high school students obtain an ancient and dangerous Aztec idol. Pretty soon an evil spirit gets unleashed and possesses the body of a young man who steals it for his own nefarious purposes. Writers/directors Jeffrey Obrow and Stephen Carpenter relate the compelling story at a steady pace, do an able job of crafting a strong gloom-doom atmosphere, maintain a grimly serious tone throughout, deliver a few nice bits of gore, firmly ground the fantastic premise in a credible everyday reality, make nice use of funky practical effects, and pull out all the exciting stops at the lively climax. Moreover, Obrow and Carpenter warrant extra points not only for presenting believable characters who actually look like real people, but also for covering some inspired and interesting largely uncharted territory with the novel Aztec religion hook. The decent acting from a competent non-star cast rates as another major asset, with especially praiseworthy contributions from Susan Stokey as spunky newspaper writer Sandy, Warren Lincoln as the amiable Jerry, Lisa Erikson as the perky Julie, and J. Dinan Myrtetus as the obsessed Francis Lott. Carpenter's proficient cinematography provides a fairly polished look. Christopher Young's spirited shivery score hits the stirring spine-tingling spot. A cool little fright flick.

I saw this film once somewhere around the year 2002, during a period in which I wasn't really in touch with the horror genre anymore -- Now hey, don't give me that look, a man's entitled to have other interests in life and explore a wider range of cinematic wonders, right? I'll admit I was much more into art-films/author-films and 'critically acclaimed masterpieces' at the time, so when I stumbled upon a copy of "The Power", I was amazed at how utterly bad this film was. Annoyed by all the ineptness is perhaps a better description of my initial reaction. But during the last five years, I've had myself regularly wallowing in horror obscurity again and have seen my fair share of irredeemable low budget rubbish. So I guess it was kind of inevitable that I would give "The Power" another watch at some point, to try and re-evaluate things. A friend of mine (also an avid obscure movie hunter in his free time) had not seen it yet. Reason enough for both of us to sit ourselves down and watch it over the weekend.For an early/mid 80's horror film, "The Power" has a mildly intriguing and not too unoriginal setup: Destacatl is believed to be an ancient Aztec demon able to control the dark sides of the human soul. According to pagan believes, his powers are locked in an Aztec idol, a little statue that looks like "a Mexican salt shaker" (a student at a lecture 'wittily' remarks). The best parts of this film, are actually the beginning and the ending. The first 15 minutes contain the awesome death scene of a professor who has been meddling with the evil powers of Destacatl, some native mumbo-jumbo in the desert and another cool killing of a graveyard caretaker. The whole middle hour has the statue coming into the hands of some students and nothing significant happens during that hour, aside from a lot of talking, attempts at investigating the history of the statue, things flying around in a student's dorm room and one guy concluding he'll be able to handle the powers contained within the idol. Of course he will be proved wrong, because this is a horror film. But all these goings-on are snooze material, really. Then, during the last 15 minutes of the film, the guy who thinks he can handle it inherits the Evil Power -- I never really figured out if it's the power that transforms you or if it's actually the demon Destacatl that possesses you -- and we're treated to a short but amusing stalk & slash routine in some house, featuring our two leading ladies vs. evil powered-up deformed guy. Plus, an amusing & typical horror-twist at the end.So you get the idea here, I'm sure. Cut out the middle section, and you end up with an amusing 30-minutes low budget short horror deformity. The low rent special make-up effects are bound to amuse any die-hard fan of the genre. But in the end, I don't even have to re-visit my initial conclusion from 8 years ago. It's still a bit of a task to sit through this B-movie, with the painfully uneventful mid-section, the inferior acting, the clumsy & rather pointless plot, etc. So I guess I still retain my sanity after 5 years of shooting up 'quality' B-horror drivel on a regular basis, since I'm not going to yell "Awesome movie!" and rate it like your average Stanley Kubrik film. The suffering may have gotten a bit painful at moments, but there were actually some benefits to this experience. For one thing, I learned about this interesting duo of genre filmmakers from the 80's, called Stephen Carpenter and Jeffrey Obrow. From the looks of it, these guys are really spirited genre lovers that started their careers by making films together. And their efforts got consistently better. Just watch their third film as a directing-duo, "The Kindred" (1987), and then compare it to this, "The Power", and you'll see what I mean.In the years following "The Kindred", Obrow & Carpenter both expanded their horizons individually, though still occasionally working together on genre outings. They collaborated on the pretty decent Dean R. Koontz adaptation "Servants of Twilight" (1991), with Carpenter scripting & Obrow directing. Jeffrey Obrow wrote and directed "They Are Among Us" (2004), which is a pretty cool little 'alien invasion' film. Reminiscent of the classics from the 50's & done in the spirit of the 80's (with regards to most of the special effects). "They Are Among Us" is actually a better film than most people seem willing to admit. Or maybe the wrong people have been renting it so far (or since it was made for TV, maybe it has been caught by too many people who normally don't watch this kind of stuff). Either way, worth a watch if you're into this particular sci-fi/horror blend. As a director, Stephen Carpenter re-visited the horror genre in 2001 with "Soul Survivors". Again a film not too many people seem to like, but regardless it had an interesting concept (recycled from the right movies, I might add) and was a modest hit on rental VHS/DVD at the time and it features an interesting cast of young talents too, such as Wes Bentley, Casey Affleck & Eliza Dushku. I wonder what Obrow & Carpenter might be up to these days... If they'd ever re-visit the horror genre in a collaborative effort again, I for one would sure be very interested to see what they would come up with.And then there's the whole notion of Aztec myths and their use in horror movies. It's basically another obscure sub-genre, but when you look into it, you'll be surprised how many films you can find revolving around such topics. Mostly sinister hard-to-find titles, so this opens up another path leading to yet another nether-region of horror history. A path I'll be most willing to try out some day.

I wasn't expecting much from this film, but was eager to try something which I initially thought would primarily be an early 80s teen horror. Although three teens are somewhat critical plot, it is by no means a teen horror film.'The Power' is about a little Aztec idol that exchanges many hands as its possessor (who must be adult and thus, 'corrupted') becomes the vessel for unleashing all of the idol's evil, and often with deadly implications for not only the victims of the possessor, but of the possessor himself. After making several exchanges in vying over control of this thing, three teenagers wind up finding it and can't figure out what it is, except that since they found it, strange and dangerous things are afoot. They offer to explain the situation to a news reporter who doesn't buy into the spiritual bologna. Although, it is her producer who wants to investigate further, especially if it means he can get control of the idol (I presume the teens are even not yet corrupted enough to feel the dangerous desires encouraged by the idol). It is a story told a thousand times, particularly in 1950s and 60s horror and science fiction fare.This one was at least, for me, able to sustain some interest. Though low budget, it was not done so obviously cheaply or loaded with bad acting as many of the low-budget, come-and-go horror fare of the earlier decades had (nowadays, they have the same cheesy qualities, but bigger budgets). We are spare enough of it to at least allow ourselves an opportunity to become at least a little bit absorbed with the eerie atmosphere and so forth, despite a story of clichés. And, though not terribly gory, the special effects were done nicely.Again, it is routine horror tale, especially with the ending (which by modern standards has become a device that is annoyingly overused), but one that is not so embarrassingly bad. It might be worth checking out, even if just for laughs.

Man comes in contact with an ancient Aztec figurane that is cursed by an evil spirit. The spirit takes over the man's body and begins a massive killing spree. Swift, fast paced horror film with it's fair share of shocks. This is one film where the low budget actually helps the move and gives it a more realistic feel. The special effects are even pretty good for this kind of movie. Rated R; Violence and Profanity.