The Power

An Aztec idol, Destacatyl, ends up in the hands of three high School students on the coast near Los Angeles. After an unexpected death, the trio seeks the aid of a tabloid writer, but it's her ex-beau who's fascinated by the artifact and the evident power thereof. Havoc ensues.

"The Power" (1984) mixes the evil spirit shenanigans of "The Exorcist" (1973) with the misshapen man-beast bits of "Altered States" (1980) while the faith-in-the-idol angle is done better in the future "Wendigo" (2001). It's one of those 'almost' movies that almost works enough.

Both Lisa Erickson as blonde teenager Julie and Suzy Stokey as brunette journalist Sandy are effective on the female front. Meanwhile the three teens investigating the spooky happenings is reminiscent of Scooby-Doo, albeit without the dog.

Unfortunately, there's just not enough to push the flick beyond mediocre. It needed a rewrite to flush out the potential, but that takes time and time is money in the movie biz. Still, I enjoyed it well enough for a streamlined mystery/horror from the early '80s.

The film runs 1 hour, 24 minutes, and, was shot in Redondo Beach, California, which is just southwest of Los Angeles.

GRADE: C+

The directors duo Stephen Carpenter and Jeffrey Obrow released three divergent low-budget horror movies during the 1980's before their paths separated. Perhaps they really ought to have stuck together for a little while longer, as the quality level of their work improved with each film. Their first feature "The Dorm that Dripped Blood" is a horrendous and suspense-free slasher that is better left forgotten. This one – "Evil Power" - is a nonsensical but fun thriller about psychic possession and their last collaboration, entitled "The Kindred" and dealing with a genetic monster, even is a slick but heavily underrated mixture between horror and Sci-Fi. Maybe if they had stayed together, they would have fabricated some hidden gem of horror during the 1990's, who knows?

"Evil Power" knows a promising and very exciting start, but sadly suffers from an overlong and dreadfully boring middle section. Pivot element of all the horror is a small statue made of clay, representing an ancient Aztec deity with a hardly pronounceable name. The statue provides tremendous amounts of power to whoever possess it. The only problem, however, is that the power isn't a very useful one… The statue brings out your darkest side and eventually causes its owners to transform into horribly deformed maniacs. The little Aztec bastard comes into the hands of three high-school students that learn about its powers during a séance held at an old abandoned graveyard. They wisely decide to give the statue to a newspaper reporter for further research, but she's a firm non-believer of the supernatural. Her boyfriend Jerry, on the other hand, quickly becomes obsessed with the thing. "Evil Power" is well worth checking out in case you're a sucker for 80's horror nostalgia. The special effects, especially during the first ten and last fifteen minutes, are delightfully cheesy and gruesome. They're fairly well-handled for being a low-budgeted flick and include some gooey melting parts and impalement. The atmosphere is relatively sinister as well, with two memorable sequences in particular. One in the graveyard and the other in the remote Mexican desert. There are some massive holes in the plot and, quite honestly, it's a bunch of senseless nonsense, but I definitely don't regret watching this little-seen oddity of the early 80's.

The 80s low-cost independent horror "The Power" is an atmospherically inventive and dark with its fascinating concept involving an ancient Aztec idol that's harbouring a powerful force which infatuates those in possession of it, bringing out their dark side. It's starts off really steady and talkative but still remaining effectively compelling within its moody and fearful superstitious framework, but then it goes off the rocker becoming a ghastly, if typical little shocker with some very well executed, icky make-up FX for such a cheap budget. The deaths are few, but they bestow imagination and atmosphere --- however it's the underlining surreal creepiness that's held throughout, which makes up for it.

Dual director's Steven Carpenter and Jeffrey Obrow's (who brought us the hokey slasher "The Dorm that Dripped blood" and monster carnage of "The Kindred") minimalist set-up is tidy, even with its gritty look but they do a decent enough job with their touches of brooding suspense and jarring visuals. Limited resources and amateurish acting (although Lisa Erickson was fair) don't distract too heavily as the creative and unusual story is well thought out in its context of forbidden power and the temptation of it that simply attracts evil. There's just a sense of doom that just won't waver, but while it might be a mystery to the characters it's not so for the viewer. Sometimes slightly muddled and random, as there much to gather but it comes together in an ending that's nothing more than a final cheap, but lasting shock. The eerie score accompanying only adds more to the mystical edge, demonstrating an intense, ripple-like grip. Susan Stokey's clueless character is somewhat grating in her self-absorbed attitude and Warren Lincoln gives the film much needed energy as his erratically idealistic character investigating the idol, to only fall under its corrupt spell.

It would actually make a good, interesting double viewing with "The Returning (1983)".

Trivia note; One thing I found somewhat unnerving is a scene in the film, which I don't know if it was purposely staged or not. In the sequence we catch a reflection (less than a second) in a mirror of a bearded man dressed in black just standing there watching Stokey. I never saw this character before, nor does he even reappear in the film. Nothing is mentioned. If it was one of the crew accidentally getting in the shot, it was a strange place to be standing and boy did he look scary. Just look at the face!

My review was written in January 1984 after a Times Square screening.

"The Power" represents a return to horror film basics: the requisite scares and flashy makeup jobs but little else to sustain viewer interest over the length of a feature. Also known during production as "Evil Passage", film is unrelated to the late George Pal's 1968 sci-fi thriller "The Power".

Supernatural tale concerns a tiny (two inches tall) Aztec idol, Destacatyl, which pases from hand to hand wreaking mucho havoc. Stolen by Francis Lott (J. DInan Myrtetus) from a professor, it ends up in the possession of three Los Angeles high school students (Lisa Erickson, Chad Christian, Ben Gilbert) who use it during their amateur attempts to contact the spirit world.

The idol causes the death of a cemetery caretaker during one of the students' sessions, and the kids seek the aid of reporter Sandy McKennah (Susan Stokey) after she writes about the incident for her tabloid The Eyewitness. Sandy's boyfriend Jerry (Warren Lincoln) steals the idol, which possesses him, cuing familiar expanding-bladder makeup effects and general mayhem.

Filmmakers Jeffrey Obrow and Stephen Carpenter reprise low-budget versions of the levitating and objects-flying-around-the-room special effects pioneered in "The Exorcist" at every opportunity, but fail to create interesting characters or situations. Makeup effects by Matthew Mungle vary in quality but deliver some effective grotesque faces as "evil" is mirrored on the visages of the least scrupulous players. Acting is unimpressive, as is a silly "three years later" epilog scene.

"The Power" departs from recent trends in the genre by being almost devoid of sexual content, except for a scary nightmare scene wherein Sandy imagines a dozen hands grabbing at her from beneath her bed.

Chris Young provides a suitably spooky musical score, which is overly derivative of Camille Saint-Saens' "The Aquarium", previously used on the soundtrack of "Days of Heaven".

A small Aztec doll takes over those who own it, forcing them to carry out gruesome killing sprees.

When I was flicking through the details of this film, I saw horror, I also saw the words Carpenter and John, a foolish assumption.

It's one of those films that I'd have to say, it isn't bad, it truly is just that, not a bad film at all, it has a suitably macabre tone, it looks pretty good, and it's actually well paced.

It gets going fairly quickly, and that scene inside the lecture room gets things moving straight away. There are a few shocks and decent moments of horror throughout, it just lacks a little bit of polish.

The acting is a little patchy at times, but come on what are you expecting here.

6/10.