(1990)
Dir - Robert Resinikoff
Overall: MEH
Certainly not a top-shelf entry into the occult/police detective hybrid genre, The First Power is also not a total waste of ninety-eight minutes, as close as it may come. The usual late 80s/early 90s action movie staples are present of police detectives getting away with behavior that would permanently make sure they never worked in law enforcement again, tough guy dialog front to back, and an absolutely comical car wreck sequence that Lou Diamond Phillips literally just stumbles out and walks away from. On the horror cliche end of the spectrum, it takes pentagrams seriously, nuns and psychics speak in unnecessarily cryptic terms, and all supernatural powers are completely arbitrary depending on what the particular scene calls for. It is a predictability fest every step of the way though with obvious foreshadowing, obvious psyche-outs, a forced romance, and one unmemorable, contrived scene after the other. Naturally, villainous-faced Jeff Kober makes for a sufficient, demon-possessed bad guy and Bill Mosely shows up for a couple seconds if that is worth anything to anyone. It is all harmlessly mundane, but mundane all the same.
(1992)
Dir - Mick Garris
Overall: WOOF
The first film that Stephen King penned a screenplay for that was not based off of one of his pre-existing works, Sleepwalkers is a sure-fire trainwreck. Directed by Mick Garris who has made a career of mostly B-grade, straight-to-video and/or made-for-TV horror movies, it at least introduces a typically intriguing premise from King about proto-vampire/werecat hybrids. Things quickly crumble into absurdity though with atrociously random and ill-timed comic relief, "huh?" behavior from certain characters, cars blowing up with a single handgun blast, and inconsistent physical quips ranging from totally lame ones like knocking two guys heads together or just pushing someone to the ground, to much more schlocky ones like stabbing a cop in the back with an ear of corn or biting Ron Perlman's fingers off. King's script is littered with a mix of plot holes, cliches, and conveniences which all assuredly affect the major tone issues at play. When your title monsters have superhuman strength and can make cars disappear or change their make and model, yet a single house cat can scratch up their face and put them on their deathbed or set them on fire, good luck making anything else that happens not come off equally as silly.
(1998)
Dir - Gregory Hoblit
Overall: MEH
Mediocre yet acceptable from top to bottom, the supernatural thriller Fallen is as conventional as they come yet it gets by on a few saving graces. Not surprisingly, the premise of a formless demon that can effortlessly jump bodies merely by brushing up against one goes a lot longer a way than the execution. While there are a few moments where such a concept is sinisterly conveyed, (one where The Rolling Stones' "Time is On My Side" is turned into a sing along in a police station and a tense standoff near the end being chief among them), eventually everything gets bogged down by the evil antagonist toying with people for no other reason than to get the movie to the two hour mark. Performance wise, it is strong though with a brief, typically unnerving appearance by Elias Koteas and particularly Denzel Washington in the lead who is just as typically stellar as always. It gets a tad groan-worthy in its final moments, but the prolonged resistance to hamming it up from director Gregory Hoblit, (Primal Fear, Frequency), is admirable as it mostly benefits by its more dark, somewhat weighty nature.
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