By Melissa Antoinette Garza
I had never heard of this movie before. I came across it on YouTube and figured I’d give it a shot. Later, I found out the same writer for this film, Stephen Carpenter also wrote and directed the classic The Dorm that Dripped Blood (1982). Though not nearly as plot driven as his other work, The Power was effective in its own ways and did tell an interesting story, despite not always being the most cohesive.
The film opens rather strong with a teacher advising his students that this small Aztec doll is the only remaining artifact that allegedly carries power. Shortly after the lesson and once alone, he is impaled on a flagpole.
The next twenty minutes is rather slow as a man who worked with the slain teacher travels to a different country to obtain information on the doll. It’s rather uneventful as nothing really occurs during this time frame. The issue with this portion of the movie is that the basis of the plot seems to shift from character to character making it difficult to decipher whose story we’re following.
Thankfully, the action starts again when the students obtain the doll and decide to bring an Ouija board into the mix more as a lark than anything else. Of course the powers of the doll are summoned and terrorize the group. They bring their evidence to a local paranormal reporter Sandy (Susan Stokey) who is in actuality a non-believer and dismisses the teens. Her boyfriend Jerry (Warren Lincoln) on the other hand decides to research it and determine its origins. He becomes obsessed with the idol and is soon fully taken over by its demonic forces. Sandy afraid for his life begins looking up the doll herself and finds that it is a carving of the demon Destacatyl.
The power the doll has is strange. The demon certainly takes over the human body, but it also has abilities similar to that of a Voodoo doll. For example, if one is taken over by Destacatyl and the doll is being destroyed, the person’s body who is inhabited also is hurt in the same manner.
The conclusion was definitely the strongest point as it presents a red herring one wouldn’t expect and one I won’t disclose here.
The biggest drawback of this movie is focus. It takes at least 40 minutes to hone in on the fact that the story is that of Jerry’s transition and decent into madness and obsession with the doll. It shifts from the teacher, the coworker, the students and then finally Jerry and Sandy. I tend to wonder if editing or deleted scenes would connect the dots between the characters a bit more than the version I saw did. If there’s a different version out there, I’d certainly like to give it a go.
Overall, I definitely suggest giving this one a watch. The last special effect/make-up job is done extremely well and is reminiscent of The Evil Dead (1981) and a bit of Demons (1985). What is really strange is that the demonic possession previously were not very scary. The make-up job wasn’t bad but it was far more like a seriously toned down David Cronenberg style, especially when the one destroyed is torn apart. It just presented itself in a far different way until the very end when the last scene took a more frightening tone. It sort of reminded me of Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983) when Dan Aykroyd’s character turns into a demon right out of left field. It was unsettling, different than the tone of the rest of the movie, and just extremely scary.
Currently this isn’t on any official streaming site, but if you act before it’s stripped down, you may be able to catch it free on YouTube. Otherwise, it’s worth a buy on Amazon.
Scared Stiff Rating: 6.5/10 A bit muddled but worth it at the end
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