Streaming Availability: Rental
Unlike The Exorcist and Rosemary's Baby, The Omen left it itself open with obvious space for sequels. We end that first movie with sweet little Damien holding the president's hand, practically winking to the audience that he'll be back. So in 1978 there was Damien: Omen II about his preteen years. Then in 1981 there was Omen III: The Final Conflict, in theory the grand finale of the Antichrist's battle against God, but... we'll get to that. 20th Century Fox could have kept milking this franchise for many movies, following the Antichrist across his life as he gains power and destroys those in his way. This franchise could have been the twisted reverse of the Hollywood epic Biblical films of the Sixties, an Anti-King of Kings, only with a lot more random death. Instead... well... (sigh).
Omen II makes the correct observation that even if Damien (Jonathan Scott-Taylor) is the cause of all evil and malice in the world, he still should be treated as a person. Damien in Omen 1 is only a terrible tyke with no interiority, not a character. Here he's one of the two main characters of the film. And frankly Omen II would be a much better movie if Damien were the only lead, I'll get to his co-star in a moment. As bad as the Antichrist's budding youth might be, that story is not all that different from any other Heroic Journey. Damien discovers he is different from other boys, he refuses the call of destiny, but then chooses to go forward. The best scenes of this movie are those moments of conflict where Damien is troubled either by fear or the last vestiges of morality, before seemingly saying goodbye to them forever.
That alone would be enough for a movie. Damien has a beloved brother figure, his wimpy cousin, Mark (Lucas Donat), whom he has grown up with. Mark and Damien are the twin heirs to the Thorn business empire, both raised together since that unpleasantness with Damien's dad and some daggers in the first movie. The best part of Omen II is Damien's growing isolation from Mark and his humanity. Finally this explodes in an intense confrontation, with Damien forced to choose between his demonic nature and human love for his cousin. Jonathan Scott-Taylor is not the best actor, but he can bring a lot of intensity and heartbreak to these scenes. And then when he needs to pose like a little Napoleon, he nails it.
The problem is that Damien's plotline must share space with everything else that is Omen II. Since Omen 1 was headlined by Gregory Peck, it seems the studio felt they needed another stately old man of Hollywood, so William Holden plays Richard Thorn, Damien's uncle and adopted parent. Richard is not an interesting character, he is identical to Robert Thorn from the last movie. Even their names, "Richard", "Robert", sound too similar, what parents would do that to their family? There are a lot of B-plots about the various machinations of Thorn Industries, and geopolitics stuff that never really matters to anything. Richard follows his brother down the same path. And fails just as badly.
The body count is another bit of filler. There's a lot of characters we do not need only here to die painfully, it is very Friday the 13th. Omen II is worried that you'll get bored so kills a character roughly every fifteen to twenty minutes. This movie operates on the same Final Destination-y anti-miracle acts of Satan rules as the first one. So a poor doctor will get chopped in half by an elevator cable or a reporter will have her eyes bitten out by a demon crow and then be crushed by a giant truck. Those two kills, by the way, are the only good ones. A lot of them are mundane accidents, unimaginative and lame no matter how hard the Jerry Goldsmith chorus of chanting baritone burps works to sell the scare.
There are interesting things going on here. Damien and Mark are enrolled in a military academy and their Sergeant is the always-great Lance Henriksen. I feel like there might have been some kind commentary about class and training children for warfare, but it does not land. Most of the way director Don Taylor treats the Thorn family in their vast estate and huge parties is straight-up Wealth Porn. Nothing to say except "being rich is cool". Nobody questions whether people like should exist, only that its so awful that the devil is ruining our great American WASP fantasy.
As flawed as it is, Omen II is my favorite movie of this franchise. The depressing thing is that Omen III could have been easily the best. Speaking of...
Day 14-2: Omen III: The Final Conflict (1978), dir Graham Baker
Streaming Availability: Rental
Pardon my indulgence, we're doing two reviews today.
In Omen III Damien is now in his early thirties (because these Antichrists have to parallel the OG JC). He is now played by horror icon, Sam Neill. He's a major player in Washington politics, able to bully his way into becoming the new Ambassador to the Court of St. James in London. His haircut somehow has never changed since he was a little boy, but he's still an impressive figure, well on his way to ruling the world as prophesized in all the apocalypse nonsense.
Sam Neill is fantastic as this villain. It's great to see Possession-era Sam Neill in such a powerful role. He's charismatic, he's well-spoken, he can do great fiery monologues against his hated cosmic rival, "the Nazarene". He is a perfect antihero, wonderfully compelling. There even is a decent romance with a English reporter, Kate (Lisa Harrow) and a stronger relationship with Damien finding himself as a father/big brother figure to her son, Peter (Barnaby Holm). There seems to be real conflict in Damien again, where a moment of something like love derails his plans, yet he still is a violent, cruel lover. I like that this devil figure is so neat and controlled so often, but when the time comes, he's overwhelmed by emotion.
You know what? If the Antichrist is this guy, I'm on board. I am Jewish, after all, so taking down Christ is not exactly scary to me. Thousands of years under Christian rule has not given us much of anything except getting forcibly deported every few centuries or nearly exterminated. I gotta be brutally honest here, maybe Satan has a better deal. Plus, we're fully in the Raegan era now. The Moral Majority has taken power and their awful homophobic theologies are not giving the side of heaven much to offer. I'll take any foul demon freak over those guys.
Omen III lacks the Final Destination contrivances of death, but it does have a hilarious montage of incredibly silly child murders. Damien needs to stop the Anti-Antichrist from being born, so finds himself trying to murder every baby in England. He actually succeeds thanks to priests drowning babies in holy water and a clothes iron being used in grisly slapstick fashion. Well, I guess evil wins, right? Well... no.
Then just when he is about to confront God, Damien dies at the very end, stabbed in the back. Movie over. There's barely any set-up, the movie fizzles out to nothing. It is almost ashamed of itself so has to end all at once. Were we not promised a Final Conflict on the poster?? Where was that?? Damien might as well have tripped and fallen to his death. Jerry Goldsmith's score swells to operatic wonder, and I'm just furious. I sure hope you were not excited for the big show that would be the Apocalypse, it's cancelled. Everybody go home. Guess that's why Hal Lindsay got it wrong.
Bummer. Huge bummer.
After that disappointment, The Omen franchise critically wounded itself. There were plans to make an Omen 4, subtitled Armageddon, but this never happened. In 1991, a true Omen IV: The Awakening was released on television, airing on Fox. In this case we have a girl Antichrist, Delia York (Asia Vieira), who is actually the twin sister/mother of an infant inside her, who will be the actual Damien reborn. That is ridiculous and awful, though I appreciate the boldness. Certainly I would never make a story with that premise. However, Omen IV is bland and terrible despite that bonkers idea. It is just a cheaper remake of Omen 1 in every way that matters. Nobody made an Omen 5, and by 2006 the studio was ready to reset with a full remake that turns out, nobody really wanted either.
Altogether quite a downer. Somehow all these Antichrists yet we can never have a dignified Apocalypse. We keep turning back into Look What's Happened to Rosemary's Baby.
Next Time! Well that sucked. Let's have fun again with a nice sleazy exploitation movie. Mexico gives us a lesbian vampire demon-possessed TK-powered nun in Alucarda.
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