Monday 7 January 2013

Omen III: The Final Conflict

"Omen III: The Final Conflict" (1981, Graham Baker, 20th Century Fox, Harvey Bernhard Productions, Mace Neufeld) is the the third "Omen" film, following the life of Damien Thorn: son of Satan.

Damien (a young, pre-fame Sam Neill) is now head of the Thorn Corporation, but has set his sights on the position of US Ambassador to Great Britain. His 'father' would have been proud... Had he not been brutally murdered by young Damien in the first film...

When the current US Ambassador 'randomly' commits suicide, Damien manages to manoeuvre himself into the position and then proceeds throughout the rest of the film to flirt with a journalist called Kate (Lisa Reynolds), sour the mind of her son Peter (Barnaby Holm) and try to avoid assassination by Monks, led by Father DeCarlo (Rossano Brazzi), who have become aware that a holy star sign.... Star of Bethlehem much?... has announced the rebirth of Damien's arch-Nemesis; Jesus Christ!

Sam Neill gives a good performance, but I can't help but feel that this view may be coloured by my enjoyment of his work in other films and TV...

All in all, this is the weakest of the three real original "Omen" films (We don't count that made-for-TV 'fourth' one), with only one thing really going for it; that it ends the character arc of Damien, who has now become a self-aware, anti-bible bashing daddy's boy.

The gore is pretty good and there's a fair amount of shocking ideas in the film (child murdering and  rape being two examples), but similarly to the second film, "The Final Conflict" is long and dull in places, allowing the viewer's mind to wander and lose interest.

If you can bare to not finish the series, I would say skipping this film wouldn't really be a bad thing...

[Image: 20th Century Fox]

Hani

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