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

Damien: Omen II

"Damien: Omen II"(1978, Don Taylor, 20th Century Fox) is the second "Omen" Film, taking place seven years after the first, when Damien (Jonathan Scott-Taylor) has been raised to age of 12 by his uncle (William Holden) and his wife (Lee Grant).

Damien and his cousin, Mark (Lucas Donat) are best friends. Both are enjoying the wealthy lifestyle of his well-off aunt and uncle, and are attending a military academy. But, Damien becomes all too aware of his true nature, and begins to use his powers to get back at people who antagonise him.

With a few deaths under his belt, and several ones he may not have been aware of, Damien sets to take down his nearest and dearest.

Not as shocking or as well put together as the first, this is far from a terrible sequel. Several memorable deaths, particularly the ice rink one, are almost on par with the excellent beheading scene in the first film. The effects are not out-of-this-world striking, but are effective.

Not particularly frightening, but with some creepy undertones, this film tries to keep up the religious styling of the first (what with Damien being the son of the beast and all!), but it doesn't rely so heavily on it this time.

Jonathan Scott-Taylor's performance is not particularly scary. But that's not a criticism, as Damien's not the creepy demon child he once was. He's going through the realisation of his powers and purpose. What is creepy is what he will become. In the first film the child, like most children, has not fully developed his moral compass, and the powers just gave him the ability to do what he wanted. As a teenager Damien has more of a choice, and the scary thing is his own hormonally driven decisions to kill. He's a confused kid, like everyone was at that age. The only problem is, he knows what he's supposed to grow up into...

I, as usual, found myself kind of feeling bad for Damien. He didn't ask to be the spawn of Satan. And like a lot of misguided people, he's just doing what he thinks he should. Of course, that's no reason not to salt and burn the little bugger before it's too late!

The worst thing about this film is it has long boring moments which kind of allowed me to lose interest now and again. But, as I mentioned already, some of the death scenes make up for these.

Not great, but much better than some sequels out there and nicely tied into the first film's ending.

[Image: 20th Century Fox]

 

Hani

The Omen (1976)

"The Omen" (1976, Richard Donner, 20th Century Fox) is a suspenseful horror about a family who's young son is the Antichrist.

Little did American Ambassador, Robert Thorn (Gregory Peck) and his wife, Katherine (Lee Remick), know when they were proudly taking home new baby son, Damien (Harvey Spencer Stephens), just how... uhm... special he was... And little did they realise how different their lives were soon to be!

The family's life is plagued with odd occurrences, disasters and tragedy, but it is the appearance of a strange priest, Father Brennan (Patrick Troughton), and also curious photographer, Keith (David Warner), which begins to make Thorn look at these occurrences under a different light. But can he uncover the truth and stop the evil before it's too late?

An excellent classic, this film is one of my favourite 70s horrors. Slow burning in places, the pace is kept with engaging plot, nice scenery, a thrilling 'witch hunt' and some shocking scenes. Also, if you have a bit of a dog fear, this may not be the best movie for you.

The story is played out more like a mystery with horror elements than going for the full shock-horror like "The Exorcist" or just the gore that other Satan-centred films rely on. Even my horror-hating boyfriend likes this film and it's 2006 remake, too. It's just a good film. But that's not to say that there isn't a few good old horror 'ookie' bits. There are some damn good horror scenes. It may be a 70s film, but the special effects are still good for today's audience and some of the death scenes are inspired!

The nanny character (Billie Whitelaw) is very chilling and little Damien is the essence of creepiness, while saying virtually nothing. Without crossing any lines (in my view, I'm sure it was scandalous for the day), "The Omen" shines as one of the best 'Satanic' horrors in the genre. I definitely recommend seeing this version before the remake!

[Image: 20th Century Fox]

Hani