Summary:
The continuing misadventures of Damien the Antichrist.
My Thoughts:
Every year around Halloween at TMM we try to review as many horror flicks as we can, and this year, I’ve been scouring my collection for films I hadn’t seen (or had seen but hadn’t reviewed). “The Omen: Damien” or “Damien: The Omen II” (whatever this movie is called, I’ve seen conflicting reports and the title card in the actual film doesn’t help) was one of those movies that I owned but had never really had any desire to see. When you buy physical copies of media, particularly nowadays when everything is getting cheaper, sometimes you find box sets for a few bucks more than just buying a single Blu-Ray; a single copy of “The Omen” was like $7.99, and the box set, which includes the original trilogy and the 2006 remake (“The Omen”), was $9.99. How crazy is that? Anyways, that’s the long explanation as to why I ever went out of my way to watch this.
I didn’t do any research before I sat down to watch this movie (honestly, before buying the box set, I thought “The Omen” was a stand alone film), but horror sequels tend to have depreciating return the further on you go down the line, so I sort of anticipated this movie wouldn’t be great. As the film started up, almost immediately I could tell that this would be very similar to the original, and for the most part I was completely correct. This movie doesn’t really deviate from the original storyline too much, nor does it really add anything of value to the original film, but there are a few redeeming scenes that add some depth to Damien’s character. This movie isn’t really worth your time if you’re only a casual fan of the original (I think the original is good, but it’s not on the level of similarly themed movies like, say, “The Exorcist” or “Rosemary’s Baby”), but if you’re an enormous fan, I think there might be some things you’ll like. They didn’t butcher the story; in fact, the way the sequel approaches the material is fine, just as a whole it doesn’t do much in the way of providing anything thrilling. More than anything, this film is just sort of tensionless, and if you’re looking for a horror movie, that’s not a quality you typically search for.
“The Beast has no brother!”
Damien Thorn (Jonathan Scott-Taylor), now twelve years old, lives with his Uncle Richard (William Holden, “The Bridge on the River Kwai”) and Aunt Ann (Lee Grant, “In the Heat of the Night”) and his older cousin Mark (Lucas Donat). Strange events surround Damien, causing his Uncle Richard to investigate. Meanwhile, Damien starts to understand truths about himself.
So, the biggest problems with this movie is that it doesn’t really try to do anything differently as far as overall story structure. The concept of the first film is that, unbeknownst to his parents and himself, Damien is the antichrist; the concept of the second film is that, unbeknownst to his family and himself, Damien is the antichrist. Everything dealing with Richard is pretty much the exact same storyline as the one we follow with Gregory Peck: we slowly begin to suspect something is wrong, then we know something is wrong, then we try to secure some ceremonial daggers to kill a child; you know, as one does in this situation. All of that stuff was pretty much a copy and paste rehash from the original film, only with a few less impressive kills (watch out for the Ravens! Ah!). Just a side note too; at the end of “The Omen”, Damien goes to live with Richard Thron, whom, it’s briefly hinted at, is the President of the United States- there’s no mention of that at all in this whole film. Instead, Richard’s job is pretty vague. I realize that, since this film takes place seven years after the events of the first film, Richard would no longer be President, but in going about his daily life, no one stops him on the street and says, “Hey, wait a minute, I know you- you used to be president!” Just a small over-site, but as someone who genuinely appreciates the original for what it was, this little inconsistency in between sequels was a little annoying. I will admit that the horror genre does tend to get away with more inconsistencies in their franchises than most- so that change wasn’t wholly unexpected. (Just try watching the Child’s Play franchise straight through, and then try to give me a definitive answer as to what is going on with Jennifer Tilly/Tiffany’s character at the end of “Cult of Chucky”)
SOME SPOILERS FOLLOW
Alright, so, there was some decent stuff that actually elevated this movie a little bit above the 2/5 star rating I would’ve originally given this. Funnily enough, I actually thought that Jonathan Scott-Taylor gave one of the more memorable performances in this movie; William Holden and Lee Grant both looked like they were slightly bored. Damien’s stuff is also, by far, the most interesting stuff as far as story goes. As Damien slowly starts to uncover the truth about himself, he has a hard time wrestling with the gravity of it all. Right after he finds out, there’s a rather emotional sequence where he flees where he was and runs to stand before a lake, screaming “Why me?” at the sky. Sure, it’s a little schmaltzy, but it’s also the most insight we’ve ever gotten into Damien. The other scene that sort of elevated this movie even more happened towards the end of the film, when Mark confronts Damien about the fact that he might be the antichrist. By this time, Damien has sort of come to terms with his destiny, and he asks Mark to join him. Mark refuses and Damien uses his powers (willfully and purposefully) to kill Mark with an aneurysm. That scene, too, was really well done- it was probably the highlight of the movie.
Verdict:
A few good scenes do not a movie make, but if you’re really itching to see where Damien goes after “The Omen”, then know that this movie is competent enough to be watchable, but it’s not in the least bit frightening.
Review Written By: