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Title: Damien: Omen II (1978) |
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Review of Damien: Omen II
- Several years after the mysterious events that claimed the life of the U.S. Ambassador and his wife, the now teenaged and militarily enrolled Damien Thorne is slowly being made aware of his unholy heritage and horrific destiny. Woe is he (including anyone in Damien's adoptive family and his classmates) who suspects the truth or gets in his way. While not as unrelentingly frightening as its blockbuster predecessor, this more-than-competent sequel to The Omen raises some interesting questions about the nature of free will (can the antichrist deny his birthright?) before falling into a gory series of increasingly outlandish deaths, the best of which is a terrifyingly protracted scene beneath the ice of a frozen lake. Jerry Goldsmith (who won an Oscar for his work on the first film in the series) contributes another marvelously foreboding score. --Andrew Wright
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Comments for Damien: Omen II
- Posted on 2008-06-17
Part two of a great trilogy.
I loved the first one, how do you out do it?
You don't.
The horrid remake of the original proves this.
As a sequel goes, it was good. The same haunting music and atmosphere.
Great script, it evolves Damien without turning him into a typical monster stereotype. I believe there is a scene where Damien finds out he is the antichrist and struggles with that fact. It reminds me of Christ's suffering right before the crucifixion. It's a bad parallel to draw but it ads to Damien's (humanity?). Good acting from the cast.
All in all, a worthy sequel.
Score: 4
- Posted on 2008-05-04
A worthy sequel to "The Omen"
I have seen the prequel, loved it very much even today as much as I did some years ago when I first came across this film. In this sequel... the story continued on very well. Good cast and Jerry Goldsmith as usual gives a wonderfull score. 'Ave Satani' being the initial score in the film, Terrifying indeed. What I felt very much about this film was despite great charecterizations and good performence by each individual, there was still a lack of the atmosphere of horror unlike the Prequel. The film in my opinion could have been even more better, somehow.. Don Taylor did a good job. Jonathan Scott Taylor as the teenage Damien did very well, he was very expressive and so did Lucas Donat in the role of his cousin. Lee Grant, Robert Foxworth, Nicholas Pryor, Lew Ayres, William Holden and the rest others gives sattisfying performence. In other words, if you loved the Prequel "The Omen", you will be definately curious to watch this one as well, even though you shall certainly feel that there is some lack of horror in this Sequel as compared to the first one, but overall its still worth watching.
Score: 4 - Posted on 2008-04-16
He is the son
Of the devil, "the most powerful in the world"he says in the movie, he also finds a triple six make under his hair.
Score: 4 - Posted on 2008-01-19
Doesn't come close to the first
The Omen is one of the few that actually needed a sequel. Damien;Omen II is a good follow up but doesn't match the greatness of the first one at all. I liked the idea behind this one with Damien moving on with his life and begins to learn his purpose.
The story is pretty good but the plot was shallow at times. I really didn't feel the appearance of that one lonely crow at all. And some of the deaths like the heart attack just came off weak. This sequel also lost it's very creepy atmosphere and the plot kind of suffered to me. The acting was pretty solid though Jonathan Scott-Taylor was pretty convincing as Damien but not as frightening.
Bottomline, I wasn't too pleased with this one. It's not a bad movie but I let myself be spoiled by the first one. It's still worth owning and it's a worthy sequel.
Score: 3
- Posted on 2008-01-06
A Grand Guignol Hoot!
When we took our leave of him at the end of The Omen, Damien, the cherubic-looking Antichrist, come to earth to claim his rights, was 6 years old and in attendance at the state funeral of his father and mother, the recently deceased United States Ambassador to the Court of St. James's and Mrs. Thorn. Holding the hand of the President throughout the ceremony, Damien did not fidget. Apparently fidgets are not something to which a child "born unto a jackal" is subject.
At the start of Damien - Omen II, the inevitable sequel, we leap seven years into the future when Damien, now 13 and played by round-faced Jonathan Scott-Taylor, is living near Chicago with his uncle, Richard Thorn (William Holden), Richard's wife, Ann (Lee Grant), and his cousin Mark (Lucas Donat) in the sort of suburban splendor that only multimillions can buy in the Middle West: a 50-year-old, mock French chateau and more liveried servants than you're likely to find at Buckingham Palace.
To all outward appearances Damien is, if not the Anti-christ, then at least an Antichrist. He rarely smiles, and when he does it's a sneer. He's rude to his ancient aunt. He smokes, and when crossed by a schoolmate, all he has to do is stare to send the other kid into convulsions. Yet nobody recognizes him for what he is, not even Damien himself.
It's left to a sergeant at the military school attended by Damien and Mark to pass the word on to Damien. The sergeant is one of the Devil's helpers who miraculously appear from time to time to help Damien (and the movie's plot) along. "The time is coming," he says sternly, "for you to put away childish things and face up to who you are." Those of us who endured The Omen know what the sergeant means: "You're too old to go around murdering mummies and daddies and nannies. Act your age."
One way or another Damien does, and Omen II is the open-ended record of this particular -what should we call it?-rite of passage. Before Damien is finished this time, there have been approximately a dozen new victims, a couple of whom have succumbed to what appear to be internal disorders while others have been sliced in half, stabbed, burned, impaled, gassed, pecked (by a nasty crow) and, in the film's most inspired moment of cinematic cheese, drowned beneath the clear ice of a lake.
As foolish as it is, Damien - Omen II is fun to watch and rather stylish-looking. Much of the film was shot in and around Chicago, which, in winter, with its extraordinary architecture, must be one of the handsomest of American cities. (Although "Damien" does have trouble getting its seasons straight. While the story covers approximately nine months, the leaves on the trees suggest a perpetual autumn with occasional bouts of winter.) Still, the winter scenes are spectacular, and work subliminally to counter the many comic absurdities of the screenplay.
We'd hate to have anyone watch "Damien" with the idea that it's going to be some sort of transcendental experience. It's a joke, but as such jokes go, it's much funnier than Brian DePalma's The Fury (1978), and just as shrewd in its Grand Guignol special effects.
Score: 5