The Omen Franchise 666
The 1981 film is the third installment in the famous horror movies documenting the rise and eventual fall of the Antichrist, Damian Thorn. The third movie follows the now-adult Damien Thorn, to a position of high power in the world by becoming United States ambassador to the United Kingdom with intentions on the U.S. Presidency as a springboard for triggering the Apocalypse.
The movie was directed by Graham Baker. It stars Sam Neill as Damian, with Lisa Harrow as journalist Kate Reynolds, and Rossano Brazzi as the priest Father DeCarlo, given the task of killing the Antichrist. Sam Neil in his first movie shows that he has the beginnings of a brilliant actor, but he doesn’t carry the evil of Damian well at all, and almost hams up the movie.
The movie runs with two simultaneous plots: the rise of Damian, and his hold over his increasing worshipers, and the work of DeCarlo to kill him, set against the countdown to the Second Coming and the showdown between good and evil. This is definitely the worst movie in the franchise, the plot is weak and has many holes, even going against things told to the audience in the first two movies. The acting is mostly wooden and it lacks any memorable moments at all. There are a few grisly death scenes, which are thrown in mostly, to make it a horror movie, but even these are weak.
A terrible let down to the franchise.
This 1991 TV-movie sequel to the Omen franchise was directed by Jorge Montesi and Dominique Othenin-Girard. It was the final film of the original "Omen" series.
The deceptively adorable daughter of late devil-boy Damian is adopted by a kindly couple who have no idea who she is. The husband is a politician and the daughter decides that the best way for her to spread evil around is to boost his career at every opportunity.
This is pretty much along the same lines as the original, but with the boring change of a young girl, Delia, in-place of Damian, and although the young actress is brilliant in being despicable – she is not scary at all. There are a few very scary scenes though, especially one scene which shows groups of Satan worshippers holding crosses upside down and chanting, while a horrible accident ensues involving the demolition of a building.
This is nearly a shot for shot re-make of the original movie, with some scenes even dressing Stiles in similar clothes to Lee Remick in the original. The cast are all very good, especially Julia Stiles, who plays her part brilliantly, but no better or worse than her predecessor, but the film is mostly pointless – because it’s nearly exactly the same as the original, apart from Stiles seeing a few creepy visions, and a few changes in the death scenes. The biggest disappointment and let down of the movie is the fact they couldn’t use the Oscar winning music from the original movie – which is infamously well known and brilliant, conducted by Jerry Goldsmith.
Liev Schreiber is no Gregory Peck and although good, is nowhere near as good. The same goes for the entire cast, but especially young Damien (Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick) – who looks laughable rather than creepy. It’s a lot like the re-make of ‘Psycho’ in the fact that it is so similar to the original. Not a bad re-make, but a pointless one.
Related Articles
Editor's Picks Articles
Top Ten Articles
Previous Features
Site Map
Content copyright © 2023 by Steven Casey Murray. All rights reserved.
This content was written by Steven Casey Murray. If you wish to use this content in any manner, you need written permission. Contact Steven Casey Murray for details.
