Damien: Omen II (1978) - film review

After the death of his parents, 6-year-old Damien Thorn is adopted by his uncle, Richard Thorn, the head of a vast business empire.  Seven years later, Damien attends a military academy with his cousin, Mark, and slowly becomes aware of his sinister destiny.  Anyone who threatens this destiny dies in horrific and mysterious circumstances.  A friend of Richard, Dr Warren, is alarmed when he discovers a wall mural depicting the four faces of the Antichrist.  One of the faces is the exact image of young Damien...

After The Omen (1976) had effectively set up its premise of impending doom and disaster brought about by a Satanic messiah, its sequel failed to develop the concept any further and was quite to content to rehash the entire story, but with its central character now a few years older.  Worse than that, it is all too obvious that Damien: Omen II was made only to offer audiences cheap thrills, mainly by introducing characters and killing them off five minutes later in the most horrific way possible.  This wouldn’t have been so bad providing these shock moments had some edge of reality about them.  They seldom do, and one of the better death scenes looks like a juvenile spoof of Hitchcock’s The Birds.  There isn’t much to write home about this tedious sequel – the performances are bland, the dialogue borderline atrocious, and the direction distinctly lacking in inspiration.  The only saving grace is Jonathan Scott-Taylor, who manages to be distinctly chilling as the 13-year-old Damien.  But then again, most 13-year-old boys are pretty damn scary...

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