Damien: Omen 2 (1978)

A thoroughly distraught Archeologist cum Bible expert Carl Bugenhagen, the only survivor other than Damien from the first Omen film, drives furiously through the streets of the Holy Land. He is a gravely disturbed man with a pressing matter on his hands; the end of the world beckons as Damien, the spawn of Satan, is set to assume the highest power on earth. Bugenhagen is the only man who possesses the knowledge to stop him, but time is against them. He must convince his friend, a sceptic, by showing him the face etched on Yigael’s Wall of the spawn of Satan for time is against them and the devil gaining power with every passing hour. Will Satan inherit the earth, or can the forces of good somehow derail the impending doom?

The Omen from 1976 was a runaway box office smash worldwide but received a mixed and wildly varying response from the critics. For some, it was a slickly mounted, white knuckle successor to Rosemary’s Baby and The Exorcist, while others found it worthy of a mention as one of the “world’s worst-ever films”. Punters ignored the critics, and responded with their feet. The film turned into the shock box office hit of the season. Modestly budgeted, featuring stars of yesteryear Gregory Peck and Lee Remick, the film has made a significant mark on the horror movie palette and is lasting. Firstly, the Oscar-winning soundtrack provided a brilliant aural accompaniment to the visuals on-screen, elevating what may have seemed a little over the top into something delectable to the senses. Jerry Goldsmith’s legendary score swept you away into this swirling world of evil, and it was his score that breathed a thrilling satanic menace that was not part of the script. The film could have died an immediate death had it a typical 70s TV-style soundtrack, but instead, Jerry Goldsmith provided a score that has become the template for all things satanic ever since.

The second memorable feature of The Omen was its emphasis on the “creative visual death” and to our memory. The first-ever mainstream horror film to serve up set pieces of visually sumptuous death designed to set itself apart from the rest of the horror crowd, and to this extent, it succeeded hugely.

The Omen paved the way for the “creative death” in films to come and was a torchbearer in this element of horror cinema upon which an entire sub-genre was built. Films such as the Final Destination series are direct descendants of this particular sub-genre of mainstream horror carved out by The Omen; the orchestrated, creative death-by-accident caused by the unseen hand of Satan. In many ways a precursor to the Final Destination series.

Finally, the marketing campaign that used the number “666” brilliantly crafted a campaign that completely caught the public’s imagination. The publicity for the film was superbly prepared and insanely successful in capturing the public’s imagination perfectly. By the time the film arrived on screens, people’s anticipation was honed to extreme levels. The film’s marketing and publicity were unique and brilliant and are worthy of being studied by students in the marketing field; such was its effectiveness.

So, armed with these elements, a fine director in Richard Donner as well as a seasoned and stellar cast, it wasn’t difficult to see precisely why this film hit the bull’s eye with the public back in 1976, despite its hokey plot-line.

In the late 70s, Hollywood was wisening up to the relatively easy money that a hit franchise could provide. It didn’t take long for The Omen 2 to be announced for production but David Seltzer, the original scriptwriter, was moving on. So it was left to the producers to develop a story outline that into the movie’s script. The first person and the most crucial element upon whose participation the entire film production hinged was Jerry Goldsmith. Once he was signed up, the rest of the impressive cast fell into place with the role of Damien going to a Brazilian born English actor Jonathan Scott-Taylor as a teenaged Damien, seven years on from when the first movie ended.

Damien makes his first appearance symbolically striding through a foreground of flames. Since the first movie, he has been taken in by super industrialist Robert Thorn, a man tipped for the country’s presidency in days to come.

Damien’s grand Aunt Marion, a cranky, nervous old lady with significant stakes in the Thorn empire, visits her nephew and insists on Mark and Damien being sent to separate schools. She senses the evil in the adopted sibling and mentions that his father was intentionally trying to kill Damien when he was shot dead by the police. She has that sixth sense about Damien, a feeling that inevitably leads to her downfall. The rule is, anyone who is a potential obstacle to Damien’s ascent to his throne is struck down by supernatural forces in spectacular style. This is basically what The Omen films are about and dressed up in significant amounts of preposterous but fun drama, a whole lot of visual flair and let’s not forget Jerry Goldsmith’s contribution.

Old Aunt Marion has an unexpected at the hands of a most unwanted visitor at night. The accidental deaths start to mount steadily. The most spectacular set piece is reserved for an excessively pushy reporter who is attacked by a raven trained by the same man who trained the wonderful birds of The Birds all those years ago. The raven has a terrific peck at her, but the worst is yet to come. At this stage, the movie is moving along rather well, and the deaths are certainly not unimpressive, but this is pretty much as good as it gets, and things start heading south hereafter.

The satanic disciples in Omen 2 have no character exuded from Mrs. Baylock of the first instalment. Neither the academy instructor Sergeant Neff nor the company executive is remotely interesting, and the film begins to lose steam. There is a crucial scene of Damien being told to “stop his childish interests” and learn exactly who he is and his responsibilities. This leads to a coming of age/evil scene that transforms Damien from a dorky adolescent to the personification of evil. As Damien realises his power and his destiny, instead of invoking increased fear, he evokes sympathy as he exclaims “why me” in recognising that his world of happy go lucky normality will change forever. Like Dracula, he is a tortured outcast by his destiny as the chosen one, miserable and alone and pathetic despite his power.

The body count continues as the film lurches towards its conclusion, with a few twists and surprises along the way that fails to elevate a relatively tame conclusion. The film runs out of ideas and relies increasingly on the spectacular deaths and Damien’s increasingly satanic behaviour, neither overly convincing. However, the film continues the overwrought silliness of the initial Omen movie. It carries the tale forward adequately and entertainingly enough for the sequel’s first half, but that is where things start to falter. Rather than build to an effective climax, the film rushes headlong to a conclusion that is unsatisfying and hurried. However, it has its good moments even if Damien’s accent is shaky and his evil, menacing looks are not particularly chilling. The film is entertaining enough for at least half its running time, though it peters out tamely after a solid first hour or so. As far as sequels are concerned, it certainly isn’t the worst and well worth a look in for fans of The Omen. Jerry Goldsmith also has another magnificent score, which is arguably even superior to his masterful Oscar-winning soundtrack for The Omen. This Goldsmith soundtrack ranks along with the sublime brilliance of Pino Donaggio’s compositions for Brian De Palma’s classic horror films; Carrie, Dressed to Kill, and the superb non-De Palma score for Tourist Trap (1979).

Damien: Omen II is clunky and really rather silly but entertaining enough and was initially witnessed at London’s notorious Biograph cinema in Victoria where most punters were not remotely interested in the cinema but more about the possibilities provided by a cover of darkness! Read Below for a little revisit to the cinema.

Does anybody remember The Biograph cinema in London? I watched Damien: Omen 2 there, but the cinema was NOT the main attraction. Not by far. However, this review was based upon a screening on a 4K big screen TV with an up-scaled to 4k Blu-Ray version that looked pretty damn great! It was like entering a surreal scene from William Friedkin’s “Cruising” and from an unusually large audience (for a dud horror flick) in the cinema I reckon we were the only three people even aware that a movie was being screened! It was a perpetual movement of men walking slowly up and down the aisles, changing seats like a game of musical chairs. Lots of leather and rubber creaking and the bathroom was experiencing some serious “rush hour” traffic – A whole new world altogether. It was a total fleapit and dive, yet they did have some excellent programming even if it was a different kind of entertainment that the cinema was thriving on!! A truly unique experience and that too in pristine London during the Thatcher years.