Ahoy, squirts! Quint here with the next installment of A Movie A Day: Halloween 2010 edition!
[For the entirety of October I will be showcasing one horror film each day. Every film is pulled from my DVD shelf or streamed via Netflix Instant and will be one I haven’t seen. Unlike my A Movie A Day or A Movie A Week columns there won’t necessarily be connectors between each film, but you’ll more than likely see patterns emerge day to day.]
It is now official. I love all the Omen films (part IV lives with Godfather III, Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, The Exorcist II and the Star Wars prequels in an apartment complex on the seedier side of Hollywood Blvd, recluses all).
The original is a classic in every sense of the word. From Richard Donner’s smart direction, to Jerry Goldsmith’s iconic score, to Gregory Peck’s absolute ownership of the role of Richard Thorne, a man whose journey takes him from loving father willing to do anything for his child to trying to stab the little evil bastard with a sweet dagger…
And then there’s Damien: Omen II, a film that I thought was only appreciated by me for the longest time. It’s not nearly as good as The Omen, it lacks that classic, effortless spark that Donner was able to capture, but it’s a surprisingly interesting take on a sequel. I like that we follow Damien into his early teen years and I like even more that he’s kind of an innocent and has to come to terms with just what and who he is.
Now I’ve seen OMEN III: THE FINAL CONFLICT and it’s definitely a worthy addition to the series. I knew Sam Neill was going to deliver the goods. He always does, but what shocked me was just how dark the movie is and how unflinchingly it went into some really fucked up territory.
There’s more baby death in this movie than you’d expect from a big studio picture. There’s a whole subplot of Damien trying to get rid of his competition, Christ reborn, in a very Biblical way. Instead of God killing the firstborn child in every household, Damien and his legion of worshippers kill every male child born on the night prophecized to mark the return of Christ.
They pinpoint the general location via biblical texts and scientific study of the stars and then Damien set his horde out to kill. And this horde includes children. In fact, they make a point in the movie that children are very easily swayed to the Devil’s side.
How can you not like a movie with all that in it?
And it has a fucked up backwards cross. Screw those upside down crucifixes you see in the regular devil movies! Damien has a giant crucifix that has a pained Jesus backwards on the cross, ass out, head making the top of the cross.
Neill relishes this role and dives in headfirst, giving a few great evil bastard monologues and balancing those out with his quiet charm as he takes the position his father once held: US Ambassador to England.
In a weird way he has already won when we start this story. Damien Thorne is the head of one of largest corporations in the world, he has wide reaching influence even to those who don’t realize they’re being manipulated, including the President. He has all the power and none of the risk.
It’s only that he knows Jesus is coming at some point that’s keeping him in any sort of check. If the anti-Christ is there then Jesus has to be on his way. That’s what the good book says.
So, Damien has a fairly low profile for being a public figure, charming his way into whatever scenario he wants and using his hypnotic eye to make things happens the way he wants, including a gruesomely brutal suicide that kicks the flick off like something out of Faces of Death.
If that wasn’t enough to make me dig this flick, there’s a big plot point involving a sect of priests that find the 7 daggers (the only thing on Earth that can kill the anti-Christ) who essentially become assassins for the Lord. Seven priests, each armed with one dagger, begin to stalk Damien.
Were I to find any fault with the movie it’d be that the priest assassins subplot wasn’t developed enough or amount to more than it did. I like that these guys aren’t murderers, don’t know what they’re doing, but are desperate to kill the anti-Christ before he can find and kill the reborn Christ. However, they still fuck up an awful lot and never really feel to pose any real threat to Damien.
I’d have loved it if half the movie played out in a cat and mouse game where the hunter and the hunted swap roles a few times, but the main push of the story involves a UK reporter (Lisa Harrow) who gets close to Damien and must be convinced he’s indeed evil incarnate.
That plays out fine and I especially like the easy conversion of her young son to one of Damien’s army, but not nearly as cool as pissed off priests with ancient daggers stalking the son of Satan. Just sayin’.
Let’s talk about the deaths. The Omen films have pretty good kills and this film is no exception. There’s not one death in OMEN III that comes close to the brilliant David Warner decapitation from the first film, but it makes a good show. One character gets wrapped up in burning plastic, leaving a damn gory mess when he’s put out. Then there’s the suicide I mentioned earlier, a gunshot so brutal that it really did remind me of those press conference suicides that pop up on Faces of Death.
Final Thoughts: A very fun, very wrong (in all the right ways) sequel that should have been a horrible film, but sharp direction from Graham Baker, a good script by Andrew Birkin, a fantastic central performance from Sam Neill and the right tone elevate the film farther than expected. It can’t stand should to shoulder with the first film, but then again what can?
Currently in print on DVD: YES
Currently available on Netflix Instant: NO
Upcoming A Movie A Day Titles:
Wednesday, October 27th: THE EVIL (1977)
Thursday, October 28th: THE DEVIL DOLL (1936)
Friday, October 29th: DARK NIGHT OF THE SCARECROW (1981)
Saturday, October 30th: SCARECROWS (1988)
Sunday, October 31st: RAZORBACK (1984)
I’m really excited to get to tomorrow’s THE EVIL. I saw a trailer for it recently and it had some imagery that I found familiar. There’s a film I saw on USA Up All Night as a young kid that I’ve been trying to place for years and it’s quite possible it’s this movie. Even if it isn’t, it’s Richard Crenna starring in a haunted house flick. So either way I’m a winner.
-Quint
quint@aintitcool.com
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