Damien: Omen 2 (1978)

Director: Don Taylor

Starring: William Holden, Lee Grant, Jonathan Scott-Taylor

Damien the Antichrist, now about to turn thirteen years old, finally learns of his destiny under the guidance of an unholy disciple of Satan. Meanwhile dark forces begin to eliminate all those who suspect the child’s true identity.

This sequel to ‘The Omen’ is a very toned down horror and not nearly as eerie (or interesting) as the original.

The film takes place seven years after the events of ‘The Omen’. Damien is now thirteen and living with his uncle, Richard (William Holden). Damien’s cousin, Mark, is his best friend and together they go to the military academy. This is where things start going wrong with Damien discovering he might just be the Antichrist as foretold in The Bible.

As mentioned, this is a toned down movie and it sometimes felt as if they held back on the horror. The best scene by far was the victim in the elevator being cut in half by a cable – almost just as shocking and effective as the first film’s decapitation scene. This well made scene was the film’s highlight.

Richard is the owner of Thorn Industries, who also owns a museum and has archeologists working for him. A discovery leads to Richard believing Damien to be evil, and he starts pondering over the warning of a reporter, Joan, who died in what appeared to be a freak accident.

Whereas the original ‘The Omen’ was an interesting mystery as well, there’s way too much business talk in ‘Damien: Omen 2’. Paul (Robert Foxworth), who works for Richard, is a mysterious character whom I can’t really place. Then there’s Sergeant Neff (Lance Henriksen), who also promised to add spice to the film but never did. Both Paul and Neff are underdeveloped characters. Their attitude towards Damien tells me they know about his identity, but this never surfaces, and neither of them really adds to the film’s premise.

There’s a bigger body count here and the film plays like a slasher movie, with Damien at the centre, but not physically killing anyone. I’m not really sure I’m going to remember this in the long run.

‘Damien: Omen 2’ was not as successful as ‘The Omen’. It still earned $26.5 million on a $6.8 million budget.

Would I watch it again? No.