Damien: Omen II

• Directed by Don Taylor
• June 9, 1978
• Based on characters created by David Seltzer

Seven years have passed and the now maturing Damien begins to realize his destiny as the Antichrist.

The Omen series is the complete antithesis of the usual horror franchise. It aims for intelligence over gore and atmosphere over scares. It harkens back (or attempts to anyway) to a time when the only good tool available to creators of horror movies was atmosphere. Sure they had cheap thrills but if you wanted something good in decades past you needed atmosphere. For every Dracula there were a thousand The Incredible Melting Man.

I find it a little lazy that they start Damien: Omen II by wiping out the last survivor from the previous film that could possibly screw up the Devil’s plans. He is gone within the first five or so minutes. It screamed that they had no imagination on how to work around it.

Damien (Jonathan Scott-Taylor) finds himself in the care of his uncle Richard Thorn (William Holden) who is a touch more believable as a father based on appearance despite being a mere two years younger than Peck. His wife Ann (Lee Grant) looks decades younger and I guess is meant to be a trophy bride. This time Damien finds himself in an American military academy continuing his acclamation to high society and the circles of power.

Like too many sequels before the dominance of the video cassette this changed elements here and there or simply ignored others. At the time such a thing wasn’t a big deal but these days it is. What strikes me right away is Satan takes a much more proactive approach than before. Damien or his supporters/aids had to take a much more proactive approach to assure his ascendancy. Now a crow causes a cave in in the Middle East as well as a heart attack among other things. So why does Satan need a cult of followers on Earth to help Damien out? I don’t know.

In The Omen Damien was implied to be aware of who and what he was. Perhaps even to a certain extent directing things. In Damien: Omen II, he looks a little more ignorant of his place and purpose. And he certainly cannot identify those on Earth to help him like he appeared to be able to last time around. At one point he even seems terrified of being the Antichrist after finding the appropriate number of sixes on his head. Really? The level of awareness he demonstrated before seems going now.

This film is a series of improbable kills along with some unlikely character changes of perspective on weird events. Overhearing one discussion Damien’s cousin Mark (Lucas Donat) decides that his cousin and close friend is indeed the spawn of Satan. How shaky was his trust to begin with? What messed up s**t did we not see in that family?

This movie went up in my estimation with the appearance of a young Lance Henriksen as Sergeant Daniel Neff who is there to serve the burgeoning Antichrist. He’s not a major player but it’s always cool to see Lance Henriksen. But he’s not the only known face of a particular era in this. There are many others in this. We have Lew Ayres as Bill Atherton, Sylvia Sidney as Aunt Marion, Allan Arbus as Dr. David Pasarian, and Meshach Taylor as Dr. J. Kayne. Not huge names but they were certainly regularly employed at the time.

As an independent narrative it’s not bad. It’s entertaining enough and creepy enough that you will enjoy yourself. But given that there is one more after this, it certainly feels like the midpoint in a narrative arc. Maybe it’s because this was a sequel and somebody saw dollar signs by turning this into a series. Anywho…

Damien: Omen II is not bad but not great. Not necessary to seek out but if you find yourself with the opportunity it’s worth a watch.