In the closing chapter of The Omen Trilogy, director Graham Baker brings the figure of Damien back into politics as his ascent to the Throne of Evil draws nearer. However, the film serves as a disappointing conclusion to a potentially thrilling premise atop numerous anachronisms while becoming preoccupied with filling the screen with gratuitous gore.
After claiming his place as heir to the multi-national Thorn Industries (after the untimely demise of his uncle in Damien: Omen II), Damien Thorn (Sam Neill, In the Mouth of Madness, Jurassic Park, Event Horizon), implements Machiavellian tactics in order to secure his position as United States Ambassador to Great Britain (his adopted father’s former position as well as stepping stone to the Presidency) and Chairman of the United Nations Youth Committee. Prior to rising further up the political ladder, the Christ child is reborn and Damien must first kill his antagonist before usurping Biblical prophecy and assuming his position as Dark Prince on Earth.
Baker, unlike Don Tayler in the previous film in the series, does allow time to posit an apt transition from big business back into politics, thus giving Damien’s position creditability prior to proceeding with the plot (also bringing back the representative rottweilers once again and dispensing with the ravens as Damien’s demonic mascots). However, once he has established Damien’s current standing in the world, as if the initial premise wasn’t enough to sustain another entry into the saga, screenwriter Andrew Birkin introduces the subplot of the Second Coming of Christ. However, instead of allowing the antagonisms between the two diametrically-opposed figureheads escalate (mimicking a similar thematic oversight in Tayler’s production), he spends a large portion of the film chasing red herrings before killing off the Savior to anticlimactic effect.
Aside from the inconsequential storyline, it was as if Baker and Birkin didn’t bother to review the source material because Damien is now thirty-two. He states that he intends to run for Senate in two years, that is, in 1984, thus placing his birth in 1950 (which the first film obviously did not take place, evident by the setting). Easily, the filmmakers could have set the third installment of the series in the future, which–if Damien is to be of age in order to run for state office–the year would have to be at least 2008. This would be acceptable if the filmmakers were attempting to create a film in and of itself but the storyline is dependent upon the first two installments in other areas regarding plot. For example, the Seven Sacred Knives of Megiddo, the only instruments which can kill Damien (introduced in the first film), reappear in The Final Conflict. As outlined by the archeologist-theologian Carl Bugenhagen, the knives must be inserted in the Antichrist in a particular order. However, as a homicidally-lenient sect of monks pursue Damien, we count as the number of knives dwindle while no one bothers to retrieve the lost articles. Long forgotten was the appendage that Damien must be killed on hallowed ground as well. Furthermore, Harvey Dean (Don Gordon), the apostate of Satan sent to aide Damien in his ascent, unlike his predecessors in the preceding two films, does not bear even a demonic sneer. Rather, almost to comical effect, he appears as an inapt male secretary who has no qualms with his employer’s malevolent itinerary.
The film also suffers from a preoccupation with special effects, creating the most “moist” film in the series. Whereas The Omen relied on mood to aide the deaths of the various characters, and Damien: Omen II presenting such scenes in a straightforward–but not overtly gratuitous–manner, The Final Conflict readily embellishes the viewer in the consequences of anyone who dares impede Damien’s rise. (Though, I will state, a suicide scene at the film’s offset is rather admirable in the manner in which it was shot). Yes, many scenes imply a character’s death but the method in which the figure dies is less than subtle and leaves little to the viewer’s imagination.
Sam Neill, who undoubtedly draws many to this film, displays an excessive case of overacting throughout. I would suggest, knowing Neill’s canon, that the fault falls upon Baker. Nonetheless, especially in soliloquies where Damien speaks of his demonic power, the viewer cannot help but allow one’s eyes to retreat into the back of his or her head as a result. The only time when Neill settles into the role is at the film’s drastically downplayed finale (considering it is the end of the trilogy there is no apocalyptic confrontation between good and evil), where he appears, more than anything else, tired of the part and understandably relieved to be alleviated of it.
If nothing else, and perhaps symbolic of the flicker upon which the series ends, Birkin removes the relevance and immediacy of the threat of the Antichrist as given through Biblical prophecy by creating his own Apocrypha instead of citing actual scripture as Richard Donner does in the original. About the best that can be said of The Final Conflict is that it is the third best of The Omen trilogy. Unfortunately, the original set the groundwork for a powerful series of socially relevant films but the sequels to The Omen decline in proportional quality and the trilogy suffers as a cumulative effect as a whole.
-Egregious Gurnow
- Interview with J.R. Bookwalter - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Andrew J. Rausch - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Rick Popko and Dan West - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Director Stevan Mena (Malevolence) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Screenwriter Jeffery Reddick (Day of the Dead 2007) - January 22, 2015
- Teleconference interview with Mick Garris (Masters of Horror) - January 22, 2015
- A Day at the Morgue with Corri English (Unrest) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Writer/Director Nacho Cerda (The Abandoned, Aftermath) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actress Thora Birch (Dark Corners, The Hole, American Beauty) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actor Jason Behr, Plus Skinwalkers Press Coverage - January 22, 2015
