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Damien: Omen II (1978) More at IMDbPro »

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107 comments in total

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20 out of 20 people found the following comment useful :-
A must to see for anyone who liked THE OMEN., 10 November 2001
Author: Christiancrouse

This sequel to THE OMEN is a "fun" film. It continues the story of the anti-Christ Damien into his teenage years and his years in military school. Now adopted into the family of his father's brother, an unsuspecting Damien is unwittingly at the centre of a plot to bring Satan's son to the threshold of power. Everyone around him is at risk as the secret of Damien's birth is under threat of exposure by forces emerging from around the world - and at the root of this threat are the mad depictions painted on an ancient wall that reveal the very face of evil.

Jonathon Scott-Taylor gives a commanding and creepy performance as the ultimate misfit son. Looking particularly significant in his military outfit, Scott-Taylor captures - as much as the script allows him - the torment of self-discovery as the truth of his existence is revealed to him. The script could have demanded more from such a fascinating scenario, and tried to make Damien more of a Miltonic Satanic Hero, but the film chooses to go for as much shock value whenever it can. Mysterious and violent accidents - linked by the ever-present shadow of a raven of death - dominate this movie from beginning to end. The scene involving an ill-fated lady on a deserted country road is one of its most grotesque. As death and destruction mount, Damien goes from self-possessed orphan to self-recognized supreme power in the span of two hours.

William Holden and Lee Grant play Damien's surrogate parents, Richard and Ann Thorn. They are not really allowed to display their incredible talents in this film, but Holden does fine trying to duplicate Peck's memorable performance in the original. Grant does what she can with this supporting role, but has a great moment in the film that proves worthy to wait for. The always wonderful Sylvia Sidney makes a memorable appearance as one of Damien's greatest "thorns" - the troublemaking menace Aunt Marion. And the ending is a bit of a shock if you watch the film closely, particularly if you listen to the exposition early on in the film about "The Whore of Babylon."

Another highlight is Jerry Goldsmith's title score - empowering, commanding and downright evil, the opening score is one of my favorites.

Although not as creepy as the first film, DAMIEN: OMEN II has its moments, and is worth seeing for anyone who likes to have a fun time with all this biblical stuff.

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16 out of 18 people found the following comment useful :-
Damien hits puberty., 22 November 1998

Author: neil ghezzar (nghezzar@bu.edu) from Boston, MA

If you liked the first installment, you probably will like Damien-Omen II. It still has the creepiness involved in the first movie and the theme of good vs. evil. But like the first Omen movie, it is quite predictable. Some of the kill scenes are good though, especially the elevator scene.

Take a shot and rent this one. Just don't expect to see a classic.

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13 out of 15 people found the following comment useful :-
"She pollutes the air with her craziness", 26 March 2005

Author: roh3220 (roh3220@hotmail.com) from MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA

"She pollutes the air with her craziness", gotta love that line near the film's beginning. Damien:Omen II is an ambitious and entertaining sequel to the classic Omen. This film is an almost perfect stepping stone in the Omen trilogy, focusing on Damien Thorn becoming a teenager. The film obviously lacks the fresh originality of the first film but it still deserves credit for maintaining a sense of dread and menace when somebody crosses the young Damien Thorn. The death scenes are both chilling and creative and the film's trademark score is brilliant. As far as sequels go, Omen II is a solid effort, leading the pathway clearly open for the third chapter. In terms of comparison Omen II doesn't surpass the original but if you enjoyed the Omen then Damien:Omen II shouldn't disappoint.

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8 out of 9 people found the following comment useful :-
An excellent sequel to the Omen, 2 April 2007

Author: ozthegreatat42330 from Central City, Kentucky

Beginning again with the mad dash of Bugenhagen(Leo McKern) through the Haifa port under the very fitting theme of Jerry Goldsmith, this film contains all of the chills of the original as Damien learns about who he really is. It has one thing that I particularly liked that moment of indecision,when Damien, in a mirror of Jesus asks himself, why is it me. The moment when whatever innocence is in him is finally lost. William Holden and Lee Grant are excellent as his aunt and uncle, and there are several actors who cement their acting careers in the parts they play in this film. I am referring to Robert Foxworth for one, and Lance Henrickson for another. Silvia Sydney is one of of her last roles as Aunt Marion (smelling of Lilac or lavender) and the one really weak role was Nicholas Pryor as the director of the Thorn Museum. I am truly sorry for those people who did not care for this film, as it is head and shoulders above most of the Anti-Christ movies made. If you liked the first one this is a must see.

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6 out of 6 people found the following comment useful :-
That boy ain't right.....Chapter Two in the Trials and Tribulations of an Anti-Christ., 23 October 2006

Author: cupidandpsyche85 from United Kingdom

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Damien's back, and this time he's a teenager! Omen II is an entertaining sequel to the classic original that compensates for its near total lack of plot by throwing in a grisly murder every fifteen minutes, accompanied as ever by Jerry Goldsmith's brilliantly apocalyptic score. Unfortunately, there's little of the directorial class or suspense that made the first chapter so unforgettable; despite the presence of Hollywood veteran William Holden, this sequel has a tackier, B-movie feel to it, while the plenty of the dialogue is so portentously hilarious it's a miracle some of the actors kept their faces straight. Still, it's a reliable bit of late-night ghoulishness, and despite a dearth of humour (of the intentional kind), remains gleefully unpleasant entertainment.

An excellent, spooky prologue, set immediately after the bleak outcome of the original, has Bugenhagen (an uncredited and suitably manic Leo McKern) drag along fellow archaeologist Ian Hendry down into the catacombs of a recent dig to look upon Yigael's Wall, an ancient artefact where the face of the AntiChrist was originally painted, a visage that strikingly resembles Damien. Unfortunately, they don't live much longer to warn anybody else. Cut to seven years later, where Damien (Jonathan Scott-Taylor) is now around thirteen years old and still unaware of his true identity. He lives with his aunt Anne (Lee Grant) and uncle Richard (William Holden), and is about to be shipped off to military school with his cousin Mark (Lucas Donat). Meanwhile, plenty of suspicious people are trying to warn Anne and Richard about Damien's demonic nature, usually meeting sticky ends as a result. Eventually, after around half a dozen hideous 'accidents', Richard starts to believe that maybe his brother wasn't quite so insane after all when he tried to stab Damien on holy ground years back…..

Scott-Taylor is pretty good as Damien; unfortunately the script cops out of giving him some better material (see my comment about the best scene in the film further below), but he definitely looks right for the part, sinister yet not blatantly so (something the makers of the 2006 Omen failed to succeed in by casting the Scariest Looking Child Ever in the role of Damien). Holden and Grant deliver fine performances too.

Interestingly, original director Mike Hodges (Get Carter) was replaced during filming by Don Taylor; this may explain why some scenes are rather striking and the others have a pedestrian, workmanlike feel to them. The subplots involving the Thorn Industries methods to succeed in the business world, including the ruthless schemes of Richard's vice-president, who may or may not be a protector of Damien much like the nanny was in the first film, pass the time well enough, but to be honest, these elements aren't very interesting and it before long you'll be waiting for another big set-piece to shake up the screen. Luckily, said set-pieces are in plentiful supply.

There are some good visual touches too; the best is the very first appearance of the teenage Damien: seen through the flames of a bonfire, it's a perfect introduction and the kind of artistic flair that the film could have done more of. Other good elements include a face-off between a frustrated history teacher and a frighteningly knowledgeable Damien, a fine twist ending, and the efforts of a solid supporting cast, including Lance Henriksen as one of Damien's protectors, Sylvia Sidney as the rightfully suspicious Aunt Marion, Lew Ayres as Richard's benevolent, ethical deputy and Nicholas Pryor as the museum curator who unwittingly gathers all of the historical evidence that points to Damien's true identity.

However, the very best moment is the one that unfortunately highlights the limitations of the material that surrounds it. The moment when Damien discovers who he is an illuminating scene; quite understandably, he is horrified by this revelation. He screams 'why me?' out to the sea, and is mortified at his destiny. The film could have developed Damien's horror at this discovery, and possibly an attempt to resist it. But no, within minutes he's already relishing his role as Anti-Christ and murdering anyone who gets on his nerves and the film returns to its entertaining if limited three-step formula of 1. Hapless fool discovers the truth, 2. Hapless fool is murdered, 3. Everyone else comments on 'what a horrible accident it was'. A pity, but there you go.

Of course, the showstoppers in this film are the death scenes, of which there are many. There was a hanging, an impaling and a decapitation among other nasty demises in the first film; here we get a lady whose eyes get pecked out before she's run over by a truck, a drowning under ice, exposure to toxic chemicals, a heart attack, a man who gets crushed in-between train carriages, and the most spectacular of all, a man cut in two by a loose lift cable, yet the most disturbing death involves no special effects, gore or excessive spectacle at all; the death of Damien's cousin. This is an excellent, supremely dark moment in the film, as Damien tries to convert Mark to the side of darkness, and another example of what the film might have been.

In the same way that Jaws 2 was far from a disaster yet also far from the equal of its predecessor, Omen II is a fairly decent horror sequel that simply doesn't have the special quality of the original, yet is easily the best of the follow-ups and has more than enough good moments to provide a couple of hours of undemanding, over-the-top amusement.

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9 out of 12 people found the following comment useful :-
A good sequel, 14 March 2006

Author: Kristine (kristinedrama14@msn.com) from Chicago, Illinois

Well, it wasn't great, but I have to admit that the second Omen was pretty good and in some ways just necessary. Necessary, I mean because this story is of course not finished. Before seeing "The Hills have Eyes" on Friday night, they had trailers, and one was *shudder* a remake to the Omen. Another one, another remake! Oh, well, this just isn't going to stop. So, anyways, I saw The Omen last year and figured I should finish the trilogy. I am curious and frankly, a bit creeped out that the new Omen is being released on 06-06-2006, "666", get it?

The story itself is pretty good actually, now that Damien has been under the care of his aunt and uncle, strange things are happening again. It seems like anyone who is getting to close to finding out the truth about Damien is getting killed in some freak accident. This is a very good sequel that should be given a second chance.

6/10

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11 out of 16 people found the following comment useful :-
A failure on many levels., 9 August 2003
Author: glennrehn from Columbia, MO

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

*Minor spoilers, maybe*

First of all, I have no allegiance to the original movie. I thought it was at worst fairly competent and at best pretty entertaining.

That being said, the way that this movie absolutely tarnished the legacy of the first one, and the legacy of movie making as a whole, is very unfortunate. Gone is the mystery and the flavor of the first one, replaced with a by-the-numbers plot and laughable death scenes.

Yes, why don't we talk a bit about those death scenes? Supremely awful. In THE OMEN, the death scenes were sporadic (at least until the end) and actually meant something. There were really only two (the Priest and Nanny) before the the very last part of the movie. The Nanny suicide was strange and the justification behind it was not clear. The priest's death was a bit more ridiculous, but there was at least a mild buildup for it.

In THE OMEN II, it follows this pattern: 1. Introduce character(s) 2. Have them realize Damien is the antichrist (and this is not even followed in a few cases) 3. Kill them, quickly.

Now, I'm being purposely glib about my description, but it really isn't much more than that. A doctor is introduced to the story through his discovery of Damien's apparent invulnerability. Two minutes later, he's killed by a falling elevator in a scene so predictable that even children in the audience were sighing (or cringing). The deaths just keep coming and coming, as a substitute, I believe for an actual compelling story.

The story, what there is of it, is essentially the same as the first film, with a little more leeway given to Damien to make evil looks. Like his brother, Damien's uncle takes until the very end of the film to realize that something is amiss and he comes to this decision based on practically no evidence -- as opposed to Gregory Peck, who scurried about the European countryside in search of the truth about the boy and who DIDN'T have multiple people instructing him on the reality of the situation.

We get three evil helpers and a crow in this movie, instead of one evil nanny and a dog (aided my multiple dogs, later) in the first. And although all that evil might sound infatuating initially, it's quickly evident that more evil does not equal more complexity. The movie doesn't even make more than a token effort to allude to the allegiances of these characters -- although no doubt the progressives among us applaud the distinction of the very ardent capitalist and pro-globalization thug as aligned with evil. But that's not enough to make up for the rest of the film.

In summary, this film has all the heart and depth of a Friday the 13th sequel (perhaps excepting the fourth installment). It's really not much more of a slasher flick, with the slasher being very unfortunate coincidences and timing. Stick with THE OMEN and stick DAMIEN: OMEN II where it belongs: in movie hell, with the devil itself.

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5 out of 5 people found the following comment useful :-
Nowhere near as good as the original but surprisingly entertaining, 30 March 2008

Author: Superunknovvn from Austria, Vienna

I'm an avid fan of the original "Omen". I think it was everything that "The Exorcist" is made out to be by fans and critics all over the world: thrilling, intriguing and incredibly creepy. With it's apocalyptic open ending a second part could only take away from the original's ending.

The truth is, "Damien: Omen II" is by no means as bad as it could have been. Sure, the excitement and the perfect structure of the original aren't there. Basically, this plays out like an early ancestor of the "Final Destination"-franchise. Characters become aware of who Damien is and from this point on we know their doomed and anticipate their gruesome death. Most of all the movie is muddled with bad character development. Lance Henriksen's character, for instance, is never elaborated on. It doesn't make him any more mysterious, it just feels incomplete.

A good portion of the movie is spent with nothing much going on except for a few people dying around Damien while he just keeps on living a completely normal life unaware of who he his. Then, all of a sudden everything happens way too quickly. Damien finds out about his destiny and immediately excepts it. The same goes for his father, who is infuriated at first when someone suggests that his son might be Satan's spawn, only to accept that fact shortly afterwards. The final climax and ending arrive just as quickly leaving you wondering why the whole thing was so unbalanced.

Still, as long as it's running "Damien: Omen II" doesn't fail to entertain. Like every "Omen"-movie up to and including "The Final Conflict" this one has this nice 70's UK-flair that you can get lost in for a few hours on homey evenings in front of the television. It may not be enough to make the series go down in history as one of the best, but these movies are all very watchable in one sitting, making this one of the most coherent franchises of the horror genre.

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7 out of 9 people found the following comment useful :-
Lacks the intelligence and originality that made the first film so good., 22 December 2003
Author: michaelcarruthers (poorlittlerichboy@hotmail.com) from New Zealand

DAMIEN: OMEN II (1978)

THE GOOD:

--There is some good suspense sequences in this film. I loved the death under the ice (goddamn that would be a horrible way to die), the birds attacking the reporter and the intense murder of Mark by Damien.

--Jonathan Scott-Taylor's performance in this film is great. At the start I had my doubts about his performance but as the movie went on he became more and more entertaining to watch. I really bought his performance as Damien - it felt very real and it seemed to me like I was watching the real Antichrist unfold in front of my eyes.

--The score, just like it was in the first film, is terrific, memorable and thrilling.

THE BAD:

--Aside from the strong first half, this movie is basically a stale rehash of the original after a while. We get the daggers, the warning person (the reporter this time) and that same wall thing we got last time. It makes the film seem like they had no ideas for a second movie, which makes me how the hell they're gonna come up with a good idea for the third film.

--This movie is WAY too repetitive. It feels like a slasher after a short while - its death, funeral/grieving, death, funeral/grieving.repeat until ANNOYED. What happened to the infrequent yet shocking and brilliant deaths of the first film, and the interesting storyline we got in the first film?

--The characters aren't very well established (I forgot who was who numerous times) and I wasn't really interested in them as people and didn't really give a crap if they died or not.

--What the hell was up with that stupid subplot with the Uncle's business? That had no place in the movie. We get so many scenes and conversations discussing that business and how it's gonna change the world and stuff and it doesn't amount to anything or have even any place in this movie at all.

--Damien's character is really uneven and it was so frustrating. One minute he's this stand-up young gentlemen, then a blood thirsty little Antichrist brat, and then he's back to being that wonderful cadet in the military, and then he's back on the bratness. Did this piss anyone else off? In the first movie he was pure evil, but it seemed like in this one the writer tried to develop the character's grief and understanding of his life whilst at the same time continuing the run of evil Damien. Though I did enjoy the performance by Scott-Taylor as previously mentioned.

RATING:

5/10 - "Damien: Omen II" lacks the originality and intelligence that made the first film such a hit.

IF YOU LIKED THIS MOVIE I RECOMMEND:

The Exorcist (9/10) Final Destination (8/10) Final Destination 2 (7/10) The Omen (8/10) Stigmata (6/10)

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7 out of 9 people found the following comment useful :-
It commits the sin of boredom, 24 February 1999

Author: Jimmy-42 from Seattle, Washington

I didn't mind the first Omen picture. Despite the flaws in internal logic, (why is it that Satan can only kill the people who spill their guts about Damien after they've blabbed?). It's also worth watching Billie Whitelaw and Gregory Peck in damn near anything.

Damien: Omen II is a terrible drag by contrast. Every five minutes someone finds out that Damien is the Anti-Christ, then dies in some messy way. It takes William Holden's character an incredible amount of time to notice the corpses piling up around the teen ager, (during which we have to go through the irritating I'm Trying to Convince You scenes that are standard issue in these kinds of movies. They always end with something like, "If you don't do something, I will." The character uttering this line has to die, of course). By the time he gets religion it is so obviously too late that the ending is a fait accompli.

It would have been more interesting if they'd stuck to something the script gestured towards for a second. Damien finds out he's the Anti-Christ and that he's destined to do all sorts of horrible things and he runs screaming, terrified of what prophecy demands he become. It would have been an ironic twist if Damien were a good person who discovered that it was his ultimate, irresistible fate to be evil. That conflict could have had real drama and a meaning beyond the slaughter.

Instead, Damien went and committed the worst movie sin; the sin of boredom.

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