{"id":4027,"date":"2024-09-14T15:57:37","date_gmt":"2024-09-14T15:57:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=4027"},"modified":"2024-10-13T19:03:47","modified_gmt":"2024-10-13T23:03:47","slug":"damien-omen-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/09\/14\/damien-omen-ii\/","title":{"rendered":"Damien: Omen II"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Damien: Omen II <\/strong>(1978)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 20th<\/sup> Century Fox\/Horror\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 107 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (graphic violence, terror, disturbing images)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Don Taylor\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Stanley Mann and Mike Hodges\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Jerry Goldsmith\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Bill Butler and Gilbert Taylor\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: June 9, 1978 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: William Holden, Lee Grant, Robert Foxworth, Lew Ayres, Sylvia Sidney, Jonathan Scott-Taylor, Lucas Donat, Nicholas Pryor, Lance Henriksen, Elizabeth Shephard, Allan Arbus, Meshach Taylor, Fritz Ford, Leo McKern, Ian Hendry, John J. Newcombe.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $26.5M (US)<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ****<\/p>\n

\u00a0Damien: Omen II<\/strong> is a coming-of-age movie. Hey, it happens to everybody, even the son of Satan. Of course, Damien\u2019s concerns aren\u2019t limited to acne and girls. There\u2019s also the small matter of his rise to power as prophesied in the Book of Revelations. And you thought you had it rough when you were 12. Coincidentally, I was 12 the first time I saw Damien: Omen II<\/strong> (on network TV).<\/p>\n

\u00a0I may be in the minority, but I like Damien: Omen II<\/strong> as much as the first movie. Sure, there\u2019s less suspense since we already know Damien Thorn (now played by Jonathan Scott-Taylor) is the Antichrist. We also know that most of the characters will meet their demise by the time the end credits roll. Plus, we know that one of those characters will NOT be Damien. I say, so what? Damien: Omen II<\/strong> is still cool. The death toll is higher, the deaths are more gruesome and there\u2019s more at stake with one of Damien\u2019s followers rising to power within Thorn Industries. Basically, it clears the way for Damien to begin his ascension to power.<\/p>\n

\u00a0In Damien: Omen II<\/strong>, the titular character now lives with his uncle, Richard (Holden, Network) and aunt, Ann (Grant, Shampoo). He attends military school with his cousin Mark (Donat). He\u2019s as content as any other 12YO boy; he has no idea how drastically his life is about to change. Once again, people around him start dying starting with his elderly Aunt Marion (Sidney, Beetlejuice) who despises him for some unknown reason. She dies of a massive heart attack after a raven shows up in her bedroom. At school, the boys have a new drill instructor, Sgt. Neff (Henriksen, The Terminator), who takes a special interest in Damien.<\/p>\n

\u00a0At Thorn Industries, a manager named Paul Buher (Foxworth, Prophecy) suggests expanding the company\u2019s interests into agriculture. Basically, he wants to use famine for profit by buying up land in poor countries for farming, an idea senior manager Bill Atherton (Ayres, All Quiet on the Western Front) deems unethical. Then, of course, there\u2019s the whole Damien\/Antichrist thing. This time it\u2019s a reporter, Joan Hart (Shephard, The Tomb of Ligeia), who brings it to Thorn\u2019s attention. She was a friend of the photographer who was decapitated in the first movie and has pieced together the circumstances surrounding Damien\u2019s origin. Naturally, he dismisses her as crazy. Of course, she ends up dead a few scenes later.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Thanks to Neff, Damien finally learns the truth about who he is and his destiny. After some initial panic, the boy starts to accept his identity. By the final scene, he\u2019s ready to begin his rise to power. Along the way, many people die in crazy ways. The reporter has her eyes pecked out by the raven before getting creamed by a truck. Atherton falls through ice and drowns during a game of hockey. Another Thorn employee gets crushed between two train cars. The best kill scene, however, is when a doctor (Taylor, Mannequin) is sliced in half by an elevator cable. It\u2019s even cooler than Jennings\u2019 beheading in the first movie. In all, 12 people die.<\/p>\n

\u00a0While I like Damien: Omen II<\/strong> as much as its 1976 predecessor, I don\u2019t think it\u2019s as great a movie. For one thing, it\u2019s not all that scary or suspenseful. It has a few freaky scenes, but nothing on the level of The Omen. Still, as far as sequels go, Damien: Omen II<\/strong> is pretty damn good. Holden and Grant are great in the lead roles. Foxworth does a nice job as one of Damien\u2019s acolytes, the one who will usher him into his role as head of Thorn Industries. Taylor does a fine job as preteen Damien. He conveys both innocence and malevolence as the son of the Devil. The movie has a decent cast.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The screenplay, by Stanley Mann and Mike Hodges (who was replaced as director three weeks into shooting), is solid. I like the subplot about the famine-for-profit idea. Don Taylor does a pretty good job directing the movie. Of course, Jerry Goldsmith\u2019s score enhances the mood perfectly. It\u2019s still very effective. While not a classic, Damien: Omen II<\/strong> is a fairly effective horror movie with a few really cool deaths. I wish it had been scarier, but you can\u2019t have everything.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Damien: Omen II (1978)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 20th Century Fox\/Horror\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 107 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (graphic violence, terror, disturbing images)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Don Taylor\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Stanley Mann and Mike Hodges\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Jerry Goldsmith\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Bill Butler and Gilbert Taylor\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: June 9, 1978 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: William Holden, Lee Grant, Robert Foxworth, Lew Ayres, Sylvia Sidney, Jonathan Scott-Taylor, Lucas […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4793,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4027","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-horror","category-sequels-remakes"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Damien-Omen-II-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4027","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4027"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4027\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4794,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4027\/revisions\/4794"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4793"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4027"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4027"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4027"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}