If "The Omen" and its first sequel "Damien; Omen II" were nothing
more than decent and rather enjoyable entries in the Anti-Christ genre
this, the second sequel, is a genuine classic; at least, a classic as
far as bad movies are concerned. This is a howler of the first-order
with Damien now fully grown and doing battle with a cabal of monks lead
by a particularly worried-looking Rossano Brazzi. Damien himself is
played, appallingly, by Sam Neill though Neill's bad acting is
part of the fun. About midway through the Messiah is reborn, (you know,
the Second Coming and all that), but since Damien doesn't know exactly
which child born on that particular day is, as he calls him, the
Nazarene he orders the killing of every child born on that date just as
Herod did when he wanted to bump off the infant Jesus.
You might get the impression that as a conclusion to the trilogy they
were rather grasping at straws and if they felt they really did need to
bring the Messiah into it they could have done so with at least a degree
of intelligence rather than reduce everything to the camp nonsense it
so obviously is but then, of course, we were never meant to take any of
this seriously in the first place. "The Final Conflict" is certainly
enjoyable; I laughed out loud several times in the most inappropriate
places though I felt a bit queasy as I pondered the relationship that
seemed to be developing between the adult Damien and Lisa Harrow's young
son and remember, however entertaining you might find it, it's still a
load of old codswallop.
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