"Another Thorn!"

- Damien’s fellow cadet at Davidson Military Academy in Damien: Omen II

AMC’s Fear Friday never lets me down. It’s a great way to see some terrific movies for free while having the luxury of commercial breaks you can skip if you’re faced with more pressing concerns. This time the broadcast offering was Damien: Omen II which stunningly, is the sequel to the original film. While it’s certainly a genuine horror movie, it wasn’t quite as scary as the freakin’ commercials! Pills to make girls get their periods only 4 times per year and other pills to help "enlarge that certain part of the male anatomy." Now that’s scary! Not as scary as my friend’s mother going into Wal-Mart (of all places) to get her hair cut and winding up with a mullet - in 2008!

Yet, I digress. First a confession. Despite the channel guide promising the movie didn’t start until 11:30pm, they lied. So, as a result I missed the opening bits. If anyone wants to fill me in by leaving a comment I’d be much obliged. As to the story you’re going to see it’s fairly straight-forward. Nutshell version: Damien’s destined to be the Antichrist and other people around him are supposed to try and stop that from happening.

Although the entire cast played their parts well, in order to keep this from turning into a 20 page essay, I’m going to highlight my two favorite players. There’s the young Mr. Thorn himself, Damien, played by Jonathan Scott-Taylor. Ironically, he played Jesus in a theater production prior to this film which I suppose makes sense. He’s a British lad (with the accent) born in Brazil which is where I figure the Antichrist would come from. It’s near Columbia and that’s where Shakira first squirted out into the world, so see? It all makes sense. Today’s Mr. Taylor no longer acts, Troubles and Shadey having been his last films. He’s a lawyer in the UK which makes even more sense, no?

The other actor I must highlight turns out to be playing Damien’s mentor, Lance Henriksen as Sergeant Neff. Henriksen, as always, nails his part with sniperlike precision. For some reason, this dude never fails to entertain me. He’s got a three decade long film resume that I’m not even going to attempt to get into. All you need to know is that he plays Frank Black in Millenium, which if you haven’t seen it then you absolutely must!

 

Pictured: That’s an awfully large hat Damien’s got on. Makes me wonder if they’re trying to suggest he had Soviet aspirations…

The cadets of Davidson Military Academy, seen in the film, are actual military school students from Lake Geneva, Wisconsin even though much of the movie was shot in Illinois. We get to observe Damien towering over his pitiful companions at school for part of the movie and in other parts, some of his WASP-y home life. The kid’s a real snob and that Brit accent’s not helping. About the accent, it’s also weird that his brother and parents have American/Yankee accents. Maybe I missed something there? Are people actually born with accents? I don’t know, but if you can be born with birthmarks shaped like numbers then I wager that anything’s possible.

Throughout this film you’re going to see alot of really awful hairdo’s and fashion. Turns out That 70’s Show’s lethally accurate about the look of things in that era of afros and blow. But, you’ll get to see some badass cars built like boats and for me, that evens things out. Watch for the bird attack sequence, too. My mom told me birds will fly into your hair, but how they got this movie bird to attack its victim I can’t even fathom - it’s glorious!

A bit more elaboration on the backdrop. Since these movies are all based in ancient prophecies and stuff, there’s tons of cool artifacts, paintings and sculptures. The set’s very rich and enjoyable. So whenever the camera’s not busily zooming in on people’s frightened faces or paranoid gazes, you’ll have some yummy eyecandy to suck on. You’ll get to hear about Yigael, some 14th century guy who claimed he saw my dark majestic leader, Satan, in visions. Unfortunately, it appears that’s a fictional creation specifically for the movie. Ah, well. There’s always Bugenhagen (pronounced "Boo-gun-hay-gun") which sounds so hilarious you just might spit your drink every time they mention the man! Sounds like something Willie from The Simpsons would go around yelling at people: "Get buck hair, yuh Bugenhagen bahstards!"

There’s masterful music by by Jerry Goldsmith who not only worked wonders with the original Omen, but also scored The Haunting, Northern Exposure, 2008 Rambo and a personal favorite of mine, Powder. Sadly, Mr. Goldsmith passed away in 2004, but what a magnificent legacy he’s left behind for film lovers. He keeps the movie extremely coherent and very dramatic. The man was practically a sonic Hitchcock, really.

I almost forgot, young upper-crust Damien’s heading to the top of corporate America once he gets out of school. He’s to head up Thorn Industries, a sort of agricultural Enron. During the show the cadets of Davidson tour the Thorn Industries facilities where they’re shown some righteous machinery doing the devil only knows what. They’re told a classic line about, "Toxic chemicals we hope will one day feed the world’s hungry!" Sounds like something the author of Ishmael would’ve feared. They also have a board meeting where they discuss how to control food supplies to developing nations and thereby stabilize their corporate profits.

Alright, that’s a wrap for me, 5 out of 5. Here’s the bottomline: do you want to see the Antichrist ride snowmobiles, eat cake and kill people Vader-style, all while wearing hideous sweaters? Then Damien: Omen II’s right up your alley! Oh and in the end you’ll see Damien schmoozin’ with a bevy of groovy gals while some truly bomb disco plays. Which reminds me, do they have military schools for girls? Thank google, yes there are.

Until next time, this has been GlowStormLion who warns you that the Antichrist probably already came and went without being noticed a few thousand years ago and we’re all most likely living in the part of the prophecies where the devil controls the planet. Sleep well!

Looking for Omen III: The Final Conflict? <—- There it is!

PS - Here’s a video of the trailer for the movie!

Aww… you’re welcome

-- by GlowStormLion of http://www.happyhorror.com

Tags: antichrist, apocalypse, horror, movie, omen, prophecy, supernatural

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 22nd, 2008 at 2:35 am and is filed under Horror Films. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.