Movie Review: Damien: Omen II (1978)

The movie stars William Holden, Lee Grant, Jonathan Scott-Taylor, Robert Foxworth and Lucas Donat.

I recently had an opportunity to watch "The Omen" for the first time in a long while and, since it proved to be entertaining, decided to watch the sequel to it too. We did that yesterday afternoon and, while not as good as the first one, was still pretty enjoyable.

The older Damien (Scott-Taylor) wasn't quite as creepy as the original one (Harvey Stephens), partly because, unlike the younger Damien, he seemed to have a few too many moments when he was a little too nice. However, this also did have its benefits because, once he did learn the truth, it wasn't clear what was going to happen next. I didn't know if he was going to embrace his role or reject it.

Adding to this was his relationship with his cousin, Mark (Donat). Since they were raised like brothers and got along even better, I wasn't sure how this would affect things. I kind of figured Mark wouldn't be OK with his cousin being the Antichrist. But, I wasn't sure if Damien would consider his cousin a threat or would care too much for him.

Another thing I liked about this movie were all the surprise Satanists that would pop up in Damien's support. This was similar to the first movie and did lead to some surprises, especially toward the end, when we learned one of them was much closer to him than originally revealed. I have to admit, I didn't see that one coming.

One thing about this movie I'm still undecided about was the decision to have some of the deaths be a little more gory than they were in the first film. They were still kept to a minimum so it didn't really detract from the movie. But, it also could have been just as good without them.

As I mentioned, the older Damien isn't quite as creepy as the younger one was. However, this movie was still an entertaining thriller and I'm glad I took the time to watch it.

My Grade: B