So Omen III deviates from the previous films, missing out on the parental (or adoptive parental) concern that tied it into The Exorcist, but going off in a fresh geo-political direction. Instead, the monks are the aggressors and Damien plays defence, somehow using his repertoire of chanting, devil dogs and mind-control to save his own skin. That’s already a very different scenario from the machine-orientated splashy stunt-deaths that powered the first two films such teased out mayhem went on to star in the Final Destination franchise. We start with a lovely close-up of a giant mechanical drill, used to unearth the seven daggers of Megiddo with which Father DeCarlo (South Pacific’s Rozanno Brazzi) and his seven monks intend to pin-cushion Damien. ‘Are you familiar with the Book of Hebron?’ Damien asks here even if you are, you’ll have a stiff cramming session required on biblical prophecies to figure out exactly where the final conflict is coming from. But that’s not the only flaw in the design of this odd conclusion to the Omen trilogy, as always, the devil is in the small print… Could the Antichrist rise to power through the American political system? One man with a legion of unthinking acolytes deliberately attempting to foster division amongst others as a means to achieving his own selfish ends? That’s the fanciful scenario featured in Graham Baker’s horror sequel, one that trips itself up from the get-go by breaking the franchise timeline if Damien was five in 1976, and somehow 11 in 1978, it’s pretty remarkable that nobody notices something amiss when he swiftly becomes the 34 year old Sam Neill model in 1981.
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