Director: Don Taylor
Cast: William Holden, Lee Grant, Jonathan Scott-Taylor, Robert Foxworth
Have I Seen it Before: Never. The series has a real reputation of not being even worth much of a look after the original. One quick deal on the Apple movie store, and here I am. Telling that I’d probably never be able to see my way clear to watch it on disc. I don’t even know if it would go in my review, but the audio-mix on this streaming copy was one of the worst I’ve ever heard. Did that exist in the original film? No way to tell, I suppose, if for no other reason than I’m probably not going to watch the film again.
Did I Like It: I’m almost tempted to write a handful of reviews for this movie. There’s one that expresses sufficient relief that this is, in fact, nowhere near as bad as Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), which is at least something. That review would probably hit something of a brick wall when it drifts into a meditation on how much The Exorcist (1973) is better than The Omen (1976).
There’s the standard sequel review that laments the label-only sequel. The director is gone, the cast is gone, the writer is gone. All we have is some vague memories, essentially the same plot (with a useless plot twist thrown in an half-baked attempt to avoid accusations of stealing people’s money with exactly the same movie.
Also, there’s the score. The only creative behind the original to return for this film was composer Jerry Goldsmith. I love Jerry Goldsmith. I’m on the record saying that certain Jerry Goldsmith scores are my club jam. The score for Damien - Omen II (1978) is nothing more than a few weird orchestral grunts* aimed at goosing jump scares that couldn’t stand on their own.
*A thing I didn’t know existed until watching this film, but that is indeed the only way to describe them.