Quick Review – Damien: Omen II (1978)

Damien: Omen II

Release Date: June 9, 1978

Director: Don Taylor

Stars: William Holden, Lee Grant, Jonathan Scott-Taylor

Runtime: 107 min

Tagline: These eyes will follow you wherever you go and your nightmares will become a frightening reality.

Damien is now thirteen and spending his time now with his cousin at a military school. He eventually learns of his actual destiny by more disciples of Satan. Meanwhile, dark forces begin to eliminate those who may pose a threat to Damien’s rise of power.

This is a pretty good sequel actually, not great, but pretty good. It’s better than a sequel like Halloween II or something.

The pacing is definitely quicker than the first, and the kills are actually pretty good. Some are boring, but the pleasantly gruesome ones outweigh the bad.

The acting for this series is still horrid, but the great score by Jerry Goldsmith is borrowed from the first, which helps its fairly pleasant effectiveness.

It’s practically that same premise from the first, and don’t forget that the Omen series has never known the physical meaning of the word “climax” which can get quite irritating. This series is a prime example of why sometimes the ending isn’t the best part (but at least this one tries to be edgy, but in a pretty lame way).

William Holden, Lee Grant, Jonathan Scott-Taylor, Robert Foxworth, Nicholas Pryor, Lew Ayres and Sylvia Sidney headline Damien: Omen II.

This is pretty good for a sequel, but it still isn’t anything special. It doesn’t offer anything groundbreaking, but at least the film isn’t mind-numbing. This wasn’t scary at all, and at times I forgot that it was trying to be a horror film, but it still attempted to throw a few shocks out. At least it still has that great and effective score.

63/100