Harefooted Halloween: Omen III: The Final Conflict (aka The Final Conflict)

What I Liked: Sam Neill (In the Mouth of Madness) gives an understated performance for the most part that affords Damien a quiet menace.  You can tell there’s something creepy about this guy just beneath the surface but you can’t put your finger on exactly what.  In one particularly impressive scene Neill orates a long monologue in his shrine to Satan (a large empty dark room ornamented with a huge statue of Jesus on the cross except he’s nailed in reverse with the front of his body against the cross) that goes on for three and a half minutes with only one cut where he complains how vile Jesus is and how Hell is misunderstood and the real paradise.  It’s a bit melodramatic but effective.

I’ll give the filmmakers full credit for sticking to a plot about Damien searching for the recently born second coming and resorting to killing hundreds of babies (off camera).  The longer Jesus #2 is alive the weaker Damien grows so he doesn’t really have a choice if he wants to succeed in bringing about the end of the world.  It’s also refreshing that this storyline isn’t yet another installment of Damien simply preventing others from discovering who he really is.  He’s not so concerned with that this time because he’s already in charge of the monster conglomerate his uncle left him in the previous film and well on his way to amassing political power.  So I think he feels he’s kind of untouchable.  And who’s gonna buy he’s the antichrist anyway?  The accuser will sound like a loon.

What I Didn’t Like: While the story makes sense for an adult Damien to give himself an ambassadorship (he has the current ambassador to the UK kill himself in an overly elaborate suicide) as a stepping stone to the Senate and then eventually the White House it’s a little boring.  The mass baby homicide angle is audacious but it’s mostly talked about and kept off screen because well, you can’t actually show that shit and I know I sure as hell wouldn’t want to actually see that shit.  So it ends up being a lot of talking.  There’s another part of the story though that involves a group of priests getting ahold of the sacred daggers from the other films and they attempt to assassinate Damien.  Sounds cool right?  Unfortunately the execution isn’t great.  The priests come off sorta bumbling when they fail over and over.  These sections almost turn into a Wile E. Coyote cartoon where these fellas can’t even come close to getting the job done.

If you do the math this movie is supposed to take place in 2003 (the gap between part 2 and 3 is only three years but Damien jumps from age twelve to thirty two) but the filmmakers decided to ignore continuity by having it be then modern day late 70’s.  They make an effort to retcon this by saying Damien took over his uncle’s company seven years ago in 1971 which would make the current year 1978.  That means part 2 took place in 1958 and part 1 in 1953.  Would’ve been neat to see them give a go at a futuristic 2003 but alas they deny us.

Overall Impressions: We have another just fine Omen picture.  It’s not terribly exciting nor does it have an interesting visual style or contain much of anything that makes it stand out a great deal.  Sam Neill is the best thing about the movie where he delivers a pitch perfect performance for what the situation calls for.

And sadly it turns out I was correct about part 2 being unnecessary.  I know it would’ve felt weird to skip from Damien age five to age thirty two but nothing of any importance happens in those years.  What, his uncle finds out his true identity and doesn’t almost destroy him?  Yawn.  At least in this one he has real power and uses it to advance his scheme in an impactful way.  I won’t divulge if he succeeds or not though.