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This film continues the story begun in "The Omen". The Antichrist, Damien (Jonathan Scott Taylor), is here on earth and is now twelve, His parents, Katherine and Robert Thorn, are now dead, and Damien is being raised by his uncle, Richard Thorn (William Holden) and his second wife, Ann (Lee Grant). He lives with them and Richard Thorn's son by his first wife, Mark (Lucas Donat). Damien is disliked by his Aunt Marion (Sylvia Sidney), who counsels the Thorns to separate Mark from Damien with whom he is close.
Damien attends a militairy boarding school with his cousin Mark. There, Damien's interests are looked after by Sgt. Neff (Lance Hendricksen), a sort of earthly sentinel. There, Damien begins to flex his satanic muscles, much to the chagrin of a school bully. Meanwhile, Damien's interests in the Thorn family's multi-million dollar empire are being watched over by his uncle's highly placed executive employee, Paul Buher (Robert Foxworth), unbeknownst to his uncle. This is a man about whom Thorn's chief executive, Bill Atherton (Lew Ayres) has some serious misgivings. When several of the people who stand in the way of Damien securing control of the family fortune meet unusual deaths, the viewer knows that Damien's true nature has been unleashed.
William Holden and Lee Grant are terrific. With straightforward, sincere portrayals, they are the linchpins of this movie. Jonathan Scott Taylor is good as Damien but not particularly charismatic. Well nuanced performances are given by Richard Foxworth and Lance Hendriksen, Damien's earthly sentinels. Old timer Lew Ayres is wonderful as the ethical business man, and Sylvia Sidney is terrific as the aunt who knows that there is something wrong with Damien. Lucas Donat is excellent as Damien's cousin Mark.
There is a surprising twist at the end of this film, that is sure to catch the viewer unawares. Still, that is not enough to make this sequel comparable to the original. It lacks the subtlety and deft direction of "The Omen". While the director, Don Taylor, does a competent job of directing this sequel, some of the scenes are heavy handed, giving in to special effects that detract from the film, rather than enhance it.
The opening scene is a prime example of gratuitous excess. Here, the archaeologist, Bugenhagen, played by Leo McKern, reprising his original role in "The Omen", is trapped in a ruin with a friend of his, while showing him a fresco of an Antichrist that looks remarkably like Damien. As the walls come tumbling down about them, the special effects are so hokey as to be laughable. This was unnecessary, as the actors themselves were strong enough to carry the scene, had it been shot with more subtlety. Less is sometimes more, a mechanism that the original director, Richard Donner, employed to great effect. Still, this film is an effectively creepy sequel to the original blockbuster film and worth having in one's collection.
I may be biased, but I felt that the British setting added much to "The Omen" that America cannot give "Omen II", and inevitably there is an increase in shock-and-awe at the expense of mood and plotting, but if there is one part where the sequel trumps the original it is with the doctor-in-the-elevator scene, which almost threw me out of the bed when I first saw it. The final twist is also very well done, and I am glad to see other reviews expressing the same surprise that I felt. By this time, Damien has come to terms with who/what he is, so that self-satisfied smirk to camera in the final scene maintains the air of impending apocalypse that underpins the strength of this tale.
Jonathan Scott-Taylor went on to appear in the BBC's bargain-basement soap opera "Triangle". A reader of the News of the World was compelled at the time to ask: "If he can kill off half the cast of ('Omen II'), is it too much to hope that he will shortly use his powers on 'Triangle'?"
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