(Review originally written at 23 July 2007)
Of course this movie is not as good and surprising as "The Omen" but fact remains that this movie is way better than every other normal standard horror movie. It's definitely better than 90% that is being made these days!
The movie is not surprising. We all known who and what Damien is, which means that this movie gets all the room to show of some of the things he can do and how he handles his own identity and faith, now that he has reached early puberty, without being forced to go too much back into detail about how and why. So yes the movie is kept rather simple, which provides the movie also with some more gore and deaths.
The Omen movies aren't really horror type of movies like we're accustomed to. It aren't movies with scare moments, monsters or anything of that sort. It are movies with an eerie story and character, that all work out so well due to the realistic approach of the story. The movies are always atmospheric and have a certain uneasy feeling all over it.
Damien gets more than enough interesting to do in this movie. In the first movie "The Omen", people mostly did the killing for him and lets face it, it above all was a Gregory Peck movie. In this movie all focus is on him. The character gets developed and is made more interesting and complex, without loosing any of its power as a scary character.
Jonathan Scott-Taylor is a great Damien in this movie and its nice to see how much he really looks like Harvey Stephens, who played Damien in the first movie. William Holden is no Gregory Peck but then again no one is asking him to be. He does a good job acting in this movie, although his character could had gotten a bit more interesting to do. The movie also features Lance Henriksen in an early 'big' role, who is always great to watch in any movie. The only actor reappearing from the first movie is Leo McKern as Carl Bugenhagen. It perhaps makes it hard to connect the first two movies at times but also if you see this movie as a standalone one it's a great and original one to watch!
The movie has a couple of great and memorable sequence in it and some good and original gore. Too bad that the ending feels way too rushed and is a sort of an anti-climax, that doesn't work out as it was supposed to.
The movie has some creative cinematography from Bill Butler, which also provides the movie with a great typical '70's and Omen kind of atmosphere. This also goes for The Jerry Goldsmith musical score. He uses all of the themes from the first movie and mixed them together to a new unique and also certainly unusual score. It was like all the gloves were off and he pushed things to the extreme, without crossing the line.
A much better than you would expect sequel!
8/10
Watch trailer
Of course this movie is not as good and surprising as "The Omen" but fact remains that this movie is way better than every other normal standard horror movie. It's definitely better than 90% that is being made these days!
The movie is not surprising. We all known who and what Damien is, which means that this movie gets all the room to show of some of the things he can do and how he handles his own identity and faith, now that he has reached early puberty, without being forced to go too much back into detail about how and why. So yes the movie is kept rather simple, which provides the movie also with some more gore and deaths.
The Omen movies aren't really horror type of movies like we're accustomed to. It aren't movies with scare moments, monsters or anything of that sort. It are movies with an eerie story and character, that all work out so well due to the realistic approach of the story. The movies are always atmospheric and have a certain uneasy feeling all over it.
Damien gets more than enough interesting to do in this movie. In the first movie "The Omen", people mostly did the killing for him and lets face it, it above all was a Gregory Peck movie. In this movie all focus is on him. The character gets developed and is made more interesting and complex, without loosing any of its power as a scary character.
Jonathan Scott-Taylor is a great Damien in this movie and its nice to see how much he really looks like Harvey Stephens, who played Damien in the first movie. William Holden is no Gregory Peck but then again no one is asking him to be. He does a good job acting in this movie, although his character could had gotten a bit more interesting to do. The movie also features Lance Henriksen in an early 'big' role, who is always great to watch in any movie. The only actor reappearing from the first movie is Leo McKern as Carl Bugenhagen. It perhaps makes it hard to connect the first two movies at times but also if you see this movie as a standalone one it's a great and original one to watch!
The movie has a couple of great and memorable sequence in it and some good and original gore. Too bad that the ending feels way too rushed and is a sort of an anti-climax, that doesn't work out as it was supposed to.
The movie has some creative cinematography from Bill Butler, which also provides the movie with a great typical '70's and Omen kind of atmosphere. This also goes for The Jerry Goldsmith musical score. He uses all of the themes from the first movie and mixed them together to a new unique and also certainly unusual score. It was like all the gloves were off and he pushed things to the extreme, without crossing the line.
A much better than you would expect sequel!
8/10
Watch trailer
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