‘Omen III’ Abandons The Creepy Kid Antichrist Angle In Favor Of … Sam Neill!

Strange Terrors is a limited series exploring bizarre horror sequels, how they came to be, and whether or not they work.

Here’s the one thing you need to make an Omen movie: a creepy killer kid who’s actually the Antichrist. This worked in the 1976 hit, The Omen, in which Gregory Peck and Lee Remick play parents who unwittingly adopt a child born from the coupling of Satan and a jackal. (Thankfully not depicted onscreen.) It worked, to lesser extent, in the 1978 sequel Damien: The Omen II, in which the slightly older Damien Thorn continued to go about his Antichrist business. Would it have worked a third time? The 1981 film The Final Conflict, also known as Omen III: The Final Conflict, doesn’t try to find out, instead opting to abandon the creepy kid Antichrist angle in favor of a thirtysomething Damien played by Sam Neill. What a bold gesture! If only other horror franchises would dare to break with formula and reinvent themselves each time.

Too bad about the movie, though.

To be fair, the problems with The Final Conflict have less to do with the absence of a pint-sized Son of Satan than a failure to deliver on what its title promises: a full-on, end-of-the-world battle royal between the forces of Good and Evil themselves filled with spooky echoes of the real world circa 1981. Anyone hoping to pop some popcorn and settle in for apocalyptic fireworks will have to settle for some menacing speeches and a bunch of satanic mishaps.

That’s because The Final Conflict doesn’t throw out the Omen series’ other trademark: elaborate death traps. It does, however, take them to absurd extremes. The film opens with the recovery of the Daggers of Megiddo, the only weapons capable of destroying Damien (as seen in the previous two entries), and a promotional film from the Damien Thorn-run Thorn Industries describing the sorry state of a tumultuous worlds, which has never recovered from what’s described as “the Great Recession.” (OK, maybe this film does have some prophetic qualities.) But once Damien (Sam Neill) sets his sights on becoming the U.S. ambassador to Great Britain in order to fulfill his destiny as the Antichrist, the killings begin, starting with the current ambassador who, after a stroll through the park and an encounter with a Hellhound with hypnotic powers, returns to his office, calls a press conference, then rigs a rifle to blow off his head as soon as the reporters open the door.

Years before the Final Destination films, such moments were the Omen series main contribution to the horror genre. Rosemary’s Baby had already given us the Antichrist, but it took Richard Donner’s 1976 film to give us an Antichrist and an elaborately staged decapitation involving a sheet of glass. The Final Conflict director Graham Baker keeps that tradition alive. When a monk tries to stab Damien while he appears on a talk show he a) falls from the catwalk b) gets his foot caught in some wires c) swings through a faux stained-glass window and begins swinging back and forth on the soundstage d) knocks over some chemicals that e) catch fire before f) burning him alive as he screams and swings back and forth before a horrified TV audience while he’s g) wrapped in a sheet of plastic.

Mostly, however, the film’s death scenes play like pranks. Catching wind of the plot against him, Damien tricks some would-be assassins into killing one of their own before trapping them in the ruins of a medieval church. Later still, Damien calls on his minions to kill every male child born in England between certain hours on the morning of March 24th to prevent the second coming of Christ. Two young followers dispatch a could-be Christ child by throwing a ball at his mother’s head, causing her to lose control of a stroller that then rolls into traffic. An evil priest kills a child in a baptism accident, wearing a smirk on his face the whole time. Two Boy Scouts make an unexpected to a young mother under the guise of doing their “good deed for the day.” A long stretch of the film resembles Jackass with a satanic, baby-slaying twist.

The rest is speeches. Long, long speeches in which Neill, who at least seems to be having fun, delivers Very Metal monologues, sometimes to a backwards crucifix, sometimes to followers who he exhorts to, “Slay the Nazarene and you will know the violent raptures of my father’s kingdom. Fail, and you will be condemned to a numbing eternity in the flaccid bosom of Christ.” (Someone really needs to set that dialogue to some killer riffs.)

Alas, the film’s actions can’t match its words (or Jerry Goldsmith’s pounding score). The Omen series is notable for essentially starting over with a new creative team with each outing and with The Final Conflict Baker and writer Andrew Birkin try to make a dramatic leap forward while keeping one foot planted in what made the previous films successful and end up falling down in the process, pushing the film toward a climactic Damien vs. Jesus showdown just kind of fizzles out. Instead of Armageddon we get a hovering Christ, a Bible verse, and some closing credits — a shrug of a finale that feels like an admission that everyone who decided to take the franchise wildly off course had no idea where they were going.

Keith Phipps writes about movies and other aspects of pop culture. You can find his work in such publications as The Ringer, Rolling Stone, Vulture, and The Verge. Keith also co-hosts the podcasts The Next Picture Show and Random Movie Night and lives in Chicago with his wife and child. Follow him on Twitter at @kphipps3000.

Where to stream Omen III: The Final Conflict