In Omen 3 Sam Neil Plays The Fully-Grown Anti-Christ, But This Isn't His Most Devilish Performance

The Omen III: The Final Conflict (1981)

This time Sam Neil takes on the role of Damien Thorne, the Anti-Christ. I was extremely excited about this piece of casting. Sam Neil has played evil (or at least highly villainous or disturbed) figures in plenty of other films I've seen before and I've loved it.

Event Horizon, Daybreakers, In The Mouth of Madness, and even John Carpenter's comedy with Chevy Chase "Memoirs Of An Invisible Man" have all showcased Sam Neil's ability to portray particularly sinister characters.



Still, the opening scene does not feature Sam Neil. The Final Conflict starts by showing us where the meggido daggers have got to. Anyone who has seen either of the previous two Omen movies will know that these are the only weapons that can kill the Anti-Christ.



( Read the rest of my review for Omen III:The Final Conflict under the cut... )

While the poster for Omen III clearly states that it is the end of the movie series, they don't actually finish there. There's yet another movie.


Omen IV: The Awakening (1991 TV Movie)

Okay, so as was made pretty clear in my last review because, let's face it, it's unavoidable: the third movie finishes with the second coming of Christ. Now the second coming of Christ is a pretty final thing. There's not really room for ANOTHER Anti-Christ once that's happened. So this movie basically ignores that entirely. So here we go again, with a brand new Anti-Christ figure...



The problem remains, where the hell did this new Anti-Christ come from anyway? The most obvious explanation would seem to be that Damien Thorne knocked up his girlfriend in the last movie, though the idea that she would ever have gone through with that pregnancy strikes me as unlikely. In the books that continued after the movie series had ended, it's made clear that the (awkward!) sex scene in "Omen III: The Final Conflict" actually involved anal sex. And the act of sodomy results in - um... - an anal birth. (Giving birth to "the abomination".) Somehow I'm kind of glad that isn't given as the explanation for why the new Anti-Christ figure, Delia, has turned up.



( Read the rest of my review of "Omen IV: The Awakening" under the cut... )

Previous reviews in this series include:
The Omen
Child's Play
Omen II: Damien
Child's Play 2