the first person he contacted was Jerry Goldsmith because of the composer's busy schedule. Bernhard also felt that Goldsmith's music for The Omen was the highest point of that movie, and that without Goldsmith's music, the sequel would not be successful. Goldsmith's Omen II score uses similar motifs to his original Omen score, but for the most part, Goldsmith avoided re-using the same musical cues. In fact, the first movie's famous "Ave Satani" theme is used only partially, just before the closing credits begin. Goldsmith composed a largely different main title theme for Omen II, albeit one that utilises Latin phrases as "Ave Satani" had done. Goldsmith's Omen II score allows eerie choral effects and unusual electronic sound designs to take precedence over the piano and Gothic chanting.Richard Donner, director of the first Omen movie, was not available to direct the second, as he was busy working on Superman. British film director Mike Hodges was hired to helm the movie. During production, the producers believed that Hodges' methods were too slow, and so they fired him and replaced him with Don Taylor, who had a reputation for finishing films on time and under budget. However, the few scenes Hodges directed some of the footage at the factory and at the military academy, all of the early archaeology scenes, and the dinner where Aunt Marion shows her concern about Damien remained in the completed film, for which Hodges retains a story credit. In recent interviews, Hodges has commented sanguinely on his experiences working on Omen II.Academy Award-winning veteran actor William Holden was the original choice to star as Robert Thorn in the first Omen, but turned it down as he did not want to star in a picture about the devil. Gregory Peck was selected as his replacement. The Omen went on to become a huge hit and Holden made sure he did not turn down the part of protagonist Richard Thorn in the sequel. Lee Grant, another Oscar-winner, was a fan of the first Omen and accepted enthusiastically the role of female protagonist-later-turncoat Ann Thorn.Ray Berwick 1914–1990 trained and handled the crows used for several scenes in the film. Live birds and a crow-puppet were used for the attack on photojournalist Joan Hart. Berwick also trained the avian actors in Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds 1963 .This more-than-competent sequel to The Omen raises some interesting questions about the nature of free will can the Antichrist deny his birthright? Jerry Goldsmith who won an Oscar for his work on the first film in the series contributes another marvellously foreboding score. As the teenage Damien, Jonathan Scott-Taylor works wonders with the role

real stars however are the spectacular death sequences which hold up to this day.Production values are solid and Jerry Goldsmith who won an Oscar for the original delivers an even more powerful and spine tingling score. Time has proved it to be arguably one of the best sequels of it's genre and a great follow up to its classic predecessor.

I saw as a kid. It's fascinating to see the opulence in which Damien is raised and how he still feels empty in spite of it, knowing he is part of something bigger that hasn't been revealed. This is especially well conveyed in the lake house scenes where everyone is happy for Damien's brother's birthday on what should have been an ideal vacation as enjoyed by a privileged class, yet Damien knows something is......wrong. He still feels only emptiness, loneliness. I also enjoyed the sense of sheer dread in the elevator scene and the cackling raven in the roadside scene. You absolutely MUST watch the original Omen movie before this one, it is essential to the storyline and even better than this superior film. Unfortunately, Omen III totally dropped the ball and left a hideous black mark on the series. It's a shame someone couldn't have done a better job of completing the trilogy, perhaps someone will eventually....but not through excessive CGI, through mood and clever writing, as seen in the first two films.Highly recommended! Make sure to watch The Omen first...

to Robert Foxworth for one, and Lance Henrickson for another. Silvia Sydney is one of of her last roles as Aunt Marion smelling of Lilac or lavender and the one really weak role was Nicholas Pryor as the director of the Thorn Museum. I am truly sorry for those people who did not care for this film, as it is head and shoulders above most of the Anti-Christ movies made. If you liked the first one this is a must see.

raven - but still his foster "father" Richard Thorn is stubbornly denying any warnings of well-meaning, soon- to- be- demised persons that the devil's son is among them and everybody standing in its way is in grave danger - until it is too late. So, in this sense, there is nothing "new" compared to the original, and the movie is indeed predictable.Nevertheless, the appearance of the raven as foreboding of near death, accompanied by Jerry Goldsmith's creepy score, builds up horror as you know that the poor victim just cannot escape its faith.And in my opinion, Jonathan Scott-Taylor as Damien does wonders for the role and he is perfectly cast. He manages, as far as the script allows, to give his persona depth and a kind of child-like innocence at first, up to a point where you even feel sympathy for him when he is being treated meanly by his aunt. When he finds out about his origin he struggles heavily with it and despairs of his fate, breaking down and screaming "Why me". Due to bad writing, in the very next scene he though seems to have come to terms with his fate which seems a little too rushed. He "is OK now" being who he is, and starting to like his newly-found powers, and is certainly starting to like being quasi-invincible and bringing about the end of people around him, with one exception: When his cousin Mark fails to join him rising to power and is consequently killed by Damien, angry and hurt to be rejected by the only person he "loves" and not being able to help it, Damien seems to be struck by grief and shock of what he has done with his devilish trance like stare. Here, the last "human" part of him dies with Mark, and from thereon, the impassive, cold, power-driven and creepy kid entirely wins over for good.The ending is of course a nod to the ending of the original movie; the movie itself is meant to be a filler episode and a preparation for the weak!!! third part of the trilogy.I though like it at least as much if not better than the original, as I like the focus on the development of Damien and the - unfortunately only hinted - inner conflict his heritage imposes on him at first. Here, there would have been great stuff to explore deeper.Furthermore, the end seems a little rushed and abrupt; it would have done the movie better if it would have lasted another half hour to smoothly bring all the plot threads together.Nevertheless, this movie is - for a 70s movie- very scary and technically well done the lake scene!!!! and certainly makes a lasting impact on the viewer with its creative deaths, fantastic music and a great cast. This outweighs, in my opinion, its flaws, and makes it an underrated horror classic very enjoyable to watch.

sequel that is almost on a par with the original. Taylor handles his material skillfully, his stylish direction making the most of the bleak winter setting to enhance the already chilling atmosphere, and his excellent cast which includes William Holden, Lee Grant and Lance Henriksen play everything with a deadly seriousness that will make a believer out of even the most sceptical of atheists, if only for the duration of the movie.Perhaps, though, the film is most notable for its elaborately staged deaths, designed to delight those who considered David Warner's decapitation by sheet glass to be the highlight of the original. In Omen II, viewers are treated to several equally gruesome scenes in which a variety of unlucky souls meet their fate often heralded by the appearance of a raven and the genuinely eerie 'kaw' croaks of Jerry Goldsmith's brilliant score . Buried alive, drowned under ice, eyes pecked out and hit by a truck, gassed to death, crushed by a train, and sliced in half—they all go in a decidedly nasty fashion, the deaths made all the more horrific by the extreme terror experienced by the victims in their final moments.

where he becomes aware of who he really is.In many ways its story arc follows quite close to the original template but with the addition of more frequent, inventive and gory death scenes involving the poor unfortunates who get too close to the truth. In effect, this movie plays out like a series of elaborate set-pieces strung together over a fairly basic plot-line. This isn't such a terrible thing though because these macabre moments are all really executed very well. In particular are three notable death sequences – on a deserted road a woman is attacked by a raven who pecks her eyes out, she is then finished off by being hit full force by a truck; a man is cut in half by a falling elevator cable; during a game of hockey on a frozen lake, the ice breaks and a man falls under resulting in the disturbing scenario where we see him helplessly floating just below the ice. These set-pieces, along with several others, constitute the highlight of the movie and they are all well-conceived and give the film its definite draw. Because the film is neither a beginning, nor an end to the story it allows this instalment to simply focus its attention on the macabre material in between and it's really not a bad thing.There are other interesting changes though, such as the use of the raven as the creature of the devil, I thought it was a better choice than the Rottweiler from the first movie and it was very well integrated into the story. The acting too is more than decent with the likes of William Holden basically taking on the role Gregory Peck filled in the first movie, while Jonathan Scott-Taylor looks right as Damien, his thin features can look cold and ominous but he is never cartoonishly evil, which was a good thing. He has one particularly memorable and original scene too where he knows the answer to every single question his history teacher throws at him. It's one of the less gruesome more subtly sinister moments that really stands out. Some things remain the same though and once again there is a really good score from Jerry Goldsmith. It's very dramatic with that ominous choir sound that is just perfect for this subject matter.

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!8/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

it doesn't really go anywhere. It's basically the same storyline as the original, but again, it's just as well-done as the first. There may be a few flaws, as expected, but it's all worth it.