This 1978 movie is the sequel to the original movie from 2 years before. I believe the original movie was due to end with that one off film but it was decided last second to leave it open for a sequel. Well this is the movie that followed and was the middle sandwich of the movies. Ok that statement has been ruined but the inclusion of the fourth movie but I don’t count that one and it’s not on this list either. This is not going onto the Tri-Critic challenge scoreboard as this is not a very liked movie I have outscored the other two by some way, with IMDb gave it 6.3/10 and this ain’t no Disney movie with a 44% from Rotten Tomatoes. Starring William Holden, Lee Grant, Robert Foxworth, Lew Ayres, Sylvia Sidney and Jonathan Scott-Taylor as Damien and I have to say he plays it very well. It was produced on a $6.8m and went on to recoup $26.5m at box office and set up the third and final movie in the trilogy. With a middle section of a story unfortunately when a story is based on the villain you already know that he is going to be there for the final section of the story so similar to Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake you know where this is going. Here is a brief of the plot anyway.
A week after his parents are buried an archaeologist Carl Bugenhagen learns that their adopted child is not only still alive but also the Antichrist. Carl speaks to his friend Michael Morgan of his theory and asks him to give him the means to kill Damien. Michael is unconvinced so Carl takes him to the ruins to see a mural of Yigael’s Wall which is said to have been drawn by monks who have seen the Devil and then had visions of the son of the Devil. They see images of Damien through his ages growing up and it is clearly him but as Michael is convinced but the pair are trapped by a rockfall and do not survive their visit. Damien is growing up with his uncle Richard Thorn and becoming friendly with their son/his cousin Mark. People are getting killed in an attempt to keep Damien a secret and safe. A dig at the ruins find Carl’s box with the daggers of Megiddo which can kill the antichrist when the daggers form a cross on his body. They are sent over to his house and now people are alerted at this end and the calm and collected Devil’s spawn just proceeds with his plan undeterred.
As I mentioned before the problem with this movie is knowing that it is the second part of a three part story you already know that the main character is the villain is going to survive to the final portion of the story. Before you see any minute of this one you already know that he is going to be in the next and final movie. With the last one you can pretty much guess how that one is going to end. If this is a middle of a sandwich then this is a nice slice a ham with some extra mustard, or cheese or chicken or whatever you like. This is there to make the other two items work so well. If this wasn’t here the other two movies just wouldn’t work. So this has to be here and it has to be good otherwise it will bring the other ones down with it. With an awkward second effort it has to keep people interested enough to want to come back to see how it finishes. I am trying to think of an analogy here and its your team losing 4-0 away at half time you know how the second half is going to be and you really don’t want to stick around to see the end. Well this movie has to switch to the American version as this is a conclusion of the third quarter and its 28-24 a field goal isn’t going to be enough to save this one you are going to need something good and something better to keep bums on seats and interested. If you serve up a dud that’s it done, if you make a climatic ending to the story then the conclusion has no where to go (please note Star Wars) this is a nice slice of ham with cheese, lettuce, pickle and tomatoes. It is not the greatest sandwich out there but its damn good for the one time you want it. It had a difficult job to do and it did it well.
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