The Final Conflict (1981) ⭐ 5.5 | Horror (original) (raw)
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Worth watching mainly for Sam Neill's Damien
Neill is very good here. Neill would go on to be one of those few actors with such a range that he can convincingly play the hero to literally the devil incarnate.
Neill has some ear popping monologues with a statue of Jesus. It's so obnoxious that I'm half amazed it wasn't cut. It all strikes me as rather career threatening for an actor and I wonder if any American actor would have done it.
But those scenes do help give this movie a bit of depth.
The first Omen was great because the Thorns weren't sure if crazy supernatural things were occurring, or if they were just crazy. Unfortunately, this one, like Omen II mostly boil down to crazy death scenes.
There's one major annoyance here... why does Damien believe the second coming will be a child*? He literally reads from the Bible. And the producers were well aware that was wrong, considering the display the relevant passages of the Bible.
It's certainly not terrible, and has some effective horror scenes. Looked at simply as a horror movie, it's kind of an oddball, but it works. But considering the seemingly end of time apocalyptic stakes, not to mention closure of the three movie arc, it's lacking, and the world surrounding Damien seems surprisingly small.
* I think the reason Damien decides to kill babies is obvious: the production wanted to do the baby killing thing.
I wasn't expecting this to be great, but I was hoping it would be more fun
Firstly, it has a seemingly fool-proof concept: the Antichrist, now a successful corporate CEO, is appointed U.S. Ambassador to England, AND president of the UN youth council. It practically writes itself. But, no, social commentary isn't brought into it; he doesn't kill his way into the U.S. Presidency, and the country is never thrown into a third world war. And to think I believed in him! You think this might also present a good chance for some overacting- but, once again, only missed opportunities. It was quite talky; Damien plays it cool, and Sam Neill's performance mostly involved making sinister expressions (at which he's a natural, granted,) and, frankly, the big lines he delivers come out kind of funny-sounding when modulated through his fake American accent (he has one of these in Jurassic Park, too, but at least that role didn't call for any serious acting.) I blame the director more than my man Sam, but I've seen some pretty terrible movies salvaged by one good performance.
Why, this film even let down my bloodlusting side. It opens with a nice, gruesome death, but subsequent killings are either too silly to even guffaw at, or just plain uninspired- especially the climax.
This was great i think,, you have Damien all grown up,, not a kid anymore,, this is pretty cool i think,, now you have all that evil in an adult, which by the way is very scary, Sam Neill does a wonderful job in this, and is very creepy evil at the same time. Add to the fact that the plot was very good too,, you have the monks trying to kill Damien for one,, then you have Damien trying to kill all of the male babies born of the 24th of March,, makes for a very interesting race against time for Damien. If you follow the trilogy though the timeline is quite off, but i guess when they made the first one, they didn't realize it would become a franchise,, but nonetheless, over the past week i have watched all 3 of the Omen's and have seen the new one in the Theatre's when it came out,, i think the trilogy is very good with the story tied together the way it is, overall i give this part 3 a definite thumbs up.
If you don't like the film, listen to the score.
A fairly good end to the trilogy, although it's a shame the threatened armaggeddon never comes off (as in the later novels). Sam Neill puts in a good performance as the Devil's son and is surrounded by decent character actors. However, how Jerry Goldsmith didn't win an Oscar for the score, I will never know. It's absolutely amazing and proves music really can improve a film (just imagine a score-less Psycho, for example).
Watchable but of much lesser quality as its predecessors.
After watching the latest Damien movie The First Omen (2024), a prequel to the original The Omen with Gregory Peck I decided to rewatch all the movies about the Antichrist Damien Thorn. The prequel was not bad but not as good as the first movie. The second one was of the same quality as the prequel. The Final Conflict (The third Omen) was like I feared, just watchable but nothing else. Sam Neil is this time playing an adult Damien Thorn. Nothing wrong with his acting but you just don't get that evil feeling when Damien was a kid. Also the ominous soundtrack that was so typical in the other movies is this time of poor quality which results in just an average movie. Rarely sequels are getting better and since I just checked the ratings for the fourth movie I think I'll leave it at that. It was a fun ride, good to remember a classic horror movie. Sometimes you have to let it go instead of trying to milk a good story.
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By what name was The Final Conflict (1981) officially released in India in Hindi?