The Final Conflict (1981)

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

the audience applauded

Wow! What a bizarre film! Unfortunately the few funny moments there were were quite overshadowed by it's completely weird and random vibe throughout.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

Damien Thorne is now in his early thirties and is in charge of a large corporation; he is still going up in the world though. He believes that prophecy means that he must become the US Ambassador in Britain as he is destined to confront a returned Christ there. Shortly after stating this the sitting ambassador kills himself in a spectacular, and gory, fashion and Damien is indeed appointed to the position. Father DeCarlo as acquired the Seven Daggers of Megiddo and along with six other men plan to eliminate Damien before the prophesied return of Christ. Damien meanwhile is trying to find the child; and if he can't identify the child he will have every baby boy born on a certain night killed… even the son of his closest acolyte. While all this is going on Damien is getting close to TV presenter Kate Reynolds and takes her son under his wing.This film provides a solid conclusion to the Omen Trilogy; it also turns up the grisliness to a large degree; the scene where the ambassador shoots himself is genuinely shocking as the wall behind him is splattered red. It isn't long before one of Damien's potential killers burns to death in a rather macabre scene. There are more shocks to come; we don't actually see the babies dying but it is made clear that many are being killed, some only just off screen. Sam Neill does a really good job as Damien; he makes the character charismatic and seductive rather than obviously evil… at least until he starts ordering the deaths of the babies. In some ways it is predictable; we know that those trying to kill Damien won't succeed to soon and the early attackers are doomed from the start; that doesn't matter though as their horrific deaths just raises the stakes for the final confrontation. Sadly the finale doesn't match what has happened before; it is too quick and Damien dies as 'heavenly choirs' sing and bible verses appear on the screen. Sam Neill isn't the only person to put in a good performance; the rest of the cast are somewhat overshadowed but they are still pretty good. Overall I'd say that this is a decent horror film; people who watched the opening two instalments of the trilogy are sure to want to watch it, watching the previous films isn't essential but I suspect it will improve one's enjoyment of this.

The last and least of the OMEN trilogy. What this film offers is a fairly complex and widespread plot that draws in biblical allusions, Damien and his legion of followers, a female journalist and her son who get drawn into the battle, a squad of vigilante monks who act as assassins, plus the widespread murder of babies. If that's not an impressive selection, then go find another movie.There's a kind of 'epic' feel to this movie, which recreates Armageddon and relocates it to the UK. As so many diverse characters are involved and the film goes on for a fair length, it certainly feels like an epic and more than your average horror film. While the characters may not be more than pawns in the game, the cast is a great one, with all actors and actresses doing their bit. Sam Neill is excellently cast as Damien, and brings just the right air of evil about him in the role. Rossano Brazzi, who plays the chief monk out to get him, is also fine, although sadly his character doesn't figure in the (disappointing) finale. Don Gordon is good as Damien's misguided follower, while Lisa Harrow brings life to her clichéd role as a female journalist, who isn't just out for herself like journalists are in most films.This is a film with a nasty edge to it as well, more so than both previous films. Here, we see Damien rape his lover, we see multiple murders of young babies - a long-held taboo - and lots of grisly violence and gore. I don't understand those who say this isn't a gory film, as the version I saw certainly is. It may not be very bloody but the death scenes are really nasty, leaving your imagination to do the work. We see a shotgun suicide, people getting repeatedly stabbed, a man getting an iron in his face (that's gotta hurt...), another falling to his death, a priest gets torn apart by dogs, and in the film's spectacular "highlight", a priest's assassination attempt goes disastrously wrong, leaving him hanging from a rope, covered in a plastic sheet and burning alive.There are two main flaws with this film, as far as I can see. The first is the running time - it seems to go on forever. The second is the terribly disappointing ending, which feels rushed and is up there with TO THE DEVIL A DAUGHTER in terms of anti-climatic moments. Hardly a fitting ending to the trilogy, which has basically been just one big build up to this confrontation. It's over within five minutes, and leaves you feeling cheated. Aside from this major flaw, OMEN III: THE FINAL CONFLICT isn't bad at all.

You either love or hate 'The Omen' (1976) and 'Damien: Omen II' (1978), either individually or together. It's just one of those things. You may even love or hate 'Omen III: The Final Conflict' (1981).I don't hate it, but it was clear that, by this stage of the 'Omen' series, ideas and enthusiasm were growing thin. 'The Omen' had the promise of this evil little child causing Armageddon and 'Damien' showed us how he cements the wealth and influence to do this. The failure of both Gregory Peck and William Holden (two box office idols) to exterminate the little brat was a great build up to what should have been a violent, memorable and, yet, graceful finale.'Omen III' largely ignores the events of its predecessor, except for brief glimpses of and references to the Thorn Corporation, Paul Buher and Damien's uncle. Instead, it attempts to retread the more successful road of 'The Omen', albeit placing Damien in Robert Thorn's role as US Ambassador to the Court of St. James as he climbs the political ladder in an effort to secure the Presidency of the United States of America.Trouble is, Damien shoots himself in the foot by feeding the suggestible current President (Mason Adams) false information on the sabotage of the Aswan Dam in Egypt -- implied to have actually been caused by Damien himself. Had Richard Donner directed the film, we might have got a great 'Superman'-style special effects sequence of the dam imploding and bringing Damien's style of chaos to Earth (and/or a more compelling story, one hopes!!). Instead, all we get are reams and reams of boring dialogue from a film that claims to be the most horrifying instalment of the 'Omen' series. And, after having been exposed as feeding the information to the President, Damien isn't even removed from office. After all, who would elect a Presidential adviser who got it all wrong, deliberately or not?The film even tries, in parts, to compete with 'Damien' in providing some pretty gory deaths but, at a push, all I can remember are the messy 'suicide' of the Ambassador preceding Damien, and Don Gordon getting an iron in the face! Each of which are instantly forgotten amongst the tangled plot. This is a shame, since the death scenes were highlights of the previous films and almost always memorable. The less said of the feeble attempts of a group of monks to assassinate Damien Thorn, the better!This failure would be acceptable if the story were compelling enough. Sam Neill as Damien and Lisa Harrow as his love interest and BBC journalist, Kate Reynolds try, kind of, to replicate the great romance that was actually quite a convincing part of 'The Omen'. But Damien is, quite frankly, just weird! And I doubt a woman apparently as intelligent as Kate would want to stick around him after being ass-raped by him and listening to him practically shouting at her that he is the Antichrist!!It is surprising to discover that the film's screenwriter, Andrew Birkin went on to write 'The Name of the Rose' (1984) and 'Perfume: The Story of a Murderer' (2006), but this film's problem also obviously lies with the flat direction by Graham Baker, whilst renowned directors of photography, Phil Meheux and Robert Paynter probably provided whatever visual flair there is to be found. And even the Satanist cult is way off this time. Even though there are literally thousands of them, there's no one to challenge the awesome memory of Billie Whitelaw (or even the underused Robert Foxworth and Lance Henriksen of the previous film, for that matter).In the end, when you're about to doze off, things come to a head and, in one of the limpest and most predictable endings ever given to a horror film, Damien Thorn is suddenly dead. Even though the printed script stresses that Damien is on the brink of taking command of the world, there is nothing on the screen that translates that mood. However, as the 1991 sequel shows, they didn't use the Daggers of Megiddo properly and Twentieth-Century Fox, rather than Damien, will return to reap their revenge!A great performance by Sam Neill (who, apparently, has since disowned this early film of his); the consistently epic score from Jerry Goldsmith; a haunting opening sequence; the very, very occasional and instantly forgettable shock-factor about characters we care nothing about, and some intermittently nice and eerie location work are about all that save this film from being a complete waste of time!

Damien Thorn is a full grown man and recently appointed Ambassador to Great Britain (the same position his father had years ago). And he is fully aware of his unholy destiny as the Antichrist, the false prophet. He has carefully been studying the signs for Jesus Christ's return to Earth and has decided the time is near. He sends his disciples all across Great Britain when an alignment of stars signifies his birth to kill any baby boy born on the morning of March 24, between the hours of midnight and six o'clock. Even one of Damien's closest assistants son is not exempt from this decree.But Damien's human side is getting the better of him as he starts seeing the popular journalist Kate Reynolds and they begin a relationship. He also forms an attachment to her son Peter, whom Damien takes under his wing and manipulates for his own evil.While this is going on the seven daggers of Megiddo have been rediscovered from the rubble of the old Thorn Museum which was burnt down in the last film. They are bought out of an auction and are sent to the Monastery that Damien's father visited when he was investigating the truth behind his son. Seven priests led by Father DeCarlo go to Britain and resolve to finish what Robert Thorn and his brother Richard started by killing Damien and reassuring the second coming of the Messiah. The plot for Omen 3 has a lot going for it but there's a lot of things that could've been done that weren't even touched upon. The relationship between Kate and Damien could've been an emotional struggle to the story, since it could allude that Damien might achieve redemption due to their relationship. Even one of his associates say that Reynolds is dangerous to be around but Damien is resolute in his path and not even 'love' can affect him. The priests are underdeveloped as well. Six are killed off rather quickly and DeCarlo isn't as strong a protagonist as Robert or Richard Thorn. The once brilliant supernatural death scenes that The Omen series is famous for are sort of replaced by intentional murders and accidents. Some are still impressive but they lose the sense of demonic intervention that the other two films had. Instead it is either Damien showing off his power, or one of his disciples that commits a murder. There's not a lot of speculation in them in that they all don't look like they could be common accidents. However, the film does have its fair share of disturbing scenes. There's a scene where a woman sees a vision of her baby burnt. She then takes an iron and approaches the baby and the rest is left to our imagination. Another scene involves Damien on a hunt with a group of Beagles. Two priests ambush him and while he kill one of them off himself, he tells the pack to kill the other and they proceed to tear him apart. The acting in the film is also quite good. Sam Neill as Damien provides a dark and rather frightening performance for the now adult Antichrist and he does an excellent job throughout the movie. The rest of the cast perform their roles well but there's nothing that really stands out in the ensemble. Jerry Goldsmith provides us with another excellent score that builds up suspense and makes it clear that evil is at work. For all three movies his score remains as one of the best in the Horror genre.Overall The Final Conflict has a lot of problems but the film isn't entirely bad. It's worth watching to bring a conclusion to The Omen series but will probably leave a few fans wanting a better ending.