The original “The Omen” wasn’t great but it was so full of itself that it sorted-of managed to wing it. It was little more than a brutal slasher film but it created a great atmosphere; “Damien: Omen II” is just a mess of ideas that contradict the first film and itself.

In “Damien”, we discover that antichrist Damien (Jonathan Scott-Taylor) is now off to military school. Killings occur like in the first film but in the first one you always felt as if Damien was highly responsible and very knowledgeable of them but in this one some of them seem like genuine accidents; I know it’s weird but trust me, if you see it, it doesn’t work. Also, there’s a ton of corporate stuff going on that feels unfinished.

Damien didn’t really speak in the first film but rather did a creepy stare. In this one he talks, he goes from not knowing he’s the antichrist to being a total expert on what’s happening and is boring. I thought in the first film that he was aware of what he was but here I’m left confused as for example in the first film he’s physically repulsed by being near a church but in this one he reads excerpts from the Bible with no quarrel. The other characters are dull and many are just there to die. One character who feels seriously underdeveloped is Sergeant Neff played by Lance Henriksen (“Aliens”).

“Damien” is not a complex film; it’s just simply a wrong film. If you want to see a movie where a woman’s eyes get pecked out by a crow then this movie will give you that but if you want the vaguest sense of coherency then look elsewhere. Most movies, even most bad movies offer a journey from A to B, an evolution of the concepts if you will, “Damien” takes one step forward, one back and then takes you to where ever it feels like.