The now adult Antichrist plots to eliminate his future divine opponent while a cabal of monks plot to stop him.
“Damien – Omen II” didn’t exactly light up the box office, which was the hopes of the studio, so it was quite surprising that this film was made.
There had been plans to film a third “Omen” movie once again starring Jonathan Scott-Taylor as ‘Damien’ in 1979. However all those plans were canceled after the film bombed at at the box office even though the studio expected it to be a hit with the success that the first movie enjoyed.
Executive producer Richard Donner, who had directed “The Omen” (1976), was considered director for the film, but he was involved with legal problems involving the Salkind brothers, Ilya Salkind and Alexander Salkind, after being sacked from “Superman II”. Due to all these problems the movie was filmed in 1979 but never got released until 1981.
Jack Nicholson, Marlon Brando and Gene Hackman were all considered for the part of Damien until the decision was taken to make the character a much younger man. That person would be the first international starring role in a movie for actor Sam Neill, an actor I highly rate and he does show his potential in this film.
The film isn’t necessarily bad, it just seems to suffer from some sloppy writing, it lacks the suspense and tension of it’s predecessors and seeing as it was originally supposed to be a finish to a trilogy, looking at it from that point of view it is a disappointing end.
“Omen III – The Final Conflict” is worth a watch just for Sam Neill’s performance, I understand why it has a bad reputation, just keep your expectations low.
Miscellaneous facts about the film:
According to director Graham Baker on his audio-commentary, the camera jammed whilst shooting slate 666 [the same digit as the number of the beast which appears as a birthmark on the head of Damien Thorn], filming the scene where Barbara sees a vision of her dead burnt baby.
The backwards 100 foot fall from the bridge was performed by stuntman Vic Armstrong who said of it for the 2005 book of ‘Guinness World Records’ that it was the most frightening stunt of his career. The majority of Armstrong’s jump in the past had been less than 70 foot drops.
Actor James Mason acted as a sponsor to the production for actor Sam Neill. Mason originally suggested to the film’s producers that they should check out Neill. Producer Harvey Bernhard had Neill flown in to London for an audition, paid for by Mason. Neill later reimbursed Mason for the airfare. Neill drew on some of Mason’s mannerisms for his performance and characterization.
At the time of filming, Sam Neill and Lisa Harrow developed an off-camera relationship that produced son Tim Neill.
In the scene where Damien is “praying” to Satan in his own private sanctuary, parts of his speech are taken directly from the novel “Là-Bas” (“Down There”) by J K Huysmans (1891). In the novel the central character hears the lines whilst attending a Black Mass.
The death of the first priest in the television studios proved immensely difficult to get right and ultimately took about two weeks to film.
The film’s storyline applied retroactive continuity changes to the franchise’s time line. Damien Thorn had been a child in The Omen (1976) and a teenager in Damien: Omen II (1978) and could have not been an adult in his thirties by the time the film was released in present day times of 1981. As such, the movie significantly retconed the events from the first two films back further in the past to accommodate the series story’s temporal shift.
Hazel Court’s cameo was filmed as a favor to producer Harvey Bernhard, as she was holidaying in Cornwall when the hunting scene was filmed.
In Germany and Hungary, the film was released as “Barbara’s Baby”, in an effort to align it with Rosemary’s Baby (1968). Reportedly, this title also appeared on some movie posters for the film in some countries prior to the issuance of an official title for the picture
Director Graham Baker says actor Rossano Brazzi would turn up to the set each day with the script under one arm and whistling the tune from the song he sang in the earlier classic musical South Pacific (1958).
The sequence where Damien Thorn speaks to a crowd of his followers was filmed in a Yorkshire quarry with around 450 extras. The scenes were shot with a very low level of available light.
The production shoot for this picture ran for around twelve weeks.
The film’s title when originally theatrically released in 1981 was “The Final Conflict” but the film has since generally become re-titled and now known as “Omen III: The Final Conflict” in order to for the movie to include the word “Omen” which exists as part of the title of all three other films in the franchise, The Omen (1976), Damien: Omen II (1978) and Omen IV: The Awakening (1991).
The film’s finale was shot at Fountains Abbey, a 13th Century Yorkshire monastery, over five nights, in conditions of extreme cold which included flying bats.
The names of the ancient metal knives which were the only thing that could kill Damien Thorn were “The Seven Daggers of Meggido”.
Even though the Nazarene’s identity is never revealed in the film the book based on the screenplay of the final conflict added more details such as the child being born to a clan of gypsies which explains why he didn’t have a birth record thus Damien couldn’t find him.
Debut theatrical feature film directed by Graham Baker.
Final film of actress Hazel Court.
NLF stood for the fictitious quasi-Marxist political organization the “Nubian Liberation Front”.
The names of the seven monks in alphabetical order were Brother Antonio, Brother Benito, Father DeCarlo, Brother Martin, Brother Mattius, Brother Paulo, and Brother Simeon.
The name of the TV current affairs show that Kate Reynolds (Lisa Harrow) hosted was “The World in Focus”.
The movie’s closing post-epilogue postscript, a quote from Chapter 21, Verse 4 from the Book Revelation read: “And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. REVELATION XXI:4”.
The scene where Damien’s assistant’s wife murders her husband with an iron was set-up number 666.
The film’s closing epilogue read: “Behold the Lion of Judah! The Messiah, who came first as a child but returns not as a child, but now as King of Kings, to rule in power and glory forever!”.
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