Damien: Omen II (1978)
After the thrill of rewatching
The Omen after all these years i was suitably looking forward to this first sequel which is set some seven years after the original with Damien Thorn now living with his uncle (William Holden) and his wife (Lee Grant) prior to joining military academy.
Well disappointing is the only word to describe it.
Damien: Omen II is basically a rehash of the first film with 'unexplained' deaths coming to all those who cross paths with the son of Satan. Whilst William Holden is okay he's no Gregory Peck and the film lacks a scary protagonist in the Billie Whitelaw mould.
Most of the deaths are functional at best but the trapped under ice one and the raven attack remain memorable from the first times i saw the film.
I suppose when it comes down to it
Damien: Omen II suffers from the curse of the sequel in that it tries to replicate the formula from the very successful first movie but fails due to everything being so much less (acting, score, creative deaths and scares) this time round.
Evil Breed: The Legend Of Samhain (2003)
There's not a chance in hell i can pretend this is a good film but it has become a regular Halloween / October staple with me.
What puzzles me is that this version was supposedly cut for sex and violence. Okay i can understand that (But i don't agree with it) but what i'd love to know is what was so bad that it needed cutting.
I mean. In this so called cut version we get -
- Jenna Jameson tied to an alter naked before a cannibal slices open her breast in close up, removes a silicon implant and tries to eat it before deciding it tastes like plastic, so then disembowels her instead, all in loving close up.
- A guy in a bathroom dies when a cannibal shoves it's hand up his anus and pulls out his intestines before strangling him with them.
- Chasey Lain is cut in half.
- A naked woman in a cell with a dead newborn in front of her covered in blood still attached via it's umbilical chord.
Even though i love this film it's badly acted trash of the highest order but it is highly informative about the Gaelic festival of Samhain.
In fact when i come to research it i do seem to have the uncensored version according to
https://www.movie-censorship.com/report.php?ID=3758