The first time was only a warning.

Satan’s son, Damien (Jonathan Scott-Taylor), has turned 13 and attends a military academy; people close to him begin to sense the kind of power he wields. The second film maintains some of the scary atmosphere from the original, but the filmmakers haven’t bothered with a new script; William Holden is the new Gregory Peck, for instance. We do however get to see several imaginative killings, with a particularly unpleasant drowning in an icy lake. Incidentally, in this chapter Satan is represented by ravens, not dogs.

1978-U.S. 105 min. Color. Widescreen. Directed by Don Taylor. Music: Jerry Goldsmith. Cast: William Holden (Richard Thorn), Lee Grant (Ann Thorn), Lew Ayres (Bill Atherton), Jonathan Scott-Taylor (Damien Thorn), Sylvia Sidney, Robert Foxworth… Leo McKern.

Trivia: Don Taylor replaced Mike Hodges as director. Followed by The Final Conflict (1981).

Published 2005-11-02 12:41