Omen III: The Final Conflict poster & wallpaper

Barnaby Holm, Don Gordon, Lisa Harrow

The Omen series concludes with this second sequel, starring Sam Neill as the adult Damien--a.k.a. the son of Satan--in a battle with the heavens for control of mankind. The film ends up dependi...( read more  read more... )ng more heavily on effects and spectacle than on the kind of basic horrors that made the first movie in the series so unsettling, but at least this one gives some closure to the seemingly endless saga. --Tom Keogh

Flixster Users

47% liked it

18,378 ratings

R, 108 min.

Directed by: Graham Baker

Release Date: March 20, 1981

Invite friends to see

DVD Release Date: September 5, 2000

Get It:

Stats: 579 reviews

Get movie widget Recommend it Add to Favorites
report incorrect info

Photos

Omen III: The Final Conflict The Omen 3 Omen III: The Final Conflict Omen III: The Final Conflict Omen III: The Final Conflict Omen III: The Final Conflict Damien has set his evil plan for domination. Omen III: The Final Conflict Omen III: The Final Conflict Omen III: The Final Conflict Omen III: The Final Conflict Omen III: The Final Conflict Omen III: The Final Conflict
Upload a Photo |

View All Omen III: The Final Conflict Photos (13)

Your Rating


clear rating

Flixster Reviews (579)

  • SirPant
    September 29, 2009
    SirPant
    Nowhere close to the first two films quality. The baby killing added a disturbing element to a mainly fright-free 2 hours, which was welcome, but I hated the ending! Still worth watching if you are a fan of the franchise.
  • FangsFirst
    October 31, 2008
    FangsFirst
    The Omen films struck a chord with me as a youth, probably being one of my first forays into horror before I could completely tolerate it, but not being of the type that thoroughly scared me. I was very interested in them and certainly after I had aged enough that horror stopped ...( read more)scaring me (at eight or nine, I suppose), I recall intentionally noting the showing of the second film on television and I believe eventually renting the third. It stuck with me far less (there's some talking, after all--and I couldn't stand that, not enough supernatural stuff for my young mind), though my curiosity was piqued when digging through my father's theatrical poster collection from his time managing and discovering the poster for The Final Conflict (the sequel status noted on the poster where it says "The final chapter in the Omen trilogy" but not part of the title then) and I discovered that my favourite actor, Sam Neill, had in fact been none other than the adult Damien, the Antichrist. Another mashing of Sam and the supernatural, in a horrific setting, was all I needed and I eventually tracked down the in-and-out-of-print DVD of the third Omen film.

    Damien Thorn (Neill) is now 32, head of Thorn Industries and prospective ambassador to England. He reveals the latter to his assistant Dean (Don Gordon), and shows his shrugging disinterest in the fact that there is already an ambassador to England. Those of us (hopefully anyone watching this) who have seen the prior films have some idea what is to follow, and when it does, the President (Mason Adams) appoints Damien to the role he has already claimed. While in England, he stumbles across television reporter Kate Reynolds (Lisa Harrow), who takes some interest in Damien and his philanthropy and power. Meanwhile, the inevitable priests aware of Damien's true nature recover the Megiddo knives that are the only thing capable of killing Damien. The leader of said priests is DeCarlo (Rossano Brazzi), who gravely intones plans to the rest and attempts to warn all of those in danger of Damien's true nature--including, eventually, Kate, as Damien begins a sweeping multiple infanticide to prevent the rebirth of Jesus.

    This film is pretty thoroughly disliked by most, in my experience, considered near-"traitorous" to prior films (certainly the element of each priest attempting to take one of the Megiddo knives to Damien, rather than what we were previously told was the required seven--though Damien repeatedly intones that the presence of the reborn Jesus will decrease his power is a pretty simple explanation, though not one given in-film--was rather a departure). Of course, now we have 1991's Omen IV: The Awakening and 2006's ridiculous marketing ploy (released June 6th, 2006) The Omen 666--which continued my "favourite" theme of evil children with dark circles under their eyes (I guess evil children don't get nap time?)--to beat up on, and people can hopefully see what is actually a pretty good film hiding in the third. I have zero interest in seeing either the fourth film or the remake (as many could guess from my opinion of the great majority of horror remakes from the past decade or so). Opinion see-saws between whether the letdown is Neill's performance (occasionally called flat) or the movie's (also often considered flat)--generally one at the expense of the decent or pretty good-to-excellent other. The truth is neither is the letdown, it simply doesn't rise to the heights it could or should--but this comes from a variety of places, most of them relating to Damien's age. It was new and fascinating to see a child as the seemingly unwitting source of evil, and another to see that child realize he was evil (I've never forgotten the image from Damien: The Omen II of him discovering the mark on his head), but to see an evil adult? This is nothing new and so I think this is a good bit of what flattens the film--it's also difficult to leave it open-ended, so a distinct resolution is nearly required or the story will probably feel incomplete. Graham Baker directs more than competently, Andrew Birkin's script works well with the story it's saddled with and Neill and Brazzi especially carry their roles well, as does Gordon. Harrow's is quite good as well, but her strange, passive reaction to the morning after a night of passion with Damien (discussed in an endless IMDb thread that debates whether said passions included anal sex) is a little out of place.

    Perhaps most importantly (setting aside the bias of the presence of my favourite actor) is the return of Jerry Goldsmith--always brilliantly scoring, though this is not one of his most exceptional scores. He does, however, come up with excellent themes for both Damien (a fantastic scene of a fox hunt where his dark theme unobtrusively saunters into the score perfectly as Damien rides into the frame highlights this brilliantly) and for God (or Jesus, though depending on who you ask this delineation may be unimportant) that both keep their heads above the water of cliché, which is pretty well done for music that has been written for centuries (Handel's Messiah, anyone?).

    What is most fascinating to me about the film, though, is that my personal fascination with the idea of an Antichrist, the idea of a devil and so on has absorbed me in, well, actually pretty surface-level research, but still enough to have my ears attuned to certain common failures to accurately represent things. I was pleased to hear no references to the non-existent book of "Revelations" (it's Revelation, thank you--John was writing about one revelation), and to see other elements carried off professionally enough (such as astronomy) that even 27 years later I did not sneer at attempts to sound technical that would later sound pedestrian and ridiculous. In fact, in no aspects did this film give me such vibes--in terms of claims made, issues discussed or even set-ups or effects. Damien's evil is not portrayed simply and obviously--he doesn't run about killing people, raping and robbing. He is slick and charming, handsome and clever, works through some philanthropy but is cleverly placed in the role of the ever-self-interested corporate CEO (exceptions seeming to be just that--exceptions). He prays in a darkened, ominous chapel with an inverted cross (again impressive--not an upside-down one, which is how Peter was crucified and thus hardly an insult to Christianity, but facing the wall, and the nails even in the wrists and not in the hands where they'd never hold anything up). He seems strange, in Neill's performance, with respect to his philosophy. He certainly makes no bones about worshipping his father, Satan, and does not make sideways claims that the Satan of these films is anything but evil and interested in pain (though I was always amused by the character of the Old Testament Hebrew "Satan"--whose name means the Opposer, and seemed to describe a role rather than a character, and to be an important and positive role, rather than a simplistically evil one*)--yet he seems to act out of a sort of "love" for his father. It's a nice balance, looking realistically motivated as well as still truly evil and unsoftened. It's one of the few instances I can think of where I was actually not sneering at the portrayal of Satan worship and evil in such a context (if one looks back ages to my review of Fallen, I am easily annoyed by ridiculous attempts to connect the Christian mythos with film events, and with strangely banal representations of "ultimate evil"). It was almost like a "real" ultimate evil, which was a pleasing thing to see displayed in film--because it suspends disbelief far more easily.

    As a final note, the effects are pretty gruesome, actually, and one image actually creeped me out just a bit--which I'll leave for anyone who's yet to see it to discover on their own.


    *I also like the Milton "fallen angel" variety, as well as Mike Carey's purely self-interested Lucifer, and Viggo Mortensen's curious portrayal in The Prophecy, somewhere between the standard devil and the cold calculations of Carey's version.
  • kiriyamakazou
    October 9, 2008
    kiriyamakazou
    A step up from the second outing. Learning from it's predecessors mistakes part 3 throws out the whole investigation. No longer do people spend hours trying to convince others that Damian is the devil. It allows Sam Neil to spread his talented evil wings and show the forceful ter...( read more)ror he has become. The downfall comes from the 7 priests whom set out to kill Damian. Their comical ineptness recalls the burglars from Home Alone. Add in some humorous sound effects and you have comedy gold. In contrast to this Damian and his clans murders of innocent babies is excellently shot. It comes off as a montage similar to those in gangster epics such as Godfather and Goodfellas. Each part is creepy, eerie and very unsettling. Still it's tasteful enough to allow us to use our imaginations rather than freaking us out with baby killings. A mixed but interesting selection that rounds off the trilogy pretty nicely, though the climax is sudden and disappointing.
  • organgrinder136
    August 17, 2008
    organgrinder136
    worst out of the 3. they progressively made less of an impact on me. i usually like sam neill as he seems to have had such a varied acting career. he didn't do anything special here though. just said his lines...
  • PvtCaboose91
    July 1, 2008
    PvtCaboose91
    "I now command you to seek out and destroy the Nazarene child. Slay the Nazarene... and I shall reign forever. Fail... and I perish."


    According to the law of deteriorating sequels, films get worse as each new instalment is created. The Final Conflict is furthe

    ...( read more)r irrefutable verification of this theory. The first two instalments in the Omen series were not among the genre's finest movies, but stood well on their respective standalone merits. The central problem of The Final Conflict (which marks the third The Omen film) is its tendency to be overwhelmingly silly - no scares, dumb characters, horrible plot points, and little sense of fidelity to the Book of Revelations on which the series is based. The artistic positives of the first film are also disregarded, with bucket loads of nothing but violence and gore as a substitute. Glaring continuity errors plague this film as well. I mean, the year is apparently 1982 and Damien Thorn (now played by Sam Neill) is supposedly 32. In the first movie he was born in 1966...can anyone else notice the unbearably distracting continuity fault? If Damien was 32 then the year should be the late 1990s. At that stage, you'd might as well regard your political leader as the Antichrist!

    The Final Conflict now follows Damien Thorn - a.k.a. the offspring of Satan - as an adult who is steadily running the Thorn industries conglomerate as the company extends its far-reaching arms all over the world. The film opens with a salvage operation in Chicago to recover the artefacts that survived the destruction of the Thorn Museum that burnt down at the end of Damien: The Omen II. During the operation, the seven daggers of Megiddo are recovered. Said daggers are the only things on Earth that can kill the Antichrist. They are soon circulated to an assembly of seven monks, headed by Father DeCarlo (Brazzi), who embark on a mission to rid the world of Damien Thorn. Meanwhile, Damien flexes his political muscle as he is appointed Ambassador to England. The seven monks begin executing multiple hysterically ill-conceived endeavours to assassinate the Antichrist. All signs begin pointing to the possibility that that Nazarene has returned in the form of a child in the British Isles. This begins another ludicrous sub-plot as Damien sets out to eliminate the Nazarene who weakens and diminishes his influence and ability on the world with each passing day. Meanwhile, a dumb romantic sub-plot is tossed into the mix as Damien becomes interested in a journalist named Kate Reynolds (Harrow).

    The Final Conflict depends far too much on the showcase of effects and innovative (gory) methods of killing different characters...all without tension or scares. Jerry Goldsmith's score is the only aspect that creates a somewhat intense atmosphere. Every other aspect of the filmmaking leaves a lot to be desired. The horror genre that was once prominent has now transformed into a film perplexingly lingering in an indefinite genre between 'horror' and 'drama'. There is insufficient horror to be part of the genre, and there is inadequate drama to be classified as part of that genre. The gore effects have been amplified and look superior to those used in the previous films; however the screenwriting leaves much to be desired. Horror fans will be left disappointed and disorientated, fans of the Omen series will be left even more devastated, while religious nuts will condemn the film! Why? The source material is disregarded while spiralling towards the film's silly conclusion that ultimately confirms this as a wasted opportunity. The ending seems far too rushed and looks underwhelming. I was laughing! I wasn't at all scared!

    Overall, The Final Conflict is an extremely disappointing addition to a potentially outstanding horror series. The series of events were occasionally fascinating, but ultimately very silly. Like the first two movies the cast is very impressive, with Sam Neill effective as the Antichrist. The actors do everything in their capability to improve the woeful script they are working with. If only the first film concluded with the execution of the Antichrist...if that happened, then the world wouldn't have been exposed to two below average sequels. At least there's finally a sense of closure. Followed by a TV movie a decade later.
  • jam233
    November 24, 2009
    jam233
    As expected, The Omen series of films got progressively worse. This one starts out decent, but midway through it gets downright ridiculous and over the top. I completely lost interest at this point. Fairly well produced at least, but it does not have the quality of the first two.
  • ringoestrella258
    October 28, 2009
    ringoestrella258
    A bit of a disappointing end to the original Omen trilogy but there are still some good scenes and a few effective shocks.
  • deanhopkins670
    September 30, 2009
    deanhopkins670
    not as good as the first 2 but still a good sequel once u get started.
  • samanthaseaotter
    August 25, 2009
    samanthaseaotter
    Sam Neill was personally sponsored by James Mason for this part. Not a bad sequel to a sequel but easily could have been better.
  • Blaxunshine
    July 14, 2009
    Blaxunshine
    The son of Satan is preparing for the 2nd coming of Christ (but he takes some time out to go fox hunting) while he is trying not to be assassinated by the keepers of the daggers. Terrible ending where you have to read scripture to understand the hand of God

View All Omen III: The Final Conflict Reviews

Critic Reviews

No recent reviews.

Comments

  • 77Lily
    May 14, 2008
    77Lily
    A/N: I'm a real fan of the trilogy Omen and this is my alternative ending to it. Enjoy it!
    ***
    At first, when Damien Thorn opened his eyes, in his groggy state, he didn't understand where he was. Suddenly he realized he was in a hospital. Paul Buher was sitting close to him.

    "Welcome back, my Lord," he greeted in an extremely serious manner.

    "Why was I acting so stupid, when I came to this place," Damien uttered hoarsely. "I should have worn an armored vest."

    "No, you shouldn't," Paul retorted with a respectful and loyal smile. "Have you forgotten the Bible, Revelation 13? Your 'deadly' wound of the sword was healed, and you have come to life. Now you can leave your political bustle. All the politicians will be your puppets, as the Bible said in Matthew 5:37 and 6:13: 'the whole world lies under the control of the evil one'."
    Damien nodded, closed his eyes and a deep healing sleep took him into its soft embrace.

    === Thank you for reading!
  • mrclock101
    August 15, 2007
    mrclock101
    I enjoyed the film but i was anoyed at the end, he was killed by one dagger! in the first one his father was specificaly told that it takes all of the daggers to kill him, and they must be placed in a percific order. I simply do not understand how he could be killed by one!!!

    any theores???
  • garbagefanawesome
    July 2, 2007
    garbagefanawesome
    A lot better than the dreadful 4th one. This ISN'T the last in the series. There was a tv movie back in the 90's called The Omen 4.
Post A Comment | View All Comments

Critic ratings and reviews powered by RottenTomatoes.com

Fresh (60% or more critics rated the movie positively)

Rotten (59% or fewer critics rated the movie positively)

All Rotten Tomatoes content is used under license from Rotten Tomatoes. Rotten Tomatoes, Certified Fresh, and the Tomatometer are the trademarks of Incfusion Corporation, d/b/a Rotten Tomatoes, a subsidiary of IGN Entertainment, Inc.

Cast

More Like This

Click a thumb to vote on that suggestion, or add your own suggestions.

  • The Pursuit of Happyness
    The Pursuit of Happyness (33%)
  • Zodiac
    Zodiac (33%)
  • The Calling
    The Calling (100%)
  • The Bad Seed
    The Bad Seed (50%)

More Movies like Omen III: The Final Conflict

Facts

No facts approved yet. Be the first

Omen III: The Fin... : Watch Free on TV

Omen III: The Final Conflict Trivia

  • Who played the main role of Damien Thorne in The Omen III, the Final Conflict ?  Answer »
  • Just got this question. How many Omen movies were made? Correct answer 4 However there were 5 Omen movies made. The Omen 1976 Damien: Omen II 1978 Omen III: The final Conflict 1981 Omen IV: The Awakening 1991 The Omen Remake 2006  Answer »
More Omen III: The Final Conflict Trivia

Movie Quizzes

No quizzes for Omen III: The Final Conflict. Want to create one?

Video Clips

No video clips yet. Want to upload one?

Meet Other Fans

Add Omen III: The Final Conflict to favorites

Recent News

No recent headlines. Got one?

Recent Lists

Make a List |

View All Lists

Most Popular Skin

No skins yet. Interested in creating one?