Damien Thorn (Sam Neill) is now a man, with the world at his feet.
But with ultimate power in his reach, Damien is aware that a new messiah is about to be born - and with it, his demise.
Determined to fight this inevitable fall, Damien organises a plot to kill every newborn who could grow up to destroy him.
This movie is underwhelming.
There is no way around it.
In its favour, new director Graham Baker does try to keep the film to the low key style of the 1976 picture - or the filmmakers were so bereft of ideas that the film comes off more low key than intended.
Aside from a Rube Goldberg-esque assassination at the start, the assassinations are not that interesting.
There was something uncanny about the setpieces in the first film. The second film went bigger, and perhaps the filmmakers of the third film felt there was a ceiling on how over the top they could go.
This film has little flare, and the deaths that take place are uninspired.
It is hard to compare this film to the others, because (to its credit) it tries to do its own thing. Even Jerry Goldsmith is on the blank slate, delivering a completely new score - not that gothic but also feels inappropriately grandiose for how small it feels.
The film’s key failing is that it does not know where the horror in its story is, and how to convey it.
The film is centred around Damien, now played by Sam Neill as a fully self-aware and all powerful Antichrist.
Neill does his best, and there are a few moments where he creates a sense of simmering menace.
Sadly, it is hard to be afraid of him.
Spending so much time with Damien dissipates any sense of mystery or powerful. He just comes across as a rich guy.
There is also a lack of scope. We are told the world is in chaos, but we do not see any of that chaos.
The Omen managed to couch its terrors in familiar situations and settings - the family.
The third Omen flirts with horror concepts - altho of a magnitude that is not exactly workable for a big budget mainstream Hollywood thriller.
Damien’s plan is to prevent the Second Coming of the messiah by pulling a King Herod and murdering all babies born under a specific constellation.
There is also a collection of monks who have found the daggers of Megiddo.
Damien is so omnipotent and their demises so underwhelming the film almost plays like a parody (but the scenes are not silly enough).
Despite Damien’s fear of being overthrown by a new Christ - a flip on the dynamic of the previous films’ leads - the film is never able to make him an engaging antagonist.
One of the compelling elements about Omen II was the way it treated Damien as a kid wrestling with what he will have to sacrifice.
Omen III’s adult iteration is at the height of his power, with no doubts about himself. He has no arc.
It would have probably worked better if the film had focused around the monks, with Damien as an unstoppable villain.
If the film had followed the same course as its predecessor, there is an alternative version of this movie based around Damien which could have worked.
Imagine an Omen III where Damien is trying to fight his destiny by using his company and connections to help the world. Inadvertently, he fails upwards (downwards?) to become the Antichrist.
But that is not the movie we ended up with.
Aside from a wonderfully spiteful final line, The Final Conflict is a sad down note for the original Omen franchise.
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