The Final Conflict

Graham Baker, a British director of television commercials, makes a debut that is technically auspicious, and Robert Paynter and Phil Meheux, the cinematographers, have approximated the rich, chocolaty chiaroscuro of The Godfather saga. Does anyone care? [24 Mar 1981]

It does mark a return of sorts to the stylishness of The Omen after the tackiness of Damien - Omen II.

There's sure nothing purgative about the kind of anxiety the filmmakers are exploiting. If anything, it condemns them to strictly degenerate company. [24 Mar 1981, p.B8]

Unfortunately, half the time this feels more like an Omen parody than a chance to give it a great send off.

Director Graham Baker has little gift for atmosphere, and apart from one inspired sequence, I suspect I'll forget every aspect of this movie in a couple of days.

In the cast are many, many dogs, who are charmed by Damien in a way no audience is likely to be.

A dumb end to a dumb series of movies that, in retrospect, play like the paranoid ramblings of a religious fundamentalist who sees unholy anti-Christian conspiracies behind every world event.

The Final Conflict is just okay. Young Sam Neill (as Damien Thorn) overacts his way through this film which ends anticlimactically. Although it was advertised as the final film, the producers had planned on making a fourth entry, but this was scrapped until a bad TV movie called OMEN IV came out. The positive is the special effects and death scenes here are brilliant.

Sam Neill is great, the score is beautiful, and the story concept is interesting. That said, the pacing, side characters, and basically everything else (including the ending) needed improvements.

L’épisode final de la Malédiction avec un jeune premier dans le rôle du fils de Satan, Sam Neill ! il y est inquiétant à souhait et sournoisement machiavélique mais doit néanmoins porter tout le poids du film sur ses épaules… ainsi que le poids d’un scénario qui part en morceaux et qui confine à une naïveté régulièrement teintée de ridicule. La musique de Jerry Goldsmith fait encore le boulot mais la mise en scène molle et le rythme globalement apathique finissent par nous détacher complètement d’une histoire qui devrait pourtant atteindre son apogée… Or, il n’en est rien, car entre la crédibilité sérieusement mise à mal et l’ennui qui plombe inexorablement le film, on se fout de qui passe la ligne d’arrivée en premier. Le prince non pas des ténèbres mais de l’ennui sans aucun doute !