- Director: John Moore
- Writer: David Seltzer
- Stars: Liev Schreiber, Julia Stiles, Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 50 Minutes
- Link: https://amzn.to/2R9nhR0
Synopsis
The Vatican observatory spots three comets. The prophecies are coming true, and Armageddon is coming soon…
Robert Thorn rushes to the hospital where his wife Katherine has just lost her baby. They haven’t told Katherine, and she might not be able to have another. The priest there knows of a baby where the mother died, and switching the two would be such a little thing…
Time passes, and Robert becomes the assistant to the Ambassador to Great Britain. We start seeing various people on the street in what looks to be a setup for a Final Destination film as the Ambassador waits in his car. Boom! Robert is now the full Ambassador.
Two years pass. They throw a huge birthday party for Damien, and the Nanny sees a big black dog staring at her, but this time, it’s a German Shepherd instead of a Rottweiler. The nanny then hangs herself from the top of the house as all the children and photographers look on.
When Roberts gets back to the office, a priest, Father Brennan, wants to see him. “He’ll kill again!” Says the priest. “I was there at the hospital the night your son was born!” Jennings the photographer takes pictures of the priest on the way out. Mrs. Baylock shows up, and she wants to be the new nanny. Jennings develops his film, and he finds a strange line going into the priest on the prints.
The family gets in the car to go to church, and Damien gets crazy and scratches up Katherine. Robert mentions that Damien has never been sick a day in his life, which Katherine thinks is strange all by itself. Robert goes to tuck in Damien, and Mrs. Baylock explains that the dog in Damien’s room is a new guard dog, but Robert says to get rid of it. In this scene, the dog is a Rottweiler. At the zoo, Damien spooks the monkeys, which convinces Katherine that she needs to see a psychiatrist.
Father Brennan tells Robert to meet him tomorrow, as Katherine is in grave danger. Jennings once again snaps shots of the priest. They meet, and Brennan recites Revelation to him and explains things; Robert needs to see the man Bugenhagen in the town of Meggido to learn more. Oh, and Katherine is pregnant. Damien will kill the baby before it’s born. Thorn warns Brennan to stay away from his family.
As he leaves the meeting, Brennan is impaled by a lightning rod that falls from the church roof. When Robert gets home, Katherine tells him that she’s pregnant, but wants an abortion. The psychologist tells Robert that they need the abortion, but Robert wants the baby. Meanwhile, Damien rides his scooter through the house while Katherine is up on a stepstool watering plants. He, of course, knocks her over the railing and she loses the baby. Robert visits her in the hospital, and she whispers “Don’t let him kill me.”
Jennings calls and shows photos of the dead nanny and the dead priest; these shots show how they were killed before it happened. Even on the digital camera it shows up. They go over to the dead priest’s home, and find all his documentation. Jennings took a picture of himself, and he’s got the death-mark as well.
They go to the orphanage where Robert got Damien, but it has burned down. The nun there tells them to find Father Spiletto in the monastery in Subiaco. Spiletto is a burned-up wreck of a man who sends them to an old cemetery up north from Rome.
They go to the cemetery and look at the graves. Damien’s mother was a Jackal, and in the child’s grave they find Robert’s actual son with his brains bashed out. The film finally resorts to a jump scare when dogs pounce on the men out of nowhere and they’re forced to flee the cemetery. Meanwhile, back in London, Nanny Baylock visits at the hospital, and she injects an air bubble into Katherine’s IV drip, killing her. When Robert finds out about it, he decides it’s time to kill Damien– but how?
They go to Meggido and find Bugenhagen. Bugenhagen gives them seven daggers and tells them to look for 666 under his hair. They argue about actually going through with it, as Robert still has doubts. Jennings asks “What if I’m next?” Unsurprisingly, Jennings is next, graphically beheaded; Robert is now completely convinced.
Robert flies home and plans to take Damien. Robert traps the evil dog in the basement, then he grabs the scissors and starts digging around in sleeping Damien’s hair. He finds the 666 under the hairline just as Baylock attacks. He throws Damien in the car and drives right over Baylock. The cops see him driving unsafely and start to pursue him
Robert drags Damien into the church and gets ready to stab him with the daggers. The police come in and shoot him before he completes the ritual.
Commentary
This is almost a scene-by-scene remake. The casting is interesting. Liev Schreiber usually plays a creep or villain, so seeing him as the good guy/hero in this was a little strange. His manner here is still very ominous and intimidating, like he’s about to pop out his claws and roar at any moment.
The cinematography is a toss-up; it all looks colorful and dangerous, but there was a lot to be said for the grainy, washed-out dimness of the 70s version. The story in the old one holds up obviously, since this was exatly the same thing, but happening in the 70s made it feel more real. Other than the reframed shots and upgraded visuals, this film offers quite honestly nothing new. It’s practically word-for-word the same script in the vast majority of scenes.
The death of the first ambassador is the only new scene in the first half of the film. Katherine’s death is also different from the first film, but not as good in my opinion. Some differences are just there so you can’t say it’s exactly the same – Jennings was decapitated with a swinging metal sign instead of a sheet of glass, but that doesn’t change anything.
We watched it for the sake of completeleness, but there’s no reason you should watch it.