The Final Conflict by Gordon McGill

 

(pb; 1980: movie tie-in novel, based on Andew Birkin’s screenplay. Third book in The Omen pentalogy.)

From the back cover

“Around the globe, drought, famine, and flood are striking down helpless millions. And everywhere there is trouble, Damien Thorne’s followers can be found─almost before disaster strikes─ready to offer aid to the pitiful survivors.

“Damien, the handsome, thirty-two-year-old head of one of the world’s most powerful corporations and certain to be president of the United States by the time he’s forty, Damien, believed to be the son of Satan, who is relentlessly reaching out to claim the Earth for the forces of darkness. . .

“Now is the time of prophecy, the beginning of the end for mankind. But where is the promised Messiah to save the world from ultimate evil. . .?”

Review

Final is a solid second book sequel to David Seltzer’s The Omen. Like its predecessor movie tie-in novel, Joseph Howard’s Damien—Omen II, it has the same virtues and play-it-safe drawbacks of its subgenre: Final is well-written, the characters and their relationships are well-sketched, its pacing is a deft, series-consistent balance of backstory, characterization, action, and horrifying death scenes. Despite that, the book adds little to the story or characters, although its tone is more perverse (e.g., Damien’s Black Chapel inside his Pereford house, where he was raised by Robert and Katherine Thorn), and McGill, when writing about one of The Omen’s satanic priests, calls him “Father Tassone” (Edgardo Emilio Tassone), Seltzer’s book-version name for the priest. In the 1976 film version of The Omen, Tassone was called Father Brennan.

One obvious thing─possibly an egregious flaw─is that most of the priests in the movie tie-in sequels (aside from Carl Bugenhagen, who died in Damien) think they need to stab Damien with one of the Crucifixion-hilted daggers, when they need to use seven, in a cross-like pattern. How did that vital information escape the priests’ attention?

Final’s ending has an abrupt, low-budget B-movie finish, appropriate when one considers the hard-cut, not-quite-choppy cinematic feel of Final. While not a standout entry in its series or subgenre, it’s modestly entertaining, a good writer toeing the line of his work-for-hire subgenre.

Followed by Gordon McGill’s Omen IV: Armageddon 2000, a non-movie tie-in, and related to the 1991 television movie (Omen IV: The Awakening) in series name only (their storylines are completely different).

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Final's film version, bearing the same title, was released stateside on March 20, 1981. Graham Baker directed it, from a screenplay by Andrew Birkin.

Sam Neill played Damien Thorne. Lisa Harrow played Kate Reynolds. Barnaby Holm played Peter Reynolds.

Rossano Brazzi played DeCarlo.

Don Gordon played Harvey Dean. Leueen Willoughby played Barbara Dean.

Damien—Omen II by Joseph Howard

 

(pb; 1978: movie tie-in novel, based on Stanley Mann and Mike Hodges’s screenplay. Second book in The Omen pentalogy.)

From the back cover

Little by little, one of the world’s most powerful families is close to being destroyed. And no one seems to know why. Those who suspect the truth do not live to reveal it.

“Only thirteen-year-old Damien Thorn seems immune from the bizarre accidents claiming the lives of those around him. Damien, whose own father tried to kill him seven years ago. . . Damien, whose loving foster family is learning the meaning of hellish fear. . . Damien, who is leaving behind the seeming innocence of youth to fulfill the terrifying prophecy foretold long ages ago. . . Damien, who is discovering that it is not, after all the meek but the master of ultimate evil who shall inherit the earth!”

Review

Damien is a solid, less dread-atmospheric follow-up to David Seltzer's The Omen. The writing is good, the characters and their relationships are well-sketched, the pacing of the book is an entertaining balance of backstory, characterization, action and kill scenes. Having said that, this first sequel is not as heady a B-movie thrill as its predecessor, a movie novelization that does little, if anything, to expand on the screenplay on which it’s based.

Damien is a fun, blast-through read, one that does not transcend its movie tie-in genre, but is still mildly entertaining─just don’t expect the over-the-top, beyond-its-source-flick thrills that Omen, a high-mark for movie tie-ins, trafficked in. Followed by another movie tie-in novel, Gordon McGill’s The Final Conflict (1981).

Additional note: In Damien (book and film) Richard Thorn’s brother is called “Richard,” the name given Damien’s human father in the film version of Omen. The book version of Omen calls Damien’s human father “Jeremy.”

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The film version of Damien was released stateside on June 9, 1978. Don Taylor and an uncredited Mike Hodges directed the film, from a screenplay by Hodges and Stanley Mann.

William Holden played Richard Thorn. Lee Grant played Ann Thorn. Jonathan-Scott Taylor played Damien Thorn. Lucas Donat played Mark Thorn.

An uncredited Ian Hendry played Michael Morgan. An uncredited Leo McKern reprised his role of Carl Bugenhagen. Sylvia Sidney played Aunt Marion. Elizabeth Shepherd played Joan Hart. Allan Arbus, billed as Alan Arbus, played Pasarian. Meshach Taylor played Dr. Kane. Nicholas Pryor played Charles Warren. Lew Ayres played Paul Atherton.

Robert Foxworth played Paul Buher. Lance Henriksen played Sgt. Neff.