Review of The Final Conflict (1981) by Sarah W — 03 Jan 2008

Really odd. Sam Neill is charismatic as the now grown-up Damien Thorn and there is a truly disturbing baby-killing sequence as well as a wonderfully shot scene where Damien prays to Satan. However, the rest of the film is pedestrian, relying too heavily on poor special effects rather than horror and suspense.

The titular "final conflict" feels half-baked and is shoved into the last 7 or 8 minutes of the film. The writers also chose to ignore nearly every bit of info regarding Damien in the previous two film.

As a result, the timeline is up the wall and anyone can see that the monks setting out to assassinate Damien are going about it the wrong way. It's a shame because with more careful scripting and better direction this could have been a reasonably good hybrid political thriller/horror.