Horrible movie - The Final Conflict (1981) Discussion

[–] Doom 15 years ago

I specifically came to this board just in the hope there would be a post like this. No lie.

I could not agree with you MORE.

After what I felt were two GREAT films (The Omen and Damien: Omen II), I could not have been more disappointed by this sad excuse for a 'conclusion' to the Damien storyline.

What a steaming pile of crap this film is.

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Wait a minute... who am I here?

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[–] kimasabe90035-1 15 years ago

Really? I think Sam Neill is a terrific actor. I've enjoyed watching him in all his movies. He played a brash "Kennedy" type, gone Evil, quite well in Omen III, imo.

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[–] mrs-tweedy 15 years ago

SPOILERS -SPOILERS -SPOILERS

I watched it again last night after seeing it YEARS ago (and remembering it as being quite thrilling). I'm sorry to say I spent the entire duration of the film alternately laughing and hurling abuse at the screen.

I like Sam Neill but his acting in this is just HORRIBLE. It's a wonder he had any teeth left after the amount of scenerey he chewed and his disturbing facial expressions and mannerisms just made me feel uncomfortable.

I have to say though that my biggest gripes were the COLOSSAL plot holes and incongruities (oh,and the editing was awful)

For example;

Dent's wife discovers that Dent was involved in murdering the babies yet she's still at home WITH THE BABY when he gets back from work. Then the following day she's standing ironing the laundry. WHAT!!!!! I mean if that were real-life she would have bolted to the nearest police station with all the evidence and had ole' Harvey arrested.

Kate Reynold's son is only 12 and yet she seems quite comfortable leaving him at home alone, at night, while she's at work. In fact he disappears for 3 days and she doesn't even appear to notice!

Damien calls a meeting of his followers in some remote-looking location, in the middle of the night yet there are children there. How did they get there? Why did their parents not realise they'd gone?

The priest assassins were RUBBISH! They seemed to go to ridiculously elaborate lengths to kill Damien when all they had to do was rush up to him on one of the many occasions when he was walking around in the open. I realise that they would probably be killed by his henchmen/bodyguards but since they're doing God's work they would (logically) be quite willing to lay down their own lives to destroy Satan anyway.

I could go on and on but basically wanted to agree that this was a very rushed and disappointing conclusion to the trilogy.
"It's Brigadoon! It's Bloody Brigadoon!"

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[–] armoreska 15 years ago

they could also try killing him using guns, in public, just for fun to see what happens

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[–] 15 years ago

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[–] armoreska 11 years ago

Oh hell 3 years later I dunno. Maybe coulda disabled him or smth, then rush him with blades? He's still made of flesh & blood?

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[–] 11 years ago

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[–] marthalorusso 15 years ago

I 100% agree with your whole post.

I like Sam Neill but his acting in this is just HORRIBLE.

I think he's not a bad actor, but this character was definitely not for him. He wasn't scary not even for a second. Come on, he's the AntiChrist, the key role, being the story disappointing, at least they should have cast an actor who could deliver a strongly terrifying performance. Peter, being 12 years old, was more creepy, specially in the scene when Damien blooded him, he looked at him in a very convincing demon-ish way.

About the plot holes and incongruities you marked, I should add: Dean is the right hand of the AC, so Dean is evil, and he has no problem ordering the killing of the babies, but when Damien told him to kill his own baby who was born on March 24th, he was... horrified? didn't see it coming? And suddenly he became good, and tried to save the baby, what kind of an apostle of the AC he was ???

Despite all of this, I liked the characters of Kate, Peter and the priest (Rossano Brazzi). They made the movie kind of watchable to me.

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[–] athom32 14 years ago

"Damien told him to kill his own baby who was born on March 24th, he was... horrified? didn't see it coming? And suddenly he became good, and tried to save the baby, what kind of an apostle of the AC he was ???"

It can't be explained why he would become good, but acting in your own self interest is a major part of Satanist beliefs. Which does possibly explain saving his own child.

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[–] JrnlofEddieDeezenStudies 12 years ago

I should add: Dean is the right hand of the AC, so Dean is evil, and he has no problem ordering the killing of the babies, but when Damien told him to kill his own baby who was born on March 24th, he was... horrified? didn't see it coming? And suddenly he became good, and tried to save the baby, what kind of an apostle of the AC he was ???

Or rather that was a good subtext about one hypocritical aspect of "human nature".

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[–] kkuger 13 years ago

"The priest assassins were RUBBISH!"

Never a Borgia around when you need one.

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[–] JrnlofEddieDeezenStudies 12 years ago

I like how half of your points are not only realism complaints (I take it you forgot you were watching fiction), but based on you believing that you know how every single parent in the world operates, and they all operate something like you would/something like your ideal.

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[–] buckaroobanzai50 15 years ago

Omen 1 and 2 got televised in the UK close together but they refused to televise Omen 3
That's not true. ITV screened Omen 3 twice during the '80s. In 1985 and 1987 I believe.

I watched it again last night after seeing it YEARS ago (and remembering it as being quite thrilling). I'm sorry to say I spent the entire duration of the film alternately laughing and hurling abuse at the screen.
Exactly what I thought after seeing again last week. It was complete tosh!!

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[–] 15 years ago

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[–] CCsito 13 years ago

I remember when this movie was released to theaters back in the early 1980s and did not do well. After seeing it on TV for the first time, I can understand why. It lacks any of the suspense of the first two movies of the series. The acting was lame in my opinion and the ending was murky and very disappointing. So the main character utters a somewhat cryptic line and just flops to the ground? Pretty sad. I have seen quite a few movies that dealt with the Satan versus Christ theme and this one really was a dull one. I think Sam Neill is a good actor, but he was not the right selection for the movie's role of Damian. This movie needed a major overhaul. This "final conflict" sputtered to a noncompelling conclusion. I could not envision an Omen IV after this one.

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[–] eggman75 12 years ago

They used to screen the trilogy on a regular basis in the 80's, now it might have only been on the ITV Tyne/Tees region but I remember it quite clearly as it was shown on a Saturday night. The Final Conflict is pretty abysmal isnt it? I think it gets swamped by the Second Coming plot line. I cant have been the only person thinkin "Oh, the Second Coming, I'd quite like to see that" so it was more of a distraction. They mustve had one eye on a 4th installment too, I was only 8 when I first saw and I even I knew they needed to use all 7 daggers. The ending looks cobbled together and if you read the novelzation of Omen 3 the ending of the film is meaningless. Im pretty sure that the novel Omen 4 was based on an original screenplay that was discarded. They Omen 4 and 5 books would have made pretty lousy films anyway. I best was probably to leave the first as stand alone movie

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[–] 12 years ago

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[–] 12 years ago

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[–] Morbius_Fitzgerald 11 years ago

Oh come on, this isn't that bad. Watch the fourth one and you'll treat this like Shakespeare.

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[–] fiatlux-1 11 years ago

*spoilers*
The script was horrible!!! Sam Neill, however, was great as grown Damien.
He gave Damien a regal, almost Shakespearean aura and that is almost as scary as a full-blown horned evil!
I don't know what the writers were thinking when they wrote this vile crap. It relies on shocking spectacle for its punch, rather than an actual storyline.
And there's NO RESOLUTION basically, God and/or Jesus never fights him!
He gets taken down (temporarily) by his former gf!

Omen IV is far from terrible, it doesn't deserve the rep it has. I liked it a lot. Its a TV movie, and far superior to most I have seen to boot! The casting of Delia was brilliant, Asia is chilling!

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[–] Daytripping 10 years ago

While this film is not as great as the first, and the script is not that great either, it's far superior to "Damien: Omen II". Because it's executed better. The acting and direction. As I mentioned in another thread, "The Final Conflict" has a very similar feel and tone to "The Omen". While "Damien" felt like a really bad TV movie from the 70's. It didn't have a bad story. But the acting was terrible. Not sure who is to blame. The director? The screen writer? But I found it to be unwatchable. Then, and now.

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[–] rhiron 10 years ago

I agree. Omen 3 is the worst of the original trilogy. I don't personally mind Neill too much, but I know how some people who've seen this film just think "hey, it's the guy from Jurassic Park"!

Overall, I think this was a bit of a missed opportunity. It needed Richard Donner - badly - and I think the leap of twenty years between Damien: Omen II and this one is far too long a gap. I mean, it's hard to believe that nothing weird happened in the 7 (fictional) years between The Omen and Omen II, so how did Damien get through high school, college and managing his own massive company without anything bad happening?!

Overall, though (and it's a point that Sam Neill himself made at the time), people expect an adult to be evil through things like a natural loss of innocence. It's different for a kid to be the devil incarnate (or it was more different back then).

I've said it before and I'll say it again: watching the parent figures (whether its Gregory Peck or William Holden) going around trying to kill a demonic child, even in the last few minutes of their respective movies, is far more thrilling than anything that happens in this film!

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