Under normal circumstances, I would have reviewed the entire series, episode by episode, but by the time this aired, my former employers at TV Equals were starting to struggle a bit, making it necessary to cut down on things here and there. The most popular shows remained covered on a week-to-week basis, while other shows, in particular newer ones, tended to drop down to monthly coverage.
Damien was indeed one of those latter shows, and since there were only ten episodes, period, I only ended up doing two reviews, which is perfect for our purposes, especially since each of them only clocks in around four pages, which is much shorter than my typical reviews here that aren't recycled.
That said, I will be doing a quick wrap-up of the Omen series as a whole towards the end of this review, so if you're not as interested in my reviews of Damien, or if you haven't seen it yet, I will understand if you want to skip down past that to my final thoughts on the franchise as a whole.
Regardless, thanks to all of you who accompanied me on this long and winding journey, and I hope you will also join me next month, when I attempt to tackle the Halloween series- or at least some of it! 🎃
Beware: spoilers!
Damien Series Premiere: The Beast Rises
On the season premiere of Damien, the latest iteration of the classic horror series The Omen, we met a 30-year old Damien (Bradley James, of iZombie and Merlin fame), now a war photographer in Syria. As we see in flashbacks of the original Omen film, this is indeed Damien Thorn, son of former Ambassador Robert Thorn (the late Gregory Peck), who tried to kill him as a five-year-old child, a fact Damien is only just starting to remember.
Indeed, Damien has blacked out all of this until an old woman (Viv Moore, The Witch) approaches him during the turmoil of a forced evacuation of squatters by soldiers in a war-torn part of Syria. Touching his head, her eyes rolling back into her head and seeming to go into a trance, she tells him “I love you. It’s all for you” and says something to him in Latin, before getting decked with a rock and knocked unconscious and taken away.
This causes Damien to flash back to that infamous scene in the original movie where his nanny says the same thing, right before hanging herself in front of a horrified group of revelers at Damien’s fifth birthday party. The old woman promptly disappears, leaving Damien confused and out of sorts, not sure what just happened. He and friend and fellow photog Imani (Omid Abtahi, Argo) are forcibly abducted by the soldiers, who inform them that they are to be deported back to the States.
Ex-girlfriend Kelly (Tiffany Hines, Bones), however, not only films the incident in question, she gets away and is able to catch a ride out of the area from someone, allowing her to stay put in Syria for the time being. Back in New York, Damien gets in touch with Kelly and asks her to see what she can find out about the old woman.
Now banned from Syria himself, Damien tries to call in a favor with old friend Cray (Cody Ray Thompson, Antisocial 1 & 2), who he was in the Preston Club with before getting tossed out for unknown reasons 15 years ago. Cray says he will do what he can to allow Damien to be able to go back to Syria, though we don’t quite see who Cray is or what he does, exactly, beyond being a member of said club.
Damien also runs into Ann Rutledge (Barbara Hershey, Chicago Hope, and who once played Mary Magdalene in the Scorsese classic The Last Temptation of Christ), a mysterious woman, who says she has been looking out for him for years, as have others, including, as we discover, the old woman from earlier.
She also knows an awful lot about him, including that he was kicked out of various schools over the years, but that his dad would be proud of what he’s become. She says their paths will cross again soon, and makes cryptic reference to the fact that the “seal has been broken, the trumpet blown,” which only serves to mystify Damien that much more.
Kelly returns to New York and meets with Damien, informing him that she wasn’t able to find the old woman, but that she found something odd on the video of their interaction that she filmed. It seems that the old woman spoke to Damien in Latin, saying: “Here is my beloved son, in whom I am well-pleased.”
This turns out to be a quote from the Bible, specifically the Gospel of Matthew, in which it was spoken by God to Christ, as he was baptized by John the Baptist. Christ was himself 30 at the time, just like Damien, and, in a way, Damien was baptized at that moment as well, when the rock hit the old woman and her blood splattered onto his face.
Damien tells Kelly about his flashbacks about the nanny and admits that he broke up with her because he always felt like there was a dark cloud hovering above him and he didn’t want to drag her down with him. Kelly introduces him to Simone (Megalyn Echikunwoke, The Following and The 4400), her sister, who seems wary of him, probably because of their break-up, not the whole “dark cloud” thing- at least at the moment.
Kelly does some research on Damien and his family and finds out about Jennings (David Warner in the original “Omen”), a fellow photographer, who died under mysterious circumstances in Israel, while traveling with Damien’s father. She says they were there to meet with Carl Bugenhagen, an archaeologist, who was in the Middle East on a dig, for unknown reasons. Kelly says they should go and talk to his former student, Professor Renayas (Sam Anderson, “Lost”) for more info.
When they meet, the Professor has a strong reaction to Damien’s name and tells them that Bugenhagen was obsessed with Damien, and that he was a Biblical scholar. He says that Damien’s father wanted to talk to him about the “End of Days” and “The Beast” or “Man of Lawlessness.” Damien realizes that he’s talking about the anti-Christ and is skeptical, especially when the Professor insists that he must accept Christ as his personal savior and warns him that “the Devil can take many forms.”
Damien and Kelly leave, and we see that three dogs are watching over them. The Professor’s door opens on its own, allowing the dogs passage inside, and then the door to his study as well, where they attack and kill the Professor, ripping out his throat in spectacularly gory fashion, as the Omen series was somewhat infamous for.
Kelly discovers that the Professor has been killed and Damien automatically blames himself, even though she tells him he was killed by animals in a freak accident. He demands that she leave and distance herself from him, lest anything bad happen to her, which she reluctantly does. Turns out he was more right than he knew, as Kelly goes outside to find her car stuck in the mud, and things only get worse from there.
Kelly steps out of the car to find a board to leverage herself out, and then the car begins to sink, almost as if it were in quicksand. She herself then gets pulled under and her screams bring Damien running, but all too late to save her. Somehow, he manages to evade being pulled under himself, even though he was standing right in the same area of mud.
Eventually, firefighters and cops arrive and they are able to retrieve Kelly’s body, determining it to be another “freak accident.” Damien rides in the ambulance with her, along with Simone and Imani. Despite her skepticism of Damien earlier, Simone seems strangely forgiving of Damien, and leans heavily on him for comfort. It’s possible she’s in shock, I suppose- understandably.
Later, Damien takes her home and Simone mentions how Kelly is in Heaven now, and how it’s ironic that she would die here, after Simone and her parents were convinced she’d be killed in her line of work in some war-torn country at some point. Damien seems pretty skeptical of the whole Heaven thing, but mostly keeps his mouth shut, probably wisely.
We see a man meet with a religious figure, neither of whom we find out the names of. The man tells the other man that the Professor is dead and that it happened after he spoke with Damien. The religious man frets that they “waited too long” and opens up a trunk, retrieving a dagger there, which he gives to the other man. We know from the original Omen films that this is likely one of the daggers of Megiddo, a mystical item that is what must be used to vanquish the anti-Christ.
We end where we began, with Damien visiting a church, where he asks the statue of Christ “Why?” and “What do you want?” as the wind blows around him, putting out all the candles. Damien touches the statue and it instantly crumbles into pieces, falling to the ground. Damien flashes back to his father trying to kill him and being shot in the process. He leaves the church, only to spot the old woman outside.
Damien rushes towards her and demands to know who she is and what’s going on, but she says nothing and only grabs a clutch of hair from his head as a group of near-by passers-by pull Damien off of her.
He goes home and looks at various pictures, only to notice for the first time that the old woman is in every one of the ones he’s in, watching over him- even as a child. He runs into the bathroom and looks into the mirror, looking at the spot where the old woman ripped out his hair, and sure enough, he sees the three infamous sixes- the Number of the Beast.
And so it begins. I liked that this was more of a continuation than a complete reboot of the classic series. While it’s clear that they are ret-conning at least The Final Conflict, if not Damien: Omen II, having clips of the original film undeniably helped the proceedings and let us know that the original creators were on board with this one, down to the participation of David Seltzer, who wrote the original and receives a writing credit on the series.
In addition, the series was developed by Glen Mazzara, best-known as the former executive producer and show-runner of The Walking Dead in its second and third seasons, which are the same positions he serves here on Damien.
Director Shekhar Kapur, best-known for the Elizabeth films with Cate Blanchett, does the honors for the premiere, which, oddly enough, was actually originally commissioned for the Lifetime network, of all places. I think A&E is a much better fit, especially alongside the similarly-minded Bates Motel, which it airs after- though that show is technically a prequel series, not a sequel like this one.
While it’s much too soon to say if the story will work as an ongoing series, the premiere was certainly watchable, and features many of the trademarks of the original Omen series, including the gory and/or oddball deaths, the menacing Rottweilers, the sinister women watching over Damien, and, of course, Damien himself and the anti-Christ lore that comes along with him.
It does go light on the trademark music- for now- but hopefully the infamous “Ave Satani” will eventually make an appearance, somewhere down the line. There were definitely hints of it in the score, for sure, from fellow Walking Dead vet Bear McCreary. However, the score here is much more subtle and less overbearing- though, don’t get me wrong, I just adore Jerry Goldsmith’s Oscar-winning score, as over-the-top and nuts as it is. At the same time, with it having been parodied by the likes of South Park, I can see where they would want to go a different direction with the music, lest it come off as silly or overpowering.
While only time will tell if it warrants must-see status, Damien is off to a decent enough start, thanks to a polished look, a solid cast- especially Hershey, who exudes the menace she perfected in the likes of Black Swan- and some excellent gore effects.
It will certainly be interesting to see how they proceed from here. Will Damien accept his fate, or fight it? How will he fare against those who stand against him? What insane ways of dispatching people will they come up with here? Can’t wait to find out. For the time being, I’m in.
Writer's Note #3: The following article was originally published on the website TV Equals on May 10th, 2016.
Beware: Spoilers for the entire series!
Damien Season Finale- “Ave Satani” Review: All Hail the New King in Town
On the first season finale of Damien, things came to a head as Christian and Satanic forces alike waged a war for Damien’s very soul to see which side of the fence he would fall on in the end, in “Ave Satani.” The title, of course, refers to the now legendary Oscar-winning theme music by Jerry Goldsmith.
For those not in the know, “Ave Satani” is the Latin phrase for “Hail Satan,” which would be the opposite of say, the better known “Ave Maria,” which translates as “Hail Mary,” which might have actually been a better title for this final endeavor, given the dwindling ratings and dubious critical reviews the show has received over the season. In that, I mean, the non-traditional, football terminology for a last-ditch effort, of course.
Let me explain. Let’s face it: the show started off on the wrong foot all around. I liked that it made a clear distinction on setting itself apart from other sequels/TV installments and the remake by confidentially and purposefully connecting itself to the original The Omen and even going so far as to put creator David Seltzer up front in the credits (which admittedly may have been an enforced requirement- but still, nice to see) and feature “flashbacks” in the form of clips from that classic film within the narrative.
All of this was as if to say: “We’re our own thing, and we’re picking up where the classic original left off, so you can ignore all that other stuff.” Not that I necessarily hated that other stuff, mind you- I quite enjoyed all of the sequels and even the remake, to be honest, which is more than I can say for a lot of ongoing franchises and remakes.
But still, point taken- the show wanted us to know that it meant business- and boy, did it ever. In fact, that was the major problem early on- it was almost too much business. In establishing its earnest, humorless, and straight-forward approach, it may have turned off a lot of viewers in the process. I think the idea was to scare viewers, not scare them off!
But for those of us who hung in there, it actually developed into a pretty engaging show, after ditching the slower pace of the early episodes about halfway through- ironically, just as the ratings bottomed out. The fifth episode marked a series low at 0.371 million viewers, down from the series high, the premiere, which logged in 0.753 million.
For a bit of contrast, Bates Motel, it’s companion mate on the same night, regularly clocks about around 1.45-50 million viewers and tends to hold steady with that most of the season- though interestingly, its lowest rated show was also right in the middle, with the sixth episode garnering only 1.33 million viewers.
To be fair, the week of the lowest-rated episode of Damien coincided with a week that Bates Motel didn’t air at all- hence it ending next week instead of at the same time as Damien- so that may have had a lot to do with it, but the simple fact is that Damien wasn’t holding viewers from Bates Motel, which may not be good news for its future prospects.
Like I said, the irony is, the show got better in time, rewarding those who stuck with it, as the pace picked up considerably and the show found its way, adopting a more focused, genuinely unnerving approach. Put another, perhaps better way, I went from somewhat dreading having to watch it again to actually looking forward to it.
That back half was way better than the front half, as the show found its footing and started to achieve its goal of being actually disturbing, rather than desperately trying to be. I think, for me, personally, that moment occurred in the episode (“Seven Curses”) where Damien was urgently trying to track down that war vet he was profiling at the hospital and got lost in a maze of hallways, eventually running afoul of a circle of people chanting, among other things.
That sequence really was chilling and disquieting, rather than playing at being so, as the first half of the season was. The show itself seemed to recognize this and abandoned the whole “Who’s going to die this week and what crazy way will we do it?” approach of the earlier episodes, in favor of a hallucinogenic, truly creepy approach, which worked for me, even though I suppose there’s something to be said for the earlier approach.
I mean, crazy, inventive deaths is what got the likes of Final Destination and Saw through multiple entries of those franchises, right? So, it can and does work, and in many ways, the original The Omen set the stage for that sort of thing, along with the slightly-later on Halloween and Friday the 13th, where inventive, off-the-wall deaths became horror’s bread and butter.
But that sort of formula can get old and I think Damien realized that early on enough to save itself by broadening the canvas and getting a little experimental with things. The next episode after “Curses,” “Temptress” was a clever twist on the tried-and-true “It’s only a dream” gambit, as the entire story-line proved to be all in Damien’s head, the result of his trying to kill himself and being lost in a drug-and-alcohol-induced haze.
In some ways, it shouldn’t have worked- after all, horror fans have seen this sort of thing a million times- hell, they basically made of series of that, too, via the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise from the late, great Wes Craven. But, once again, for me, that was the first episode where I thought, “This show could be great if it played its cards right.”
Luckily, it took this approach and ran with it, keeping up the momentum of Damien’s life spiraling out of control and getting crazier and crazier for the rest of the season, and furthermore, paralleling that with the journey of Detective James Shay (David Meunier, Justified), who also found himself becoming unhinged because everyone else thought he was out of his mind.
Side note: Big props to the show as well for portraying Shay as a gay man in a matter-of-fact way without beating us over the head with it. How ironic is it that one of the most realistic, sensitive portrayals of a homosexual couple and their life as parents of a young child is to be found on a horror show? (Of course, those against such things would probably argue, of course it would be found there, as all homosexuals are godless- which, naturally, is hardly the case- but that’s a whole different discussion!)
Moving on… things got legitimately exciting for that final string of episodes, as an old friend of Damien’s-turned-loose-cannon-serial-killer was introduced (an effectively creepy Joe Doyle, of Salem fame, who tellingly also played Judas in Killing Jesus, making him perfect casting here). This forced Damien to start thinking about picking a side, as well as who his real friends were.
Meanwhile, those friends also had to figure out what side of the coin they fell upon, with Simone (Megalyn E.K., of The Following and The 4400) initially going with Sister Greta (erstwhile Calamity Jane Robin Weigert, of Deadwood fame) and the Christian faction, while Amani (Omid Abtahi, Argo) ultimately sided with the Satanic faction. Both paid the price for their choices, but in the end, only one was left standing- and interestingly, it wasn’t the latter.
I also liked that the show kept you guessing as to how things were going to turn out right up until the end. Was Sister Greta going to successfully be able to save Damien’s soul? Were her methods any better than the Satanists? Did the Satanists seriously just cap a line of nuns, Mob execution-style? (Indeed, they did!) Was Damien going to go ballistic and kill everybody? Would anyone be able to stop him? Who would be left standing in the end?
We got all those answers and more, as Amani was killed by the dastardly John Lyons (Scott Wilson, a long way from his kindly-but-tough Walking Dead character), despite knowing he could have used him for leverage against Damien, while the arguably even worse Ann Rutledge (Barbara Hershey, ably expanding on her villainous Black Swan character) ultimately played upon Damien’s love of his friends to get him to side with her.
In the end, there were casualties on both sides, but also one surprising resurrection- and it wasn’t Damien. Despite Damien’s warnings that something bad would happen if Shay came after him, Shay nonetheless made an attempt to kill Damien that spectacularly back-fired- or should I say, side-fired? - and ended up killing Simone instead.
In exchange for bringing her back to life, Damien agreed to ascend to the mantle of the Satanic movement’s leader- and his wish was indeed granted, as the show ended with Simone rising from the dead. In turn, everyone bowed to him even, surprisingly, Shay, who I’m guessing must have thought, “If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.” Hey, it was either that or accept Lyons’ fate and be eaten alive by crazed Rottweilers!
Though the fate of the show itself is in question, the prospect of a better show in season two is, I think, a much better bet than letting it go, given the way we left things. I just love the idea of a Vatican hit squad, which I believe was somewhat present in The Final Conflict, if I remember correctly.
It was easily taken to the next level here, as we got a scene with the Vatican peeps loading up for bear, which was shot as if it were a scene from a Tarantino flick, and heading to the States to confront Damien and his Satanic army, which should make for a good time in my estimation.
Those complaining that the show was too much of a slow burn for its own good- certainly a valid argument early on- would undoubtedly get their wish of a more action-packed show, should it return next year. It would also be on a much broader canvas that the more tunnel-vision-oriented approach of the first season, what with both sides established and plenty of room for new characters to enter the scene. I’d definitely be interested to see where things go from here, despite my initial misgivings about the show.
All in all, despite being a slow starter, Damien pulled it out in the clutch, and it’s worth mentioning that its rating on IMDB rose to a respectable 7.2 by seasons’ end and a 73% positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes to boot, despite a dismal 11% positive rating from critics. (Full disclosure: I’m among those critics quoted on RT, albeit in the minority of liking it.)
Writer's note: The show's Audience Score on RT has since risen to an even more respectable 82%, though the critical one remains at 11%. It seems as though, those who stuck with it were rewarded for their patience, while those without the patience didn’t realize how much better it got. Ah, what do most critics know, anyway? (Said the critic, lol.)
I, for one, would welcome a second season- if anything, things were finally starting to get really interesting, so I say bring it on. Only time will tell if that proves to be the case. In the meantime, Damien pulled it out in the end, garnering at least this critic and dedicated horror fan’s respect. If this proves to be the show’s final bow, I can live with that.
Fave moments: I thought that was pretty cool when Sister Greta went to remove the 666 birthmark…only to find that there was another one embedded in Damien’s skull! Also pretty nifty was the neo-Evil Dead attack-of-the-vines scene that killed off Veronica (Melanie Scrofano), Ann's daughter; and the "death" of the tattoo artist, even though it proved to be a hallucination. For some reason, I also found that scene with Simone in the same episode to be pretty unnerving as well- the one with the bloody steaks. I halfway expected one to go all Poltergeist on us! (As in the original movie, not the restless spirit.)
Afterword and Final Thoughts
As most of you probably know already, this was indeed a one and done series, so we never got to find out what happened next. For the record, according to what I could dig up, had the show gone on, there would have been more ties to the series as a whole, or so say the various sources I found.
One had Damien actually turning out to be Alexander York, from the Omen IV TV-movie, and that, as per the books (which continued for two more installments past the third one and did not include the events of part four), after his "death" in The Final Conflict, Kate Reynolds went on to have a child as a result of her and Damien's coupling in that movie- that child being Alexander. (For more on that, go here.)
Because Damien didn't seem to recall the events of the third movie in the series, one assumes they would have gotten around to it, as they did with the first film on the show. The idea was, as Damien remembered more, the show would tie into the original series more, including, one assumes, the second film as well.
By the time the series had Damien recalling everything, he would have realized that he had "died" before, then was resurrected as Alexander and adopted by the York family to take another stab at being the Anti-Christ. After all- Jesus did it, too, right?
But the trauma of being brought back from the dead kept him from remembering anything at first, with the events on the show representing his "awakening" to all of that, little by little. Had the show gone on, it would have filled in the blanks as to what happened to Damien after his "first death," including what went down with the Disciples of the Watch, his followers at the time.
Presumably, Father DeCarlo and the religious folks supporting his quest would have hunted them all down and forced them to pay for their sins. We would have also found out what happened to Kate Reynolds after the events of the third movie.
Had the show made it to, say, the fourth or fifth seasons, then we also would have found out what happened to Omen IV's Delia as well and she and Damien would have joined forces and decided how to handle their respective fates as the Anti-Christ and his sister. Would they embrace it or reject it? Or would one embrace it and the other reject it and a battle between the two (as well as their respective factions) ensue?
Of course, all of this is speculation, in part derived from interviews with the creative team as to where the show might have gone next, had it not been cancelled, but it would make for some great fan-fiction, right? Someone should get on that, ASAP. 😉
Whatever the case, this long after the show's end, it seems unlikely that it will resurrected in any form, but it doesn't necessarily spell the end of the series as a whole. For one thing, there has been buzz about a prequel installment entitled The First Omen, which would take place before the events of the original Omen and presumably show how the Anti-Christ child Damien came into being in the first place.
Obviously having covered Damien's childhood, teen years and adulthood, as well as having done several spin-offs, a prequel is one of the few things they haven't done at this point, though I can't help but wonder if that story would be an interesting one or not.
I mean, beyond what it would look like to mate a human woman with an animal jackal- which I'm not sure anyone really wants to see- about the only interesting part would be how they convinced her to do it in the first place, assuming it wasn't a forced scenario, which it may well have been. And does anybody want to see that, either- especially in the current political climate? I'm not so sure.
TBH, I'm not entirely sure that is the plot, as IMDB.com only lists the director, Antonio Campos, and writer, Ben Jacoby, both newcomers to the series, insofar as I know. Campos produced the excellent Martha Marcy May Marlene, directed the critically-acclaimed indie film Christine (with Rebecca Hall) as well as several episodes of the solid TV mystery/thriller The Sinner (which he also executive produces) and one episode of The Punisher, among other things. Jacoby, who I'm less familiar with, wrote Bleed and Borderland, neither of which I've seen, though both look interesting and have decent casts.
Whether or not that film ends up getting made, I suspect we haven't seen the last of Damien and his family, extended or otherwise. A good idea dies hard, after all, and this one was always a doozy. Better they add onto it like the show than simply keep remaking the original. Although, I wouldn't at all mind them doing a follow-up to the remake, as I mentioned in that film's review.
Only time will tell what results, but one thing's for sure: you can't keep a good Devil down- much less a bad one. 😈
