He's Just a Normal Boy! Hooptober XI
2/34 - Franchise

I Was A Teenage Antichrist sounds like a spectacular take for a movie, but this is not that movie. Damien is the studio picking up where they forced Richard Donner to leave off, this time with their first choice for Thorn, William Holden, as Gregory Peck's brother. Thorn is raising Damien along side his own son and things were going pretty well until the minions get excited about Damien hitting puberty.

Most of the movie is focused on anyone who might have an idea of what is going on finding an untimely "accidental" death. With the first film, this was a bit of a mystery, but now that we all know that dark forces are protecting the young lad, the deaths get more creative and gory. Unfortunately, the film's script is uninspired, and doesn't really have much of a center. The film kicks off well at a dig in Israel where the priest who gave Peck the knives in the first film discover a painting of Damien as the antichrist, but it's too on the nose and anything that may be interesting as a mystery is wrapped up in the first five minutes.
William Holden is mostly phoning it in while Lee Grant (Mrs. Thorn) is overly protective of the boy to the haters. Like in the first film, Damien doesn't have much to do but be a bit precocious before he decides to embrace his fate.

I have a sister who we used to call Damien because she was straight up evil as a child, only she was blonde and adorable while the adults around. She did more damage before puberty than Damien does by the end of this movie. I almost felt like we lost some of the threads when the film changed directors, perhaps the original vision had a bit more teeth. There are far worse horror sequels out there, but I was hoping for some Empire Strikes Back level follow-up to the original. As a side note, I don't really remember any of this film, which means I must not of made it past the first film when I was younger, which is surprising, as I consumed horror franchises with impunity as a teenager in the late 80s.