Director: Richard Donner
Writer: David Seltzer
Stars: Gregory Peck, Lee Remick, Harvey Stephens
Run Time: 1 Hour, 51 Minutes
Link:
Synopsis
Mr. Thorn’s wife lost her baby while in Rome. Thorn talks to a priest and “acquires” a similar-looking baby whose mother died in childbirth. No one needs to know. Several years later, Thorn is appointed Ambassador to Great Britain. His wife suggests that maybe he will become President someday.
On Damien’s fifth birthday, they throw him a big party. A black dog stares intently at the nanny. The nanny then goes upstairs and screams for attention just before she jumps down with a noose around her neck in front of all the children and reporters. Jennings the photographer catches it all on film.
A priest from Rome comes to see Thorn. He insists that Thorn take communion. This priest was there the night Damien was born, and he’s about to explain about Damien’s mother when the security shows up to throw him out. Jennings, the photographer snaps the priest on the way out. As he develops the film, he sees something pointed at the man’s face on the film.
Mrs. Baylock starts work as the new nanny, but neither Thorn nor Katherine, his wife, actually hired her. “Have no fear, little one. I am here to protect thee,” she says when alone with the little boy. His parents want Damien to go to church, but Baylock resists. The parents prevail, but when they get Damien to church, he freaks out, screaming and clawing at his mother. “He’s never been sick a day in his life,” comments his mother; his father thinks that’s a little off all by itself.
Mrs. Baylock starts bringing the black dog inside the house as a guardian. Thorn insists that the dog be sent away, but she ignores him. Katherine and Damien go to the zoo and all the giraffes run away from Damien while the baboons attack the car. Suddenly, Katherine wants to start seeing a psychiatrist.
There’s a soccer game, and the old priest confronts Thorn again, telling him to meet him the next day, as Thorn’s wife is in danger. Once again, Jennings takes his picture. Once again, there’s a strange line pointing at the priest in his print. The priest tells Thorn to go to the old town of Meggido and see the archaeologist who lives there. The man will tell thorn the story of his son. The priest says Damien is the son of Satan, and he will kill them all if not stopped. A strange windstorm suddenly appears, and lightning strikes a church’s lightning rod, which breaks off, flies through the air, and impales him exactly where the line in the photos showed it would.
Katherine gets pregnant, but she tells the psychiatrist that she thinks Damien is evil. She also doesn’t think Damien is hers, but she doesn’t know the truth. The doctor recommends an abortion for the new baby. Meanwhile, Katherine is watering plants in the upstairs hallway while Damien rides his tricycle through the house. When the Latin chanting begins, you know someone’s in trouble. He runs into her stool, knocking her over the railing and killing the unborn child. Katherine wakes up and tells Thorn, “Don’t let him kill me.”
With the priest’s prophecy about the death of the baby and the death of the priest, Thorn starts to wonder if there might be something to it.
Jennings calls for a meeting, and he shows Thorn his strange photos of the dead priest. It also happened with the first nanny- the line appeared in the same place as the rope she hanged herself with. Unfortunately, Jennings has a photo of himself, and there’s a line on his as well. Jennings has done research on the priest, and he… lived an unusual life. He convinces Thorn all too easily.
Thorn and Jennings go to the hospital in Rome where Damien was born. There had been a very specifically targeted fire five years ago that destroyed everything. They do find the old priest that was involved with the “adoption,” and he scrawls the name of an old cemetery nearby. They go to the cemetery and dig up the bones of Damien’s mother, who turns out to be a goat. The two men also find the Thorn baby’s body, clearly murdered. They are run out of the cemetery by a pack of evil black dogs.
Thorn calls Katherine and tells her to pack her bags for a trip. Mrs. Baylock throws her out of the ninth-floor hospital window. They finally go to Meggido to see the old archaeologist Bugenhagen, who tells Thorn how to kill Damien. His blood must be spilled in a church, and there are seven daggers required to kill Damien. As he and Jennings argue over who will kill Damien, Jennings gets beheaded in the death that had to have inspired the Final Destination films twenty years later.
Thorn finds 666 on Damien’s head under his hair, and then Mrs. Baylock attacks him. He stabs her in the neck and traps the dog in the cellar. He carries Damien to the car and drives to church. Thorn drives like a maniac, and the police get on his tail. He carries Damien into the church, kicking and screaming, lays him down on the altar, and grabs the seven daggers. Then the police shoot Thorn, and the film ends with Damien smiling evilly at the funeral, now under the care of the President himself.
Commentary
This is definitely one of the best horror films of the 70s, and I remember it having a big influence on me when I saw it at age nine or ten. This, along with the Exorcist, redefined horror from the silly, sexy Hammer films into something completely new. The music alone takes it to a whole new level. There’s not even a hokey monster to cringe at; there’s actually no real evidence of anything supernatural really happening. This could all just be a couple of paranoid parents and psychotic nannies.
Structurally, the movie has a sequence of little “quests” that Thorn and Jennings must accomplish to get to the truth. In modern times, this would have made a great video game. It does follow one thing after another, not being particularly artsy about anything, but still managing to convey a growing sense of dread and creepiness. The acting is just about perfect from everyone involved.
If you haven’t seen this one already, it needs to go on your “must see” list soon. If you have seen it, then watch it again, as it all still holds up really well. And remember, if you have the antichrist child in your car, and you’re driving to church to kill him, drive under the speed limit.