Omen IV: The Awakening (1991)

A spit in the eye to righteousness

By: JWBM

"For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh. Such a one is the deceiver and the Antichrist." - 2 John 1:7

There are those, like myself, that wanted to see the series through. We clung to the edge of our seats with morbid fascination as the story of Damien Thorn unfolded: with those close enough by his side to feel the flames, or with those left to the cold trail on his path towards total superiority. What was thought to be a final chapter in the early '80s, spawned into a fourth part in '91 with a made for TV movie produced by Harvey Bernhard of the first three films.

Jumping right into it with a young and hopeful couple mysteriously unable to have kids, they head to local church to adopt what they think is God's little, innocent gift to their home. Soon enough, the wife, Karen, becomes suspicious that her little bundle of joy could be a basket of ruin when people inexplicably end up dead. Similar to the first and second film, the husband is connected in politics and begins to set the stage for their less-than-holy child, Delia, to possibly someday go from high chair to a throne of dark power.

"Omen IV" took the platform from the first and essentially attempted to do an updated version from the early '90s with a few different variations. Though instead of coming across as edgy, it's as if they forget to sharpen the knife. Cuts are eventually made, but it makes for a jagged, silverware-against-polished-porcelain noise that's cringing to the senses. On paper I'd imagine this looked to be another worthy addition to the franchise, however, played out, it doesn't have a flowing personality to it. Rather, it feels like a concocted persona imitating its parent: the result being a disjointed experience that's noticeably pieced together; like a collection of scenes, rather than a cohesive picture that flows as one unified experience.

What made the original film so great was that it was a simple story that played on moral fears, along with a dividing point of how far we would go to love and protect our child despite the implications or odds. What once was fresh and ferocious as an idea of having a little monster in your midst you'd never suspect, feels tired and lacking in imagination beyond the square box it made itself home to here. The film never makes you suspend your disbelief even for a second. It feels too comfortable—like a co-worker that's become complacent enough to shamelessly turn in shoddy work and shadow right behind everyone else.

There was a switch of directors at some point. If I had to guess, it was right up to the point they went to the psychic fair—you read that right. There's more overacting, and downright silly moments going on—wordless, cartoonish bulging eyes to boot—to lose the audience in one fell swoop. If Time were embodied, the rest of the experience can be summed up as about as exciting as crawling through a rose garden in the dark with a person just out of reach talking out of order. The score has tendency to feel intrusive to what's actually shown. It can make the overall tone conflicting and confusing: from more whimsical and magical than anything scary or dark. The most menacing or captivating music is that of Jerry Goldsmith's from previous films.

Few actors manage to captivate beyond their roles. Faye Grant comes with the most layers to her character of, Karen, and in areas gives a natural delivery that doesn't just feel like a warm body, or that she's just woodenly delivering her lines. But, even so, with the poor dialogue, direction, and editing, there's only so much even the most talented actor can pull off. Some things do line up and show some unpolished potential, though with all things considered, aren't enough to make up for it.

This isn't the worst film out there, but it does certainly have its hangups and pitfalls that make the experience tiresome, rather than exciting. It falls into shortcomings similar to the second film: in that the audience is well aware of the nature of the little devil, but constantly plays on everyone else being slow on the upkeep. Surprises start to dwindle, and eventually begin to feel like hopeless attempts to capture your attention. They play on resentment and frustration from no one seeing what they see. It could have been a pulse-pounding thriller with good and evil pitted against each other similar to "The Exorcist III" of the year before. Yet, they don't make it a sweating-at-the-palms experience, or even an engaging cat and mouse game. In almost every respect it feels like a gimmick and a lazy capitalization of the series in that regard.

Rating: 3.5/10

Director: Jorge Montesi, Dominique Othenin-Girard
Actors: Faye Grant, Michael Woods, Michael Lerner, Asia Vieira
Info: IMDB link
Trailer: Youtube link