Omen IV: The Awakening (1991) (TV)

User Rating:

3.5/10   

Directors:

Jorge Montesi
Dominique Othenin-Girard

Writers (WGA):

David Seltzer (characters)
Harvey Bernhard (story) ...

Release Date:

20 May 1991 (USA)

Genre:

Horror | Thriller

Tagline:

The terror continues.

Plot:

Damien Thorn is dead, but his prophecy is reborn in a mysterious girl named Delia, who is adopted by two attorneys...

Plot Keywords:

Baby | Psychic | Politician | Decapitation | Demonic Possession

US TV Schedule:

Thur. July 30

12:30 PM

MAX

Cast

Faye Grant	...	Karen York
Michael Woods	...	Congressman Gene York
Michael Lerner	...	Earl Knight
Madison Mason	...	Dr. Hastings
Ann Hearn	...	Josephine 'Jo' Thueson, York's Nanny
Jim Byrnes	...	Noah
Don S. Davis	...	Jake Madison
Asia Vieira	...	Delia York
Megan Leitch	...	Sister Yvonne / Felicity
Joy Coghill	...	Sister Francesca
David Cameron	...	Father Hayes
Duncan Fraser	...	Father James Mattson
Susan Chapple	...	Mother Superior
Dana Still	...	Revival Preacher
Andrea Mann	...	Lisa Roselli, York's nurse

Runtime:

97 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Finland:K-16 | Singapore:PG | Iceland:16 | Sweden:15 | South Korea:15 | Australia:M | France:-12 | Germany:16 | Spain:18 | UK:15 | USA:Unrated

Filming Locations:

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Company:

FNM Films

Trivia:

Director 'Dominique Othenin-Girard (I)' quit halfway through production, and was replaced by Jorge Montesi.

Goofs:

Crew or equipment visible: Near the end, when Karen arrives at the house, the cameraman is reflected in the car's side window.

Quotes:

Karen York: [Referring to her son, Alexander, revealed as new Antichrist and world leader] That freak will never rule, because I'm gonna kill him!

Movie Connections:

References "Perry Mason" (1957)

Hellacious

Only the Antichrist could have been behind such a disaster. One only hopes that this irony was the motivating force behind the "film"! This movie was so bad, it forced me to register with IMDb, finally, just so I could trash it. What makes this movie all the more tragic is that it had such GREAT source material! I have never seen a movie where all the elements were so grotesquely mediocre as to render the result less than the sum of its parts.

It may seem insignificant, but I'd like to start with the score. As the proud owner of a music degree, I must register my indignation! I was torn between laughter and dry heaves as I listened to what John Scheffer did to Goldsmith's brilliant score; it was far more gruesome than any of the burlesque death scenes, and almost as inadvertently comedic. It was by far the most inappropriate score I've heard since, well, I really can't think of a worse one. Maybe JAWS 4?

As for the plot... I'm sorry. New Age mysticism??? What ever happened to the gritty realism of the original trilogy? In those films (more so in the first two than the third, but still!!) the supernatural was for the most part implied, and it was this subtlety that made the movies so eerily believable. Here we have crystals going black (calling all Skeksis and Mystics!!) and inverted crucifixes galore, even though in certain scenes the crucifux would be perfectly normal but for the camera angle. Gone is the refined psychlogical manipulation tapping the malaise inherent in our collective psyche: in its place a boorish "slap in the face" of recycled cliché and transparent incompetence. Add to that a lead "actress" so unbelievably ANNOYING that you fervently thank the director for those scenes from which she is absent. Never have I seen a little girl so fundamentally irritating since little Stephanie ruined ALL IN THE FAMILY.

Other than that, I have no strong feelings on the subject ;-) Luckily the first three films are sufficiently adroit as to render this train-wreck of wasted celluloid inconsequential or, at the very most, a study in how NOT to make a film. Viewer beware! May induce vomiting if you're lucky.