To a double bill of The Omen and Omen II at L & G’s house. I’m happy to find my ideal film-watching scenario ready and waiting:
I recognise the lead actor in Omen II (1978) as William Holden from Network (1976). I spend the rest of the film wondering about the choices that led him so quickly from working with Faye Dunaway in a high-quality Oscar-winning satire to flinching at crows in a clumsy horror sequel.
I read later that he’d been considered for the Gregory Peck role in the original film but he’d turned it down because he “did not want to star in a picture about the devil.” You can imagine him throwing his morals in the bin after witnessing the success of the first movie and signing up for the sequel even though it didn’t have the original screenwriter or director or any of the original cast on board. It’s a wonderful “lose-lose” decision. It’s like watching someone pay money to eat snot.
After the screening, we chat about comparable sequels, Exorcist II and Look What’s Happened to Rosemary’s Baby. Not everyone in the room has heard of the Rosemary’s Baby one but they accept its unlikely existence at face value. I see if I can get them to believe in Don’t Look Now Too: Look Who’s Not Looking Now but it doesn’t fly.