If we learned nothing else from 1984’s Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter, the inclusion of the term “final” in the title of a franchise movie should never be swallowed literally. The Friday series resumed only a year later with 1985’s A New Beginning.

On the other hand, 1981’s third Omen movie did look like it would justify its title as The Final Conflict. After three movies in five years, the franchise went dormant.

When the Omen series resumed, it did so via a reboot of sorts. 1991’s TV film Omen IV: The Awakening leaves former anti-Christ Damien Thorn behind and finds a new scary kid to carry the day.

Gene York (Michael Woods) and his wife Karen (Faye Grant) struggle in their attempts to have kids. This sends them to an orphanage where they adopt an infant they name Delia.

Outside of some apparently freak occurrences, the child seems normal. However, when Delia (Asia Vieira) turns eight, she begins to display sociopathic tendencies and terrifying events result.

Though I referred to Awakening as a reboot earlier, the Omen IV title implies the producers intended it as a sequel. However, it shows no real connections to the prior flicks so I assume the “IV” in the title exists just for publicity purposes.

“Reboot” does feel more appropriate, and “remake” may become the most applicable term. An awful lot of the time, Awakening recreates the 1976 film.

A lot of plot and character points from the first Omen reappear here. Awakening doesn’t literally redo the original but it comes awfully close.

Although I never felt wild about the 1976 Omen, it looks brilliant compared to this mess. Cheap and cheesy, Awakening clearly exists as an easy way to capitalize on a famous property.

As mentioned, Awakening echoes a lot of Omen elements such as another beheading and another Rottweiler. However, the TV movie format means it loses the gore of the original and feels tame.

Not that graphic violence would redeem this stinker. We find clunky dialogue, poor pacing and weak acting.

Though Vieira seems appropriately creepy at times, she overacts when she needs to do anything more than look spooky. As a sleazy private eye, Michael Lerner slums here but at least he adds some sleazy charm to the proceedings – and he can act, unlike everyone else in the cast.

In an odd choice, Jonathan Sheffer creates a weirdly perky score for a horror film. It feels like Sheffer took Pee-wee’s Big Adventure as his inspiration so the music creates yet another problem for the movie, mainly because it makes Delia seem more like a prankster than the anti-Christ.

Not that a great soundtrack would fix what ails Awakening. The plot makes no sense and usually feels like a random collection of scenes.

Throw in silly villains along with an inconsistent tone and outside of Lerner’s performance, nothing about Awakening works. Even by the spotty standards of the Omen franchise, it becomes a dud.

Omen IV: The Awakening appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 1.85:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. Though aired as a TV movie in the US, Awakening got a theatrical release elsewhere so the Blu-ray went with that aspect ratio.

Whatever the case, though primarily meant for the small screen, Awakening was shot on 35mm film. That allowed it to provide better than expected visuals.

Sharpness largely seemed fine. Occasional soft spots materialized – usually during interiors – but the movie seemed pretty concise and accurate most of the time.

I saw no jaggies or shimmering, and edge haloes remained absent. With a pleasing layer of grain, I didn’t suspect any digital noise reduction, and print flaws failed to mar the proceedings.

Colors were acceptable to good, as the movie went with a mix of reddish or blue tones that showed reasonable clarity. While the hues didn’t leap off the screen, they looked more than decent.

Blacks could be slightly inky, but they usually were pretty deep, and shadows felt the same. Although low-light shots could be a bit thick, they showed adequate delineation. This became a generally positive presentation for a 33-year-old TV movie.

As for the film’s DTS-HD MA 2.0 soundtrack, I encountered similar impressions. Given the movie’s tube-based origins, the soundscape lacked a ton of ambition, but it added some zip to proceedings.

Music boasted good stereo presence, and effects contributed a little extra breadth. The speakers presented moderate movement/activity, so this turned into a perfectly adequate soundfield.

Audio quality seemed dated but decent. Speech became the weakest link, as dialogue tended to feel somewhat metallic, though the lines remained perfectly intelligible.

Music showed reasonable range, and effects gave us mostly accurate and full information. The age and origins of the audio held it back, but I felt the mix seemed adequate.

The Blu-ray provides a new Interview with Writer Brian Taggert. This reel spans 18 minutes, 11 seconds.

The screenwriter talks about what brought him to the project as well as aspects of story, characters and his script. Taggert brings a decent chat but not one with a ton of insights.

Previously found on its own and also with the original Fox Omen Blu-ray, The Omen Legacy. Produced in 2001 for the AMC cable channel and narrated by actor Jack Palance, this one-hour, 41-minute, 38-second documentary covers all four flicks: 1976’s The Omen, 1978’s Damien: Omen II, 1981’s , and 1991’s Omen IV: The Awakening as well as an ill-fated TV series pilot.

However, don’t expect equal time for the quartet. The original Omen remains the king of the hill.

After a quick introduction, Legacy launches into its discussion of The Omen. Like most documentaries, Legacy uses a standard format that alternates movie clips, archival materials and interviews.

For the 47-minute Omen segment, we hear from Seltzer, Neufeld, Donner, Bernhard, Munger, Richardson, Church of Satan high priestess Blanche Barton, minister Reverend Doug Posey, former Fox studio executive Alan Ladd Jr., professor of theology Dr. Felix Just, , and actors Martin Benson and David Warner.

We hear of the film’s inspirations from the Bible, Rosemary’s Baby, and The Exorcist. The participants also go over the religious tenor of the era, the growing popularity of Satanism at the time, the evolution of the story and the film, writing the script and shopping it to the studios, obtaining Donner as the director, getting it to Fox and refining the project.

From there we go through casting and the need for a major star, finding a kid to play Damien, the eerie atmosphere on the set, the director’s take on the story, visual effects, anecdotes from the set, studio issues with the ending, and marketing and reactions to the film.

That synopsis makes the program sound more informative than it actually is. To be sure, these portions cover a fair amount of ground and give us a reasonably decent examination of the flick’s creation.

Unfortunately, scads of film clips appear, and these heavily retell the story. It also covers a lot of territory examined elsewhere in this package, so don’t expect anything particularly new. Ultimately, this part of “Legacy” offers a decent but somewhat thin and superficial look at the making of The Omen.

Next we learn about Damien: Omen II in an 18 minute segment. This includes remarks from Seltzer, Bernhard, Barton, Just, film critic Leonard Maltin, and actors Lee Grant and Lance Henriksen.

They chat about Seltzer’s refusal to pen the sequel, issues related to the story, casting, spooky production problems, the firing of the original director, story concerns, escalated gore, its ending, and the negative critical reception accorded the flick.

I liked the negative reactions to the film, and we get some surprisingly honest comments about it. That said, the Omen II piece concentrates too much of movie clips and a short version of the story, so we really don’t learn much about it.

Matters deteriorate more for the 18-minute look at Omen III: The Final Conflict. This presents statements from Bernhard, Posey, Just, Barton, Munger, and actor Lisa Harrow.

They chat about the story casting, the real-life romantic relationship between Sam Neill and Harrow, more about the gory content, the second coming of Jesus factor, difficulties coming up with gruesome deaths, more examples of “The Omen Curse”, protests conducted by Satan worshipers and a real-life controversy tagged to the first flick, and the film’s reception.

The majority of the piece simply retells the plot, and the elements that attempt to examine the movie really reach for information. Comments about the gore are pretty useless and seem like thin stabs at content.

Next we get 12 minutes that examine the TV film Omen IV: The Awakening. We hear from Bernhard, Munger, former Fox network executive Paul Nagle, and actors Faye Grant and Michael Lerner.

We learn why the flick existed, the development of its story, more examples of the “Omen Curse”, the execution of some of its effects, the replacement of the original director, and the lack of ratings success. Once again, we learn little about the making of the film and find out mainly about its story. Don’t expect much useful content here.

The last portions of the show look at NBC’s attempts at an Omen TV series and various valedictory comments about the series. This area includes statements from Donner, Benson, Bernhard, Munger, Grant, and Henriksen. Donner’s criticism of the series – which never made it past a pilot – seems interesting, but the rest is little more than fluff.

Unfortunately, the same goes for “The Omen Legacy” as a whole. As I noted earlier, it’s an odd movie series to examine since only the original film enjoys any real “legacy”.

That fact seems implicit in the flat and uninformative notes about the various sequels that don’t tell us much more than just their plots. Absolute Omen die-hards might enjoy this documentary, but I find it to offer little of interest.

Along with the film’s trailer, we conclude with a Still Gallery that includes 29 images. This turns into a decent compilation.

An attempt to revive the franchise after a dormant decade, Omen IV: The Awakening comes with nearly no redeeming qualities. Poorly made in almost all possible ways, it becomes the nadir of the series. The Blu-ray comes with generally good picture, adequate audio and spotty supplements. Only Omen diehards should bother with this atrocity.

Note that as of May 2026, this 2019 Shout Blu-ray of Omen IV can be purchased solely as part of a five-film “Omen Collection: Deluxe Edition” box. It also includes 1976 movie and its second and third sequels along with its 2006 remake.