Holocaust 2000 is an Italian riff on The Omen but with late 70's fears of the dangers of nuclear power thrown into the mix for good measure. It's about a CEO of a multi-national corporation who wishes to build a new nuclear power plant in the Middle East. In some nearby caves he discovers ancient drawings of a demonic beast that resembles his projected power plant; an entity that is predicted in the Bible to signify the return of the Antichrist. A series of horrific accidents happen to people around him and it becomes evident that his son is the devil incarnate.
The debt owed to The Omen is pretty clear in this one. Its brand of religious horror and creative death sequences is taken from that earlier film. Needless to say, it's not anywhere near the same level as The Omen series but it does have its moments. Quite impressively for an Italian horror film it has at its disposal a pretty big league actor in Kirk Douglas and he gives a pretty spirited performance. He is ably supported by Simon Ward, who plays his son. Ward can do 'cold' really well and its utilised well here in his role as the Antichrist. There are also some well-conceived individual moments, in particular a dream sequence where the nuclear power plant turns into a fearsome ten-headed hydra and rises from the sea. The creative death scenes are nowhere near as inspired as the ones from The Omen series but there are some good ones nevertheless, such as the helicopter decapitation.
It does have to be said though that the film-makers are not above cheating the audience a little too much, such as the part where the mysterious girl who Douglas has an affair literally runs away from a Church in fear, leading us to think she must be in league with the devil. It turns out though that she is nothing of the kind so this whole scene is nothing more than a massive red herring that makes little sense. Overall the film isn't really plotted terribly well and that may account for the above silly audience manipulation but it also results in the film ending without a proper resolution. It almost feels like the end of the first part of a story as opposed to a proper finale; while the final scene itself was pretty ambiguous and I wasn't entirely sure what it meant to be honest.
But criticisms aside, Holocaust 2000 is still an entertaining enough horror flick. It has enough of a budget to ensure that its ideas are brought to the screen with some effectiveness. So even if it doesn't deliver all that it could, it does enough to keep things interesting.
The debt owed to The Omen is pretty clear in this one. Its brand of religious horror and creative death sequences is taken from that earlier film. Needless to say, it's not anywhere near the same level as The Omen series but it does have its moments. Quite impressively for an Italian horror film it has at its disposal a pretty big league actor in Kirk Douglas and he gives a pretty spirited performance. He is ably supported by Simon Ward, who plays his son. Ward can do 'cold' really well and its utilised well here in his role as the Antichrist. There are also some well-conceived individual moments, in particular a dream sequence where the nuclear power plant turns into a fearsome ten-headed hydra and rises from the sea. The creative death scenes are nowhere near as inspired as the ones from The Omen series but there are some good ones nevertheless, such as the helicopter decapitation.
It does have to be said though that the film-makers are not above cheating the audience a little too much, such as the part where the mysterious girl who Douglas has an affair literally runs away from a Church in fear, leading us to think she must be in league with the devil. It turns out though that she is nothing of the kind so this whole scene is nothing more than a massive red herring that makes little sense. Overall the film isn't really plotted terribly well and that may account for the above silly audience manipulation but it also results in the film ending without a proper resolution. It almost feels like the end of the first part of a story as opposed to a proper finale; while the final scene itself was pretty ambiguous and I wasn't entirely sure what it meant to be honest.
But criticisms aside, Holocaust 2000 is still an entertaining enough horror flick. It has enough of a budget to ensure that its ideas are brought to the screen with some effectiveness. So even if it doesn't deliver all that it could, it does enough to keep things interesting.