Holocaust 2000

An industrialist , Kirk Douglas , in charge of a Middle East nuclear plant figures out that his son , Simon Ward, is a Devil with dark purports and sets out in stop him . Along the way he falls in love for a young reporter, Agostina Belli, and she then is pregnant . He will destroy the World. No man can stop him. No man will even try. He is the Chosen . The nightmare will be real. He is coming as Lucifer's Currse . And we will all be damned .The World will be destroyed in a rain of fire. It is written.

A thrilling and bizarre film with a fantastic and disconcerting premise . The film benefits itself of an interesting issue , and , nowadays very usual : the Biblical theme about the Commentary of Apocalypse by St. John . Stars an aging Kirk Douglas who gives a nice acting as the powerful executive who discovers his son results to be the Anti-Christ , while Agostina Belli is fine as the beautiful journalist who falls in love with him . Acceptable Simon Ward who plays the nasty son with sinister purports to wipe out the mankind. Being an Italian/British coproduction bears most of the worst traces of international financing , lines of dialogue that sound as copies from other flicks or like subtitles and poor dubbing . However , appearing notorious secondaries as Brits : Virginia McKenna , Alexander Knox , Geoffrey Keen , Anthony Quayle , Dennis Lawson, Petr Cellier as Italians as Ivo Garrani, Massimo Foschi, Romolo Valli, Adolfo Celli , among others.

Here stands out the suspenseful and intriguing musical score by the great Ennio Morricone , composed in his usual style .The motion picture was professionally directed by Alberto De Martino, though with a sense of disunity between cast and filmmaking , having some flaws and gaps . This Italian filmmaker was a good artisan who wrote and directed a lot of films of all kinds of genres and exploitation movies , as well as various straight Rip-offs with less attention to plot detail . He usually shot films to cash in on other hugely boxoffice successes as The "Exorcist" Martino made "Anti Christ" and " The Omen" he filmed this " Holocaust 2000" . As Alberto De Martino shot Peplum or Sword and Sandals genre : Spartan Gladiators , Invincible Gladiator , Seven Spartans, Valley of Stone Men, Secret Seven . Spaghetti Western sub-genre : Django shoots first, Providence , Charge of Seven Cavalry . Europe Spy subgenre : OK Connery , Operation Lady Chaplin and Terror : The AntiChrist, Miami Golem, Horror , Holocaust 2000 and several others .

Italian filmmakers in the seventies weren't exactly slow when it came to ripping off successful films, and indeed it didn't take long for Alberto De Martino to deliver this obvious Omen rip-off just one year after the release of Richard Donner's successful film in 1976. The title suggests that the film will put something of a modern spin on the story, and indeed it has as in this tale of the Antichrist living among us humans, there is a nuclear power station at the centre. Kirk Douglas plays Robert Caine, an executive in charge of a Middle Eastern nuclear power plant. One of his main backers is his son, Angelo, but Angelo's reasons for wanting the power plant built are far more sinister than anything Robert would have expected. After a series of events, it becomes apparent to Robert that his son doesn't want the plant built to benefit mankind. In fact, he is the son of the Devil and his reasons for wanting the nuclear power plant completed is so he can carry out the Devil's work and use the plant to destroy all of mankind!

It has to be said that this really isn't a good film. It rips off The Omen so much it's almost painful, and the rest of the movie is a complete mess. However, I can't completely condemn this movie as aside from the numerous plot issues, it's a lot of fun to watch and there always plenty of stuff going on. The Omen became infamous for its gory and inventive death scenes, and while the ones here may not be all that inventive - they're plenty gory and serve in adding to the fun. The only big actor in the film is Kirk Douglas. This can hardly be considered the classic actor's best work (not that I'm a big fan of most of his stuff), but somehow he manages to stay fairly credible despite the fact that the dialogue in this film is choppy at best, and it cant be easy to act well when you're working with actors that are less than brilliant. There's not a lot in this movie that will make you think, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. It all boils down to the sort of conclusion you can expect, but it's good fun getting there and overall I'd give this Omen rip off a thumbs up.

Having already ripped off The Exorcist with his pretty dreadful 1974 movie The Antichrist, director Alberto De Martino has a bash at copying one of the other major horror successes of the '70s, The Omen—and he does a slightly better job this time around.

The decent cast certainly helps: Kirk Douglas stars as industrialist Robert Caine, who slowly comes to realise that his plans for a nuclear power plant in the third world might lead to the Apocalypse, as prophecised in the Bible; Simon Ward is his son Angel, who is determined to see the project to completion at whatever the cost; the lovely Agostina Belli plays Sara Golan, Robert's love interest, whose unborn child may or may not be The Antichrist; and Anthony Quayle appears as scientist Dr. Griffith, who unravels the truth but pays for his discovery with his life.

With such solid performers at his disposal, De Martino is able to deliver an entertaining slice of horror hokum despite the script's somewhat talky nature, its preachy anti-nuclear message and more than a few implausible plot turns, with the film's highlights being the juicy decapitation of a political leader by helicopter blade, beautiful Belli getting nekkid for a raunchy romp with ageing Kirk (such a coupling might sound unlikely, but if Michael can get it on with Zeta Jones in real life, then why not?), Caine's trippy dream sequence (which delivers the truly horrific sight of a naked Kirk Douglas), and a chilling scene where a room full of newborn babies are accidentally poisoned by a negligent nurse.

6.5 rounded up to 7 for IMDb.

From the director of "Pumaman" and "Dirty Heroes" comes another ripoff film, this time a knockoff of "The Omen," complete with Hollywood golden age star Kirk Douglas having to face down the anti-Christ. Douglas plays an energy executive about to build a nuclear power plant in the middle east when he begins to suspect his son is actually the son of Satan and might use the nuke plants to wipe out humankind. Douglas brings sincerity to a ridiculous film and a fine score by Ennio Morricone make this dull and derivative horror film watchable, but certainly don't go out of your way to watch this one.

In THE CHOSEN (aka: HOLOCAUST 2000), the religious / supernatural horror begins right away. While clinching a big nuclear power plant deal, Robert Caine (Kirk Douglas) meets a mysterious photographer (Agostina Belli), who tells him of an ancient prophecy. Soon thereafter, Caine encounters tragedy, and is thrown into a nightmare world of apocalyptic proportions.

Spawned from the success of such films as ROSEMARY'S BABY, THE EXORCIST, and THE OMEN, THE CHOSEN is one among many derivative movies in the ensuing craze. However, it does have one major asset in Mr. Douglas, who never disappoints his audience. His character is believable in the most unbelievable situations. Even when he's running naked in a devil dream!

In addition, the plot is just novel enough to make it stand out from the other films of its ilk. There's also an atmosphere of impending doom that builds nicely as things unfold, in spite of the hokey "Satan's child" stuff. This whole idea was old, even in 1977.

All in all, a watchable entry in its subgenre...