Good film but has problems (spoilers)
This was a very well directed and acted prequel. Nell Tiger Free is great as the protagonist and Ralph Ineson ROCKS - that guy’s voice is pure power, plus he looks like Father Brennan from the first film, superb casting.
The creepiest aspect is the ‘friendly’ roommate who turns out to be utterly devious, it had shades of Rosemary’s Baby in that sense.
Overall it’s an effective horror and worth seeing in the cinema for the gorgeous 35mm photography which apes 70’s film aesthetic, and the meticulous and powerful sound design.
What holds it back is, as usual, the woke factor. Our heroine births two children - Damien is obviously the antichrist and she tries to kill him, but she also births a girl who seems to be being set up as his opposite number. Male = evil, female = good 🤦🏻♂️
Added to this, our heroine, despite being a child of Satan herself bearing the 666 mark and birthing the antichrist, is ultimately portrayed as good. As is her ‘sister’ from the nunnery. So we end up with 3 women out to defeat the evil male.
She’s also tough-as-nails and wielding a rifle at the end in their girl-power-cabin, pushing Father Brennan around.
Finally, the film rather awkwardly retcons the first film in which Damien is born of a Jackal. In this, he is born of a woman, and Satan appears as a jackal-like demon who rapes her, and assuming the jackal actually is Satan… it doesn’t look great or particularly terrifying.
The new motive behind Damien’s creation - evil clergy wanting to scare people back to church - is also less creepy than the original implications, and has shades of anti-Christian wokism.
So while this film is decent and worth watching, it has a nasty dollop of woke, and the inevitable prequel-sequels are almost certainly going to ramp up the woke and drop the quality. I hope I’m wrong but I think we all know where this is going…