Damien: Omen II is a 1978 supernatural horror film directed by Don Taylor and the second installment of The Omen series. It stars William Holden and Lee Grant, with Jonathan Scott-Taylor, Robert Foxworth, Lew Ayres, Sylvia Sidney, Lance Henriksen, Ian Hendry, and Leo McKern. Set seven years after the first film, it follows a now-pubescent Damien Thorn (Scott-Taylor) as he begins to realize his destiny as the Antichrist. Franchise producer Harvey Bernhard wrote the screen story, with a screenplay by Stanley Mann and Mike Hodges. Hodges was the original director, but was fired and replaced by Don Taylor early in production. Unlike the first film, which was shot in England and Italy, filming of the sequel took place primarily in Chicago, Illinois; Wisconsin, and Israel. It was released by 20th Century Fox on June 9, 1978, and received mixed reviews from critics. A sequel, Omen III: The Final Conflict, was released in 1981. Plot A week after the funerals of Robert and Katherine Thorn, archaeologist Carl Bugenhagen learns that their adopted son Damien is still alive. Confiding to his friend Michael Morgan that Damien is the Antichrist, Bugenhagen wants him to give Damien's new guardian a box containing the means to kill Damien. As Morgan is unconvinced, Bugenhagen takes him to a local ruin to see the mural of Yigael's Wall, which was said to have been drawn by a monk who saw the Devil and had visions of the Antichrist as he would appear from birth to adulthood. Though Morgan believes him upon seeing an ancient depiction of the Antichrist with Damien's face, both he and Bugenhagen are trapped and buried alive as the tunnel collapses. Seven years later, the 12-year-old Damien is living in Chicago with his uncle, industrialist Richard Thorn and his second wife, Ann. Damien gets along well with his cousin Mark, Richard's son from his first marriage, with whom Damien is enrolled in a military academy. However, Damien is despised by Richard's aunt, Marion, who sees him as a bad influence on Mark and demands that they be separated. Ann vehemently reacts and demands she leave. Aunt Marion threatens to rewrite her will, i.e. the allocation of her shares in the family business. She is found dead in her bed by Ann the following morning, an apparent heart attack after being visited by a raven, perched on her window sill, in the dead of night.