Chris Jericho has enjoyed a long and successful career as a professional wrestler. But even someone like him can be swayed and messed up by things seen as a child. And like most everyone else, Jericho, too, has that one film or show that he watched as a kid and it had some long-term effects on him.
On June 9th, Jericho brought up the movie that “f*cked him up as a kid” in a Twitter conversation with Kevin Smith. But not only did Damien: Omen II affect Jericho as a kid, he mentioned on Twitter that, while horror films have gotten far grittier, more gruesome, and more explicit in the decades since this movie came out, this one still “messes him up” to this day.
Chris Jericho names Damien: Omen II as the movie that scarred him the most
Damien: Omen II is the sequel to the 1976 film The Omen, which is about a child being revealed to be The Antichrist. In this sequel, Damien Thorn, the Antichrist in question, goes to life with his parents’ family after they were killed in the first film.
Throughout the film, anyone that tries to deduce that Damien is the Antichrist or is trying to get in his way meets a gruesome end. Two people trying to find an artifact that can seal his power are buried alive. A women critical of him has her eyes pecked out by a crow and is run over by a truck. Two different people are bisected by large machines. He even allows one of his followers to die in an explosion.
So even though it might not be as sanguine or visceral as modern horror movies, this story and the many deaths that were a part of it was enough to make Chris Jericho’s skin crawl.