Holocaust 2000

Kirk Douglas has some brilliantly obscure entries in his filmography, whose connection to his person is beyond reason. Some of my favourites include the sci-fi film Saturn 3 about a murderous, sexually perverted robot, or the bloody, spaghetti western-style pirate film The Light at the Edge of the World. Holocaust 2000 belongs in the same category, and is a great example of how, with a little creativity, you can copy a commercial hit without it being actionable. It's an Anglo-Italian knockoff of the horror film The Omen. So the plot is similar, except this time we know from the start that the son of a wealthy industrialist (Douglas) is the antichrist. What's unusual, however, is the way the main villain wants to wipe out humanity - with nuclear power. The film thus cleverly combines a supernatural threat with a real threat. The combination of satanic horror with a catastrophic techno thriller creates an unusual apocalyptic atmosphere, which Alberto De Martino has also spiced up with a number of unusual surreal moments (see, for example, the dreamlike scene in which a naked Douglas, accompanied by Ennio Morricone's music, watches a nuclear power plant rising out of the sea and turning into a multi-headed monster). (17/04/2020)