The Omen is the tale of the coming of the offspring of Satan in the form of a little boy. The parents have no clue that the child they are raising is pure evil, until the strange events start to add up. Even then, rational thought keeps them from accepting the truth till it is almost too late. Gregory Peck stars as the adopted father who is the American ambassador to England, while his wife, played by Lee Remick, starts to suspect something is wrong. The world's strangest nanny has had a heavy hand in bringing up little Damien and she has kept him safe and sheltered with the help of a rather large hell-hound. A priest tries to warn the father, but it is only when a freelance photographer brings some physical evidence does the politician start to listen. Their quest to discover the truth puts everything in a truly biblical level and makes for one of the most epic stories in horror history.
I have always felt that movies like The Omen and The Exorcist have had a deep impact on me personally because of my Roman Catholic upbringing. There is something purely terrifying about the idea that so of what I was told in catechism may have actually been true and there will be an earthly battle between God and Satan in my lifetime. Even though I consider myself a well educated agnostic, movies like these still creep into that place in the back of my brain where the irrational stories of religion still live.
This is only part of what makes The Omen such an effective film. On the other side, this is an extremely well made film that still works today. From the screenplay to the cinematography and the physical effects and extraordinary acting, The Omen is a perfectly formed story that lent itself wonderfully to a motion picture. It is quite easy to get swept up in the story and let the film take you captive for two hours. Quite frankly, Hollywood doesn't make movies like this anymore.
There are so many iconic images in this movie it is hard to avoid spoilers. From the epic suicide of a nanny, a horrifying zoo visit, the violent reaction to just the sight of a church, we watch as Damien's evil becomes more apparent.
Two moments stand out to me as so impressive that they are the reason I love this movie so much. The first one is the set design on the obsessed priest's bedroom. As part of his penance, the priest had covered the room with bible pages and crosses. The images of his cell are eerie and will stick with you. Another moment that made a big impression on me is when they go to the ancient cemetery to find the grave of Damien's birth mother. The gothic setting coupled with the horrifying hell-hounds are the stuff of nightmares. Just brilliant. And on top of all of that is one of the greatest film scores of all time!
Apparently this is the screenplay that got rejected all over town. No one wanted to touch a horror movie in those days. Then The Exorcist did so well that Warner Bros. was preparing to make a sequel. Now Fox wanted to be able to compete with their own horror movie and The Omen got a second chance, luckily for us. According to Richard Donner, who went on to direct Superman (1978), The Goonies (1985) and Lethal Weapon (1987), the success of The Omen even helped to finance Star Wars (1977), so thank you for that too!
I was so happy to see that with this viewing that the film still works. It is still just as beautiful and compelling as ever. The only thing I did notice this time though was just how negligent Damien's adoptive parents truly are. At some points they just plain forget to pay attention to him and the rest of the time they seem to completely trust his care to a virtually unknown nanny. It is hard to think that this type of absent care would fly in contemporary movies.
So the version I watched was the Blu-ray special edition. I was happy to hear Donner talk about just how important The Omen was, not only in film history, but also in his own career. The documentary had some great interviews with everyone from the screenwriter (David Seltzer) all the way to the composer (Jerry Goldsmith) about the making of the film and its impact. The best feature though is the master class by director Wes Craven on the importance of The Omen with a breakdown of some of the iconic moments.
So its quite obvious that I highly recommend this film to everyone and anyone, horror fan or not. The Omen is just a true Hollywood classic. I know that it became a trilogy (I gave them a watch and they were decent) and a recent remake in 2006 (which I haven't bothered to watch yet) but the glory of The Omen is that is a beautiful stand-alone film that doesn't need any other resolution beyond the final frames of the film. Check it out. You won't be sorry.
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