April 2007 - Horrorphile

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Horrorphile - April 2007

The Omen

April 30th 2007 08:14

“Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast; for it is the number of a man: and his number is 666.” Book of Revelation, Chapter 13, Verse 18

After The Exorcist (1973) and Jaws (1975), The Omen (1976) was the third horror blockbuster. It has since gone on to secure a solid position in the horror hall of fame, despite being tarnished by a wholly unnecessary remake (which lifts entire scenes almost shot for shot).

Directed by Richard Donner, whom would go on to direct the ludicrously successful Lethal Weapon series, The Omen is a classy and superbly staged horror-thriller about the coming of the Antichrist; “When the Jews return from Zion and a comet fills the sky. The Holy Roman Empire rises and you and I must die. From the eternal sea he rises creating armies on either shore. Turning man against his brother, ‘til man exists no more.”

Kathy, Damien and Robert Thorn (Gregory Peck)

Scary stuff. And the production of the film was plagued by all sorts of freak accidents (planes being struck by lightning, car crashes, etc). Hmmm, seems ol’ Nick himself wanted to give the filmmakers a little something to remind them not to be so frivolous in the depiction of something Lucifer has close to his heart … his son, Damien.

Gregory Peck (Robert Thorn) is an American ambassador stationed in London. His wife Kathy (Lee Remick) gives birth to a boy, but the boy was supposedly stillborn. Thorn knows his wife will be devastated and so accepts the secret adoption of another boy. However as it eventually becomes apparent Thorne’s son Damien (Harvey Stephens) is the son of Satan rising from the turmoil and revolution of politics (the eternal sea) to conquer the world.

Thorn and Jennings find Damien's mother ... a jackal

The casting is top notch with solid performances, despite Peck’s habit of slipping into overact mode on occasion (the scene where Thorn refuses to stab Damien to death with the Holy knives is all a bit over-cooked; “It’s insane! I won’t have anything to do with murdering a little boy! He’s not responsible, I won’t do it!”). Jennings (David Warner) plays a photographer who captures the fates of several peripheral characters (Damien’s nanny, a doomed priest, and Jennings himself) on film before they’ve happened. Jennings becomes embroiled with Thorne in getting to the truth of the matter. But he's a marked man ...

WARNING! CONTAINS SPOILER!

Here's Jennings famous demise:

Standout performance has to go to Billie Whitelaw as Mrs Baylock, acting as replacement nanny to Damien, although her agenda is more diabolical in nature than simply dressing young Damien in his Sunday best. She provides the movie with much of its disquieting menace in her black threads and the glint of Satan in her eye. Credit must be paid to director Donner for the intensely convincing performance of Damien by young Harvey Stephens (… where is he now one wonders?)

Jerry Goldsmith’s score is excellent utilizing the choir to full frightening effect. It has since become one of the most famous horror scores ever, alongside John Williams’ Jaws theme.

Curiously the last scene at the funeral was filmed with three coffins suggesting the filmmakers were intending for the film to be self-contained with no chance of a sequel, but they changed their minds and filmed re-shoots with two coffins and the now legendary shot of Damien holding the hand of a minder (the First Lady even) and slowly turning to gaze past the camera and gently form a smile. It is chilling. And lead the way for three sequels.

What makes The Omen work particularly well is that it is presented as realistically as possible. Instead of overt Satanism symbols, witches and diabolical supernatural occurrences, The Omen opts for the cumulative effect of small events snowballing. In a pivotal scene Thorn and Jennings visit Megiddo, south of Jerusalem (in the film, but north in real life), and meet with Bugenhagen (an uncredited Leo McKern) in a large excavation, whom gives Thorn the weapons he must use to save the world.

It is this “realism”, the death set pieces and the pervading atmosphere of doom which provides The Omen with much of its cinematic appeal. It is certainly on of the best of the movies which depict Satan (or to be precise the Antichrist) and his disciples. The movie was originally called The Antichrist, then The Birthmark, and finally The Omen (on recent DVD releases it is known as Omen I).

here's the original theatrical trailer:

* images on this page are courtesy of www.horror.about.com