Looking Back at the Highs and Lows of The Omen Movies
With The First Omen hitting theaters, I finally filled in a big gap in my horror franchise viewing history.
Does it surprise you to hear that The First Omen is the sixth movie in the series? Because it kind of surprised me to realize there were that many films. Which is a bit silly, since I knew there was a trilogy originally and I knew there was a remake, so I was only reallly unaware of one prior installment. But that original trilogy wrapped up in 1982 and the previous attempts to revive the franchise haven’t exactly taken off. But The First Omen, which has rightfully been very well received, looks to finally change that up and truly revitalize the franchise.
The First Omen is also notable because it’s kicking off a big run this year of Disney making use of older IP they acquired when they purchased 20th Century Fox. We got a soft launch of sorts of them doing this when the terrific Prey brought back the Predator series in 2022, albeit frustratingly bypassing theaters to debut on Hulu. But now 2024 has new feature films from Disney/20th Century Studios for The Omen, Planet of the Apes and franchises all lined up, so it feels like there is much more of a concerted effort to make use of that all-mighty IP.
I’m guessing I’m not the only one who has the least familiarity with The Omen of this bunch. I saw the original movie as a kid and it creeped me out, but that was it. I’d never seen it again and I’d never seen any of the follow-ups. But with The First Omen arriving this week, I decided it was time to jump in and finally get my Omen on in a big way and watch the entire series.
Here are my newly formed thoughts on each Omen movie so far…
The Omen (1976)
It’s impossible not to feel the influence of The Exorcist’s success on the original Omen’s existence and much of its basic approach. You’ve got an adorable kid doing creepy/deadly things, a cast of respected actors, and a religious bent to it all, so it kind of begs for the comparison. And no, The Omen doesn’t reach the heights of The Exorcist. But it’s still pretty damn good on its own. Richard Donner, in the movie that cemented his career as a big deal movie director, brings his expert touch to this story, as Gregory Peck and Lee Remick’s Robert and Katherine Thorn begin to realize There’s Something Wrong With Damien and that the very bad things happening around their little boy are not coincidental.
The film includes several truly iconic moments, including the nanny’s “Damien, it’s all for you!” declaration, and her ensuing public suicide, and David Warner’s photographer getting decapitated in a moment that’s still pretty wild, all these decades later, and must have felt next level to audiences in 1976. Jerry Goldsmith – the one creative constant throughout the original trilogy – also delivers a terrific score, including a main theme, “Ave Satani,” that would become integral to the series. There are a couple of cheesy moments here and there, but by and large The Omen works incredibly well, with Peck lending his considerable gravitas to Robert’s journey to find out what exactly is going on and what can be done to stop it.
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