The Omen (1976)
Directed by Richard Donner
Immediately after their miscarriage, the US diplomat Robert Thorn adopts the newborn Damien without the knowledge of his wife. Yet what he doesn’t know is that their new son is the son of the devil.
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3 films that influenced The Omen
What critics say influenced The Omen
Coming to the modern audience as the infant in a Holy trinity of satanic, apocalyptic horror films, including The Exorcist and Rosemary’s Baby , The Omen arrives leaden with reputation and expectation.
For many, The Omen represents the final film in Hollywood’s unofficial ‘Devil Trilogy’, a look at the rising cultural interest in Satanism that began with Rosemary’s Baby (1968), and blossomed with the genre classic The Exorcist (1973).
Written by David Seltzer and directed by Richard Donner, this effectively entertaining horror film takes William Friedkin's “The Exorcist” one step further by concentrating not on a girl possessed by the Devil, but on a boy who's evil incarnate, the antichrist.
Jason Miller and Max von Sydow were killed in their efforts to drive the evil spirit from poor Linda Blair in " The Exorcist ," and now here's another priest, in "The Omen; " wickedly substituting the spawn of Satan for the newborn son of Gregory Peck and Lee Remick .
It's clear from the casting of Gregory Peck and Lee Remick (as the U.S. ambassador and wife who unwittingly adopt the Devil's son) that director Richard Donner and the 20th Century Fox execs who rode this mottled jackal through its well-publicized difficult shoot were aiming for the same half-and-half formula that brought The Exorcist two handfuls of Oscar nominations—keep one eye on the high ceilings of the Vatican, keep the other trained on the pile of black-haired vomit that calls itself a child.
And so began a passion for Satanism in fiction that spiked with The Exorcist : the book in 1971, the movie in 1973 - and if Rosemary's Baby was a big deal in the movie theaters, The Exorcist was positively seismic.
Coming to the modern audience as the infant in a Holy trinity of satanic, apocalyptic horror films, including The Exorcist and Rosemary’s Baby , The Omen arrives leaden with reputation and expectation.
For many, The Omen represents the final film in Hollywood’s unofficial ‘Devil Trilogy’, a look at the rising cultural interest in Satanism that began with Rosemary’s Baby (1968), and blossomed with the genre classic The Exorcist (1973).
"The Omen" takes all of this terribly seriously, as befits the genre that gave us " Rosemary’s Baby " and "The Exorcist."
First there was Rosemary's Baby, the book, and it got people talking, and then it begat Rosemary's Baby the movie, and it was an explosive moment.
The film - which borrows its premise and paranoia from Rosemary's Baby, and its fire and brimstone from The Exorcist - was manna from hell for audiences, who lapped up its generous helpings of demonic gore and menace.
Like John Williams� instantly recognizable score on Jaws or John Carpenter's signature score on Halloween, one can't imagine The Omen being nearly as effective with any other music -- something which was proven with Marco Beltrami's score on the remake.�…
It's a long and portentous slog with Jerry Goldsmith's Jaws motifs (he quoted "Dies Irae" so much better in Poltergeist) and David Warner's crypto-Antonioni photographer just to get to that one brief burlesque on the smug self-regard of nuclear family values.
The scene where Father Brennan (Troughton) spouts forth about the number of the Beast in his spooky gothic chapel is as gripping as Robert Shaw's monologue in Jaws.