The Omen ★★★★½
THE original version of The Omen is a perfect fusion of old and new horror cinema.
Its 1976 release bridged the last vestiges of the Hammer era with today’s likes of The Conjuring and Insidious. (Note: I’m absolutely setting aside The Exorcist here which is a unique classic).
The late Richard Donner’s film blends melodramatic moments engineered by sudden zooms with expertly staged set-pieces featuring close-up violence.
Donner wasn’t a horror director; he didn’t make another one.
But he was a dynamic cinema story-teller as evidenced by films like Superman 1 and 2, The Goonies and Lethal Weapon 1-4.
Not a moment or frame of The Omen is wasted by Donner and screenwriter David Seltzer. every sequence is in direct service of the plot, linking and building narrative and tension to the final climactic battle between good and evil.
Let’s not forget the villain in this case was a five-year-old boy being dragged to an altar by his father intent on driving a bunch of daggers into his son.
Lead actor Gregory Peck was a legitimate star of traditional Hollywood who could also act with a string of great and varied performances in films like To Kill a Mockingbird, Cape Fear, The Guns of Navarone, Moby Dick, On the Beach and Roman Holiday.
He had never made a film like The Omen, a potentially trashy Exorcist knock-off, but both he and another classic star, Lee Remick playing his wife, treated the material with a seriousness that greatly elevates it.
If you don’t know what The Omen is about, it deals with biblical warnings of the rise of an antichrist in the form of a boy swapped at birth by servants of Satan so he can have a privileged and protected upbringing before taking his rightful place as ruler of men…or some such stuff like that.
It’s all crazy for sure – and perhaps even outright humorous to some – but tell that to Donner, Seltzer and their first-rate cast which also includes David Warner, Billie Whitelaw, Patrick Troughton, Leo McKern and cute little antichrist Damien played phenomenally by Harvey Stephens (who only ever made three films by the way, including a brief appearance in the 2006 Omen remake).
From the moment the signature Ave Satani theme starts over the opening credits there is a feeling of foreboding and tension that does not ease. Jerry Goldsmith won an Oscar for the soundtrack which does for The Omen what John Williams did for Jaws.
If you haven’t seen The Omen, stop now and throw it on. It’s been 46 years since its release so the rest of this review will be full of spoilers because I love it.
There are 11, yep 11, horror moments in The Omen that would not be out of place today.
1 ‘It’s all for you Damien’. The posh kids’ party is ruined by the nanny jumping off the roof and hanging herself in full view of all the guests
2 Damien reacts with horror at being taken to a church and Mum bears the full brunt of his violent reaction in the back of a car
3 A trip to see the animals at a safari park is marred by a ferocious and sustained baboon attack on the car in which Damien and his Mum are trapped.
4 A loony priest is speared into the ground by a church spire dislodged by lightning
5 Creepy Mrs Baylock, the new nanny, opens the door for Damien to ride his tricycle straight into Mum and send her crashing to the downstairs floor below
6 Dad and photo-journalist Keith Jennings are attacked by a pack of wild dogs at a remote rural Italian cemetery in the dead of night.
7 Mrs Baylock sends Mum flying out a hospital window and through the roof of an ambulance.
8 Jennings is decapitated in slow-motion by a plate of glass sliding off a rolling truck after the brake mysteriously disengaged.
9 Dad and Mrs Baylock engage in a vicious fight to the death at night in the family home.
10 The final climactic attempt by Dad to rid the world of his antichrist toddler.
11 Damien’s final smile and wave to a dog.
A great story, acting, direction, pacing, music and horror set-pieces all add up to wonderful entertainment.