First, just let me say that this movie holds a great deal of sentimental value for yours truly. It was the FIRST movie I ever saw on TNT's MonsterVision, which I've mentioned several times in passing. Suffice to say, if you're like me and you came of age in the early- to mid-'90s, this was the place to be if you were a horror fan. Saturday nights, plenty of caffeine to get you through the night, and the man-myth known as Joe Bob Briggs on the TV hosting classic film after classic film, giving you the inside dirt on the horror movies of yesteryear. If it didn't have such a tragic ending (read: TNT totally screwing MonsterVision and Joe Bob over, turning the show into a generic movie-fest called "Joe Bob's Hollywood Saturday Night"), this would be a utopian fantasy on par with anything Thomas More ever wrote.ANYWAY...way back in seventh grade, I got wind of the fact that "The Omen" was going to be shown on television, and having just discovered the wonders of the horror movie, I had to see this. I'd heard quite a bit about it; it came with plenty of hype in the form of the fascinating blurbs I read in some book from my junior high's library called "An Album of Modern Horror Films." I suppose with all of that long-winded introduction, you're expecting some sort of epic climax to this story, but once again you're going to be disappointed. 10:00 p.m. rolled around, Joe Bob was funnier than hell, and the movie was pretty damn good. The end.
OK, maybe that's not the end. In the late '60s and early '70s, there was a mini-boom in religion-themed horror films. "Rosemary's Baby," "The Devil's Rain" and "The Exorcist" were all modest-to-huge successes at the box office. "The Exorcist" in particular is viewed by many horror scholars as perhaps THE pinnacle of the genre. Well, the Horror Nerd must be a mutant, because William Peter Blatty's story of green vomit, Crucifix-assisted masturbation and weird spider-walking (Takako Fuji did this SO much better ;)) has always left me feeling a little cold. Nope. When people bring up "horror movies with a Christianity-infused tinge," this is always the one that's right at the forefront of my cerebral cortex. In addition, it's got acting that's FAR more appropriate and emotional than "The Exorcist," along with a pretty chilling hook, an Oscar-winning score, and a couple legendary death scenes.
THE MOVIE!!
The movie opens with a tone of foreshadowing and darkness. A father is informed that his son was stillborn; he is coaxed, even tempted, by a Priest who says that another child was born at the exact moment as his son. This son is healthy; the mother died during childbirth. Not knowing how to tell his wife that their baby is dead, and at the same time desperately wanting a child of his own, he agrees to the switch and takes the newborn infant to his wife, presenting it as their own.
The man is Robert Thorn (Gregory Peck), the United States Ambassador to England. He's a decent family man, honest, with plans on becoming the President of the United States someday. After the de facto adoption scene, we flash forward several years, as the child - named Damien (Harvey Stephens) - is now a young boy, carefree and playful, with the exception of an early scene where the family heads out to a wedding and Damien recoils in horror at the sight of the church. It's the things around him that start taking a strange turn. At a birthday party, his nanny throws herself from the balcony of the Thorn estate and hangs herself. A mysterious dog shows up out of nowhere, acting as a sort of guardian angel to the small child. And, in the place of the "suicidal" nanny comes Ms. Baylock (Billie Whitelaw), a seemingly loving and nurturing would-be caregiver who, in her first moments alone with Damien, tells him that she will protect him to the death.
Before long, Father Brennan (Patrick Troughton) shows up with some very urgent things to say to Robert. It's here where the meaning of the strange acts taking place around young Damien begin to take meaning. Brennan believes that Damien is the Antichrist - the Satanic version of a savior, the Biblical figure destined to overthrow Christianity and plunge the world into unimaginable darkness. The deaths, accidents, and people suddenly seeming out of place in the Thorn household are all part of a grand plan, as the agents of evil have begun converging to ensure that Damien not only grows up, but eventually takes everything that belongs to Robert.
Robert, of course, is very skeptical of Father Brennan. His child has always been well-behaved, even shy. Meanwhile, his wife Latherine (Lee Remick) is having feelings of the exact opposite nature. The peculiarities of Damien have begun to eat away at her sanity; he has never been sick a day in his life, he seems to have a strange effect on the animals at the zoo, and danger seems to be lurking around every corner of the household she resides in. There is a subplot in the film about Katherine seeking help for some sort of depression as a result of Damien's oddness; it's one of the passages in the movie that doesn't quite ring true for me. Considering what eventually happens to the character, I think it would be better served if Katherine had been a sympathetic, supportive mother throughout the film, but it's really a fairly minor complaint.
Eventually, Father Brennan dies, as well, and it's here where the movie's true prophet comes in to the life of Robert Thorn. This comes in the form of a newspaper reporter named Keith Jennings (David Warner), who has found all of the mayhem surrounding the brief life of Damien Thorn odd to the point of warranting investigation. Over the years, he has pieced together the evidence that supports the Antichrist theory, and it is through this character that Robert finally realizes that something is amiss with his son. The two characters embark on a quest of sorts to find answers, heading to the place where Robert first saw his adoptive son, tracking down the bodies of Damien's mother (along with his REAL son, in one of the movie's most chilling scenes), and finding an archaeologist who, in a completely emotionless tone, instructs the grief-stricken father that he must murder his own son to save the world.
"The Omen" is a movie that works marvelously due to its acting. Compared to "The Exorcist," we had an absolute A-list cast with this thing. Peck is one of the greatest actors of all time, an Academy Award winner for "To Kill a Mockingbird" and a master of delving into a character and finding its emotional resonance. His concerned father - not quite believing the monstrous nature of the son that he loves throughout the entire running time of the movie - is a character that carries a great deal of emotional weight and splendidly pulls the viewer into the story. David Warner, who has gone on to be a veteran of horror films, is a classically trained stage actor and the very definition of a character actor. Of course, he also seems to have not aged A DAY in the 34+ years since this movie's release date, which only brings credence to the theory that this movie was touched by the devil in some way.
In addition, its atmosphere is something to behold. Director Richard Donner, who would later helm several blockbusters ("Superman," "The Goonies," "Lethal Weapon" etc.), shoots the movie in very dark shades, casting a decidedly deathly glow on the events that hold the fate of the world. But perhaps the movie's biggest star is its music. Combining staccato, slightly grating orchestra tones and Latin invocations, "The Omen" has a soundtrack that chills you right to the core. It's right up there with Harry Manfredini's violen-obsessed "Friday the 13th" music the four-note "Nightmare on Elm Street" theme when it comes to all-time great horror movie music.
This is a very dreary and sometimes depressing film. A lot of '70s horror was this way; while the decor and clothes of the time were loud and fun, the horror films were dark to the point of pitch blackness, and rare was the occasion when good won the day. "The Omen" is no exception, but there is something about this story that would have felt WRONG if we weren't given a tragic ending. Of course, this ending was expanded on in two sequels.
Ordinarily, this would be the part where I bitch to you about how awful the rest of the series is, but I'd be lying in this case. In fact, the first three films which make up the "Omen trilogy" (there's a fourth film, an ABOMINATION that doesn't even exist in my eyes) are a phenomenally well-planned, satisfying work that tells as logical a story about good vs. evil and the final battle between heaven and hell right here on Earth as good as it could have possibly been told. It also doesn't hurt matters that Sam "I could out-act George Clooney with one arm tied behind my back" Neill plays the all-grown-up Damien Thorn in the third film, "The Final Conflict." Standing separated from the sequels, however, "The Omen" is a movie that stands the test of time, something that (in my humble opinion) "The Exorcist" fails at doing. For the most part, it's still a hell of a story, with memorable characters, some legendary scenes, and the great creepy stare of Damien Thorn.
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