“AVE, SATANI!
AVE, SANGUI!”
Of all the films that came out in the wake of the Exorcist in the 70s, with many a creepy child with overtones of Satanism and catholicism…this one is arguably the most successful in the pop cultural eye, and certainly was another feather in Richard Donner’s directorial cap. It certainly imprinted its own marks in the zeitgeist—from obsession over the number of the beast, to the near-mute kid who’s also a portent of doom, and so on—but does the Omen actually hold up as a powerful potent, or does it deserve to be banished back to the Inferno?
It’s a somewhat mixed bag—there/’s definitely parts that feel a bit hokey or overdone, like some of the deaths or the early family frolicking. Patrick Troughton, who some geeks will know as the Second Doctor, has a memorable if somewhat overdone role as a demented priest trying to stop the young demonic Damien planted into a family cuckoo-style—and his demise might get some modern audiences thinking of Hot Fuzz.
But what does definitely work is Gregory Peck as Robert Thorn, especially the parts that become an increasingly disturbing detective story as he seeks the truth about what’s going on. He goes from a stately and composed gentleman to a desperate man who has to confront the idea that everything he knows is a lie, and his love has been utterly misplaced on something that’s anathema to the very concept. Those aspects of the film are still most enjoyable to watch—there’s others, of course, that feel amusingly dated to the times with their rumination on biblical prophecy, which some people decades later would obsess way too much over.
There’s also other moments like the infamous birthday party death that work—they’re more down to earth than things like killer panes of glass, and made more chilling with the context around them. Then of course there’s the ending—as ironic as a seventies horror film could be.
We’ll also talk about some of the followups—there was a forgettable second film, but the third one had Sam Neil as a now adult Damien, and with his unfortunate passing this year, I couldn’t help but bring up his performance in Omen 3. You know how in some antichrist stories they end up being somewhat reluctant? Not so Neil here—who launches himself with glee into an enthusiastic son of Satan, cursing out Christs and exuding all the self-glorifying evil you want in a role. The rest of the film is a bit mix, but not so him.
There was also the First Omen a couple years back, which I found surprisingly enjoyable—a prequel to the original, set in 1970s Italy and all, starring Nell Tiger Free as a nun who gets intwined into the initial satanic conspiracy, which turns out to be not quite what you may think. It even has a decent theme tying into the political instability of that era and I guess now. It certainly beat out the Exorcist followup from around that time, that’s for sure.
Either way, the original Omen is a bit rough around the edges to current eyes a half-century on, but works pretty well when it works—if nothing else, Donner bought some pedigree that still makes there things to discuss over many other future projects with pint-sized precursors of apocalypse…
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