The First Omen! Which is actually the sixth Omen, and gah, I know that joke has already been made. Every year I try to connect with an old horror franchise that I’m yet to cover, and this year it’s the Omen. And I’m glad I have, so I can just report how thoroughly unimpressed I am so far 😤 I watched the first movie and it’s fine, for a horror staple of the 1970s, but then each sequel since has been a waste of my time! Damien – Omen II literally has it that Damien doesn’t even remember that he’s the Antichrist for the first half of the movie, so we’re basically watching a normal teenager get around with nothing particularly noteworthy about them until halfway through 💁♂️ Hey, when I was a teenager, I never realised I was the Antichrist neither, so where’s my movie?! But anyway, it just means that it falls on The First Omen to right the ship, and breathe fresh life into this story. Reviews, from back in April, have me optimistic. I’m tucked into bed, ready for fright night.
Well… that makes five bad sequels and counting. Because The First Omen is so boring! The early stages lean heavily on sharp edits in transitions to keep up the movie’s energy . And I throw no shade at actress Nell Tiger Free, since I believe she stretches herself far and wide for the material provided, but as far as a protagonist for this movie, Margaret is as bland as lumpy rice pudding. Free brings a mix of wide-eyed effort to the performance, like Bryce Dallas Howard in The Village, while also garnering sympathy from an unassured charm, managed in the same way as Hannah Murray across Cassie in Skins, and also Gilly in Game of Thrones. To be fair, the scene where Margaret is convulsing, after removing herself from the car wreck, was the only moment throughout the movie that really held my focus, and that comes down to Free 👍 Perhaps I just wasn’t so ready for fright night as I might’ve predicted, but I wanted the Omen prequel that’s clearly outlined in the original – I wanted the baby born, the jackal, the fire. I wanted to know the nature of Father Spiletto’s coercion in gifting Damien to Robert Thorn, and how Bugenhagen’s daggers were forged. I imagined this prequel could write itself. But instead, director Arkasha Stevenson has brewed an origin that is so uninteresting.
It’s blatantly obvious that Carlita (Nicole Sorace) is a red herring, and that Margaret is to be the mother of the Antichrist. It’s clear to anyone who has watched the original, that nightclub fellow Paolo (Andrea Arcangeli) probably found a devil’s mark on Margaret’s forehead as soon as he touches her head while dancing; isn’t it? Isn’t it?! But the only problem is that the movie never plays the mystery like the audience is in on the deception, like we’re heading to a foreseen conclusion, and I think we’re meant to be surprised. I think The First Omen thinks it’s mysterious 😮 But the biggest sin of all is in the conspiracy that devout priests decided to breed for the Antichrist so people will believe in God again. Movie, what are you talking about? No, no, let me say it again. WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?! Why can’t occults just be evil? Why can’t devil worshippers have infiltrated the church to snigger at the Antichrist being born under their enemies noses, or to ensure a pure virgin vestige? This movie had a choice, and it didn’t have to turn The Omen‘s first line of defense into double-crossing conspirators. For devout clergy to willingly bring about one of the worst possible scenarios in their field, is like a bunch of lifeguards releasing sharks at Bondi Beach so more people will admire their red and yellow speedos. It’s like lobbyists promoting international war so they can justify providing aid and appear productive… Oh, okay, I get it now. Maybe this premise isn’t too farfetched, but I still don’t like it.
The movie’s use of spiders, and the metaphors they provide, as creepy, meticulous, controlling, and many, I liked. Miller’s Girl thought of that too, also from earlier in the year. I liked the scene with the nuns praying in unison on the floor – I don’t know if that’s a traditional ritual, or if they knew Margaret was beneath them at the time, but it was ominous foreshadowing. But I’m also confounded by the movie’s choice to repeat similar deaths as they exist in the original. As a consequence, I never would have thought the Devil’s intervention would lack creativity, but here we are 🤷♂️ In the trailer, I did see how Sister Angelica (Ishtar Currie-Wilson) is standing on a high ledge dripping in petrol, and I thought, “oh, she’s up on that ledge like the nanny in The Omen – not a bad callback”. But I didn’t expect her to hang herself as well, after muttering a similar sentiment to the Nanny’s, “it’s all for you!”. Even the stain glass that falls to kill Charles Dance comes with a spire that narrowly misses him, as if that isn’t iconic as well. Why does Sister Angelica even self-immolate? Is she disturbed that Margaret is not aware of the Antichrist process taking place within her? How does her death achieve anything, and why does her spirit comfort Carlita? I’m left to wonder. And is it a cheat that Margaret can see visions to rachet up the scares? I think so. Because it’s funny; for how mystic the Omen series seems to be, it’s always managed an atmosphere without being spookily supernatural, in that we are not given a peek beyond the curtain. Think of stitching, and how the presented side is neat, while the backside often contains a chaotic mess. Everything that’s shown in The Omen stays in the natural realm, and this movie is like giving the victims of the Final Destination movies a jump-scare with a cloaked black figure with a scythe before the unseen manifestation gets them, completely changing the threat.
I also don’t approve of how this movie makes Father Brennan (Ralph Ineson) special. Because he’s now schooled in the deep dark conspiracy taking over the church. And I’ve said it before; not everything has to be connected. I clearly had wrongly assumed that Father Brennan only sensed that Damien was trouble due to a close proximity to the boy, his personal exploration of his faith, and through being well versed in his job. Then, in the sequels, as Damien grew older and gained autonomy, he stayed away from churches, kept his movements more underhanded, so no official could ever sense him again. It just, um, really makes sense. But if that’s not the case, why did Father Brennan wait until Damien was four to warn his father of his true being? Why did he wait until his foster parents grew attached to their son before warning them that their adoption process might not have been… kosher? I’m ill-tempered in dealing with this new revelation 😠 But fine, maybe it does make sense that Brennan is aware of a larger conspiracy and in deep, since he does say he was present for the birth, and his shack is covered in clippings in The Omen. And maybe Brennan was only able to track down Damien after the Nanny publicly hung herself at their home, since it was picked up in the papers. But even then, the ending provided in this movie is still so elemental. Never mind that The First Omen is attempting to setup its own spin-off sequel, but Father Brennan tells Margaret that they’ve named her son Damien, and that’s it – not “I’ve finally found Damien”, “I’d like your help to kill Damien”, or “I’m trying but the father won’t believe me about Damien”. Nothing other than that his name is Damien. And the crowd goes mild.
Look, I’ll extend an olive branch, and I had to research why most people have liked this movie, where I have not. “Am I missing something?”, I shortly pondered. But to my best estimation, It seems people saw this movie with dirt-low expectations, even citing The Exorcist: Believer for how bad this could be, as a similarly far-reaching deep-pull sequel carrying on from decades ago – The Exorcist: Believer being a movie that came out last year, which I did not see. Myself, I’m coming upon The First Omen after only recently watching the Omen series, and 2019’s Saint Maud, which is a 5-star experience I thoroughly recommend, that deals in the same iconography. Plus, I was relatively enthusiastic about The First Omen due to the reviews of those that came before me 🙄 Context is key, my friends, and ignorance is bliss. But an 81% on Rotten Tomatoes for The First Omen is sacrilegious, by my estimation; yet I’m only one man. The First Omen may be somewhat gripping, but the story is horrible. One reviewer suggested that a moviegoer might not actually need to know anything about the Omen franchise in order to enjoy this movie, and I would suggest they’d actually prefer it. On second thought, I couldn’t recommend any movie in this franchise that isn’t the first ‘Omen. I mean The Omen. You know what I mean 🤡 The Omen series has sky-rocketed up my list of franchises that I would love to take a stab at, if I were a screenwriter or directorial genius. Second only to A Nightmare on Elm Street would be the Omen, insofar as the horror realm.
1.5
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