The Omen (1976)
Directed by Richard Donner
Some movies are just movies you have to watch. The Exorcist, Halloween, Frankenstein, to name a few. The Omen is one of these movies. Super famous, big deal, influential film. This was on my poster and I have never seen this movie from start to finish so it was time.
The Omen is about an American Ambassador and his wife have a son whom may or may not be the Devil’s spawn. Plain and simple, straight to the point. Everyone knows what this movie is about and knows that Damien is a creepy little shit. The movie stars Gregory Peck (sans bicycle) as Robert Thorn, the ambassador, with his wife Lee Remick as Katherine. Damien is played by Harvey Stephens and the kid barely even speaks the whole movie. Which had me thinking…what if Damien was just autistic the whole time and in the 70s they just thought he was evil lol. That is something to think about!
There are more kills than I remembered, and some are more graphic that you would think. David Warner gets decapitated by a big sheet of glass, and it is epic. I forgot about that part and it caught me by surprise. The most famous scene is probably the nanny hanging herself at Damien’s birthday party, everyone has seen that scene. A priest gets a metal rod skewered through him, and that is intense.
Basically Robert doesn’t believe Damien is the anti Christ, because cmon it is a little farfetched right? Soon he does come to believe it and attempts to kill Damien, which he’s thwarted by the nanny. Robert ends up being shot before he can kill Damien and the world is now doomed, as shown by Damien smiling at the cemetery.
It is a decent enough movie, a little slow which is common for the time period. The Omen may be a little overrated, maybe in the mid 70s this was more shocking but now with 2024 eyes, it is rather tame. If you threw the devil in anything back then it was automaticaly a success it seemed. I give the Omen a B, its a solid movie with good acting, just a little slow and dull at times.
