Review of "The Omen"
THE OMEN (1976)
Directed by Richard Donner
Written by David Seltzer
Starring Gregory Peck, Lee Remick, David Warner, Billie Whitelaw, Harvey Stephens and Patrick Troughton
This hugely successful horror film is set in the present day and concerns Robert Thorn (Peck), a US Ambassador, who is in Rome when his wife Katherine (Remick) gives birth to their child who dies almost as soon as it's born. While his wife is still unaware that her child has died, Thorn substitutes an abandoned new-born baby, which the couple name Damian (Stephens). Five years later, and Robert Thorn is now the US Ambassador to Britain, and everything seems to be going well for the family until a strange series of events and mysterious deaths occur seemingly centred around Damian. A priest (Troughton) accosts Thorn and tells him that his son is actually the son of the Devil, the Antichrist, who will bring about the end of the world.
This film is for the most part, still quite effective. The storyline, which could so easily become absolutely ludicrous, is handled completely straight by the film-makers. For some reason in the late 1960s and 70s, there seemed to be quite a thing for films which mix occultism with children, such as Rosemary's Baby (1968) and The Exorcist (1974), and comparisons to those two films are almost inevitable and it has to be said that The Omen does suffer in comparison. The film has quite a slow build up and the gore and violence are pretty tame by today's standards. It does have a chilling atmosphere though, which it sustains throughout. However, the slow pace is often broken up for elaborate death scenes which, though well done, don't really work too well, in the context of the rest of the film's pacing. One of the film's main assets though was the great cast, Peck in particular is impressive as the tormented father.
The film was plagued by well-publicised accidents: Gregory Peck and writer David Seltzer took separate planes from the US to Britain, and yet both were struck by lightning, the producer narrowly missed being struck by lightning while in Rome, the Rottweilers used in the film attacked their trainers, a hotel at which the director Richard Donner was staying was bombed by the IRA, Donner was also struck by a car, after Peck cancelled a flight to Israel the flight he would have been on crashed killing everyone on board, on the first day of the shoot several principal cast members survived a head-on car crash, and even after the film's release the special effects artist John Richardson was injured and his girlfriend decapitated during the filming of A Bridge Too Far (1977). This led many to claim that the film was "cursed". There wasn't anything cursed about it's reception though, the film was a huge hit, spawning three sequels and a re-make. Jerry Goldsmith was Oscar nominated for his atmospheric score.
Seven out of ten.
Directed by Richard Donner
Written by David Seltzer
Starring Gregory Peck, Lee Remick, David Warner, Billie Whitelaw, Harvey Stephens and Patrick Troughton
This hugely successful horror film is set in the present day and concerns Robert Thorn (Peck), a US Ambassador, who is in Rome when his wife Katherine (Remick) gives birth to their child who dies almost as soon as it's born. While his wife is still unaware that her child has died, Thorn substitutes an abandoned new-born baby, which the couple name Damian (Stephens). Five years later, and Robert Thorn is now the US Ambassador to Britain, and everything seems to be going well for the family until a strange series of events and mysterious deaths occur seemingly centred around Damian. A priest (Troughton) accosts Thorn and tells him that his son is actually the son of the Devil, the Antichrist, who will bring about the end of the world.
This film is for the most part, still quite effective. The storyline, which could so easily become absolutely ludicrous, is handled completely straight by the film-makers. For some reason in the late 1960s and 70s, there seemed to be quite a thing for films which mix occultism with children, such as Rosemary's Baby (1968) and The Exorcist (1974), and comparisons to those two films are almost inevitable and it has to be said that The Omen does suffer in comparison. The film has quite a slow build up and the gore and violence are pretty tame by today's standards. It does have a chilling atmosphere though, which it sustains throughout. However, the slow pace is often broken up for elaborate death scenes which, though well done, don't really work too well, in the context of the rest of the film's pacing. One of the film's main assets though was the great cast, Peck in particular is impressive as the tormented father.
The film was plagued by well-publicised accidents: Gregory Peck and writer David Seltzer took separate planes from the US to Britain, and yet both were struck by lightning, the producer narrowly missed being struck by lightning while in Rome, the Rottweilers used in the film attacked their trainers, a hotel at which the director Richard Donner was staying was bombed by the IRA, Donner was also struck by a car, after Peck cancelled a flight to Israel the flight he would have been on crashed killing everyone on board, on the first day of the shoot several principal cast members survived a head-on car crash, and even after the film's release the special effects artist John Richardson was injured and his girlfriend decapitated during the filming of A Bridge Too Far (1977). This led many to claim that the film was "cursed". There wasn't anything cursed about it's reception though, the film was a huge hit, spawning three sequels and a re-make. Jerry Goldsmith was Oscar nominated for his atmospheric score.
Seven out of ten.