THE OMEN (1976) - Movie Review

Director: Richard Donner
Starring: Gregory Peck, Lee Remick, David Warner, Harvey Spencer Stephens, Billie Whitelaw, Patrick Troughton, Martin Benson, Leo McKern
Genre: Horror
Writer: David Seltzer
Runtime: 111 min
Rated: R
Buy This Movie: Blu-ray (Amazon), Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV

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Synopsis:

American diplomat Robert (Gregory Peck) adopts Damien (Harvey Stephens) when his wife, Katherine (Lee Remick), delivers a stillborn child. After Damien's first nanny hangs herself, Father Brennan (Patrick Troughton) warns Robert that Damien will kill Katherine's unborn child. Shortly thereafter, Brennan dies and Katherine miscarries when Damien pushes her off a balcony. As more people around Damien die, Robert investigates Damien's background and realizes his adopted son may be the Antichrist.

Review:

Riding on the popularity of satanic-themed horror films like "Rosemary's Baby" and "The Exorcist", Richard Donner's "The Omen" took advantage of a perfect storm of factors that turned it into a sleeper hit, and despite mixed reviews on release, has since become one of the horror greats.

The film follows American diplomat (Gregory Peck) who begins to suspect that his adopted son may be Antichrist and the cause for a series of mysterious deaths. While "The Omen" did not start the evil child trend (look up the 1956 psychological thriller "The Bad Seed"), it certainly did define modern cinema's approach to this kind of premise. The plot is somewhat silly and laden with heavy-handed dialogue. It gets sillier the more it goes down the rabbit hole of Satanic conspiracies, however, it's also wildly effective because of Donner's grounded approach to the story.

I suppose the franchise is famous for its kills, but they are not as violent as you might expect. They are mostly designed as freak accidents, in a way similar to the deaths in "Final Destination", but much less Rube Goldbergian. Donner reportedly preferred the deaths to be more ambigous in nature, but screenwriter David Seltzer and producer Harvey Bernhard pushed for them to be overtly supernatural. In the end, it feels like a compromise between the two visions, but I will say that the ambiguity really adds to the film's ominous atmosphere.

Donner was also wise to keep the gore down in favor of old-fashioned suspense building. It's gruesome in just the right amount, but never overdoes it and for the most part keeps things subtle and non-exploitative. The gritty cinematography along with Jerry Goldsmith's Oscar-winning hair-raising score complete the film's doom and gloom mood.

If you really think about it, this movie could have been a complete disaster in the hands of a lesser director, but Donner had just the right vision for this particular story, not to mention a great cast that gave it much-needed gravitas. The director's restrained approach elevated what could have otherwise been a run-of-the-mill B-movie to classic horror status.

SCORE: 8/10