It's the end of the world as we know it – and Damien feels fine

When the Jews return to Zion / And a comet rips the sky / And the Holy Roman Empire rises, / Then You and I must die. / From the eternal sea he rises, / Creating armies on either shore, / Turning man against his brother / 'Til man exists no more.

Fifty years ago, thanks in large part to its effective marketing blitz, big-name stars, and the wave of demonic diminutive films it was riding, The Omen became a box office juggernaut and further evidence that prestige horror pictures could capture big bucks and major attention. Directed by Richard Donner and written by David Seltzer, the plot revolves around an American diplomat, Robert Thorn (Gregory Peck), who secretly adopts an orphaned newborn after his own child dies at birth in a Rome hospital. As Robert climbs the political ranks to become the U.S. Ambassador to Great Britain, strange accidents and violent deaths begin to surround his growing family, leading him, along with a persistent photojournalist named Keith Jennings (David Warner), to investigate dire warnings from a frantic priest, Father Brennan (Patrick Troughton). Their investigation ultimately reveals that the young boy, Damien (Harvey Spencer Stephens), is the prophesied Antichrist, guarded by a sinister nanny, Mrs. Baylock (Billie Whitelaw), while Robert's unsuspecting wife, Katherine (Lee Remick), falls victim to the child's horrific influence.

To listen to a recording of our CineVerse group discussion of The Omen, conducted last week, click here.

The Omen subverts our assumptions and preconceived notions of what a supernatural/occult movie with Satan at the center will be. While there are some cleverly ghastly kills of major characters, this picture is relatively free of the blood and viscera we would normally associate with an R-rated fright film. Additionally, there is no exorcism, sacrifice scene, or graphic manifestation of Old Scratch or demons. The production values are lavish, too, thanks to a large budget: a rarity for a horror movie of any era.

The tone is increasingly foreboding and bleak, punctuating how The Omen is a movie that takes itself deadly serious, with virtually no comic relief. Things go from bad to worse in a throughline that quickly arrests our attention and quickens the pulse.

This work prevails as a classic of its kind 50 years later primarily thanks to 4 key elements. First is the solid casting, especially placing Oscar-winner Peck – who brings with him all of his worlds-best-father Atticus Finch virtues – in the lead role opposite Remick, two actors never before associated with traditional horror cinema. Warner and Whitelaw add further gravitas as the photographer and devilish Mary Poppins.

Second are the memorably shocking kills, each of which is a standout set piece that fans continue to talk about, including Keith’s horrific beheading by a sheet of glass; the nanny’s ghastly hanging during the birthday party; Father Brennan’s diagonal impalement by a church steeple; and Kathy’s fall from the balcony, followed by her later steep plummet from a hospital window.

Third, the Academy Award-winning score by Jerry Goldsmith, which famously features a disturbing satanic choral chant in Latin. And fourth, the engrossing screenplay, a thoroughly original narrative not based on a pre-existing story, by David Seltzer. Sure, it has flaws, implausibilities, and overdramatic religious dialogue, but you can’t deny the awesome magnetism of its suspenseful structure.

Helping the movie achieve legendary status all these years later is the word-of-mouth around it, especially ongoing chatter about how the production was cursed. Seltzer’s airplane was struck by lightning, the Provisional IRA bombed director Donner’s hotel, and key crew members survived a head-on car collision on the very first day of filming. Also, after the crew left the safari park where the baboon scene was shot, a park warden was killed by a tiger, and Peck canceled a flight to Israel only for the chartered plane to crash, killing everyone aboard.

Scenes involving animals are particularly blood-chilling. While filming at the Windsor Safari Park, the baboons reacted far more aggressively to Remick’s car than anticipated, generating genuine terror on camera that vastly heightened the scene's suspense. And the sequence where the Rottweiler hellhounds attack Robert and Keith is equally unsettling.

Donner insisted in interviews that the film works as a straightforward thriller with no supernatural elements that get in the way. He argued that the narrative could be interpreted as a series of coincidences that could each be logically explained, with Damien being an innocent child and not the antichrist. But it’s pretty hard to explain away the 666 birthmark, the consistently ominous spectral markings on Keith’s photographs, the discovery of the remains of Robert’s murdered baby as well as Damien’s supposed jackal mother, and several other examples that collectively point to hellish forces at work along with a human conspiracy to ensure the rise of the Antichrist.

Any lasting work of horror cinema has crunchy concepts and thought-provoking ideas fueling the motor, and The Omen is no exception. For starters, this is a wolf-in-sheep’s-disguise tale – If you take the story literally, The Omen suggests how evil can disguise itself in the veneer of innocence and normality, and occur even in broad daylight right under your nose. It’s also an examination of a devilish Catch-22, as the film presents a serious damned-if-you-do/damned-if-you-don’t moral conundrum: Should you trust your instincts and slaughter a seemingly blameless and helpless child, or take a chance and allow a greater evil to fester? The movie explores the challenges of parental responsibilities, including the obligation to protect your child from harm and corruption, and to believe in their purity and innocence.

Couple these themes with the brooding notion of unpreventable fate, and you’ve got plenty to chew on. Because, despite Robert and Keith’s best efforts, there appears to be no escape from the dark destiny ahead, in which the Bible itself prophesies doom for mankind and the gruesome deaths of any interlopers.

Similar works

• The Bad Seed (1956)
  
• Village of the Damned (1960)
• Rosemary's Baby (1968)
• The Blood on Satan's Claw (1971)
• The Exorcist (1973)
• Abby (1974)
• Beyond the Door (1974)
• To the Devil a Daughter (1976)
• Holocaust 2000 (also released as The Chosen) (1977)
• The Seventh Sign (1988)
• The Rapture (1991)
• The Omega Code (1999)
• Left Behind (2000)
• Tribulation (2000)
• Frailty (2001)
  
• Judgment (2001)
• Revelation (2001)
• Gone (2011)

Other films directed by Richard Donner

• Superman (1978)
• Inside Moves (1980)
• The Goonies (1985)
• Ladyhawke (1985)
• Lethal Weapon (1987)
• Scrooged (1988)