Good ‘Omen’
After multiple attempts at re-booting/extending classic horror franchises, the Antichrist finally hits the mark. Because Satan.
the First Omen
Director: Arkasha Stevenson • Writers: Tim Smith, Arkasha Stevenson, Keith Thomas
Starring: Nell Tiger Free, Sônia Braga, Ralph Ineson, Nicole Sorace, Maria Caballero
USA • 1hr 59mins
Opens Hong Kong April 4 • IIB
Grade: B
Richard Donner’s 1976 The Omen was one of a slew of demon seed/exorcism/secretive Church movies to hit in the glory days of the 1960s and ’70s – alongside Rosemary’s Baby, To the Devil a Daughter, The Sentinel and the granddaddy of them all, The Exorcist. The Omen never quite gained the cultural traction of some of those, but it does have its share of memorable moments, among them a beheading by plate glass, unholy impalement by lightning rod and multiple Rottweiler chases, all made spookier thanks to Jerry Goldsmith’s awesome score. That film starred Gregory Peck (grandfather of new Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’ Spock, Ethan) as Robert Thorn, an American diplomat in Europe, who adopts an infant when he and his wife’s child “dies” at birth. They name him Damien (cue orchestral chanting). He goes on to run for president and looks just like Sam Neill. There was an insipid fourth TV movie in 1991 and a remake in 2006, but The Omen has remained far more dormant than The Exorcist and possession movies. Until now.
The Catholic Church has become a popular whipping boy and Big Bad for movies over the past couple of years (okay, it was always the Big Bad in reality, but that’s another story), so in The First Omen co-writers Tim Smith, Keith Thomas and first-time feature director Arkasha Stevenson concoct a wild Church conspiracy rooted in the quest to regain lost power, body horror and pregnancy anxieties. And it mostly works, setting up all sorts of potential story offshoots. Ret-conning is your friend!
But meh. It’s forgivable. It’s not like the source material is untouchable. In The First Omen, it’s 1971 – nothing is better for horror than the time pre-mobile communications – and a young-ish Father Brennan (Ralph Ineson, The Creator), a church conspiracist who would eventually befriend Robert Thorn, is confronting one Father Harris (Tywin Lannister, Charles Dance) about the sins of the Church and personal forgiveness. That ends poorly. Elsewhere, American novitiate Margaret (Nell Tiger Free, Game of Thrones) arrives in Rome to teach at the Vizzardeli Orphanage ahead of “taking the veil”, which to us infidels means committing to a life as a nun. An orphan herself, she’s met by her lifelong guardian angel, Cardinal Lawrence (uh oh, Bill Nighy), and one of those supermodel/priests that are all over the place in Rome, Father Gabriel (Tawfeek Barhom). Off they go to Vizzardeli, where Margaret is welcomed by the Abbess, Sister Silvia (the great Sônia Braga).
Despite Silvia’s shadiness, all seems well, and Margaret gets on with her roommate and fellow soon-to-be-nun Luz (Maria Caballero), the children she teaches, and in particular a strange loner that may or may not be the mother of the Antichrist, Carlita Scianna (Nicole Sorace). Carlita’s often isolated from the rest of the kids, and Brennan stalks Margaret in order to warm her that evil follows the young woman. Does it ever, and once the first self-immolation/hanging happens, Margaret starts to get suspicious of everyone around her. The hallucinations she seems to have don’t help. Is this the work of the Devil?
Stevenson’s pivot towards the unspoken, feminine perspective works like a charm in The First Omen and gives the franchise the kind of fresh POV it needs if the producers want to keep milking it (no pun intended). To the basement lurkers who whine because, “Ewwww, girls” Damien had a goddamned mother, and wondering what the woman who birthed the Son of the Beast endured is entirely valid. And based on Margaret’s fever dreams of childbirth – the film’s leg-crossing, standout scenes – it was awful. By setting the film in the socially fluid early-1970s Stevenson, Smith and Thomas are also able to inject secular criticism into the story, and exploit a retro-earthy visual palette; it really is cinematic in that old school horror way, even if it’s never truly frightening. Horny, yes. The First Omen is dangerously carnal, but not frightening. There’s a palpable, oppressive mood to The First Omen that never lets up and isn’t watered down despite horror aficionados likely ability to spot the “twist” a mile away. It’s gleeful with its middle finger in how the Catholic Church and its agents have exerted control over women and their bodies since time immemorial, but it’s also exactly the kind of primer anyone unfamiliar with The Omen could use. Credit to Free for delivering a committed, full-body performance that rivals Annabelle Wallis in Malignant, without which the horror hokum becomes just hokum. Did the film need the coda that sets up a bunch of (possible) sequels (likely, given the film’s lean US$30 million budget)? No. And if we’re honest that tacked-on finale is what really feels like the work of the Devil. AKA studio notes. — DEK