Film Review - The First Omen
For at least an hour, Arkasha Stevenson’s horror prequel is surprisingly effective
Given the plethora of artistically redundant sequels/prequels/reboots currently plaguing multiplexes, one could be forgiven for ignoring The First Omen on principle. Yet I’m astonished to report that Arkasha Stevenson’s prequel is, against all odds, a rather enjoyable watch for horror fans. Yes, I’ll wait a moment whilst you check it isn’t the first of April.
Richard Donner’s popular classic The Omen (1976), an enjoyably over-the-top, biblically nonsensical slab of overheated religious horror (about which I wrote here) needed no sequels but got three. The second, Damien: Omen II (1978), failed to match the first (give or take a spectacularly gory death scene involving a lift). The third and fourth (from 1981 and 1991), are both dreadful, and a pointless remake reared its ugly head in 2006 (I’ve not seen the Damien TV series from 2016). Therefore, going into The First Omen expecting a cynical cash grab is an understandable attitude. Yet as cynical cash grabs go, this one delivers genuine scares and unease. Or it does for at least an hour.
The plot centres around eager novitiate Margaret (Nell Tiger Free), who arrives in Rome from America, circa 1971, to work in a girl’s orphanage. Yes, I know. Immediately one thinks of Immaculate, which is still playing in cinemas, as well as Deliver Us, which went straight to streaming in the UK. Supernatural pregnancy-themed nunsploitation flicks are like buses. You’re waiting for one then three turn up at once. And yes, that’s an overused joke, so I’ll refrain from nun-related puns in the rest of this review. They’re a very bad habit.
Back to Margaret, and as per genre expectations, the orphanage contains a brooding teenager loner scrawling disturbing pictures, Carlita (Nicole Sorace). Has she got a 666 birthmark? Will the eerily devoted Sister Anjelica (Ishtar Currie-Wilson), to whom Carlita is very close, soon be dangling from a rope having uttered “It’s all for you” before you can say Mark of the Beast?
Margaret is also welcomed by her roommate Luz (Maria Caballero), another novitiate who seems to have one foot still in worldly pleasures. She encourages the previously buttoned-up Margaret to get drunk and get laid, so she knows what she’s giving up. Margaret goes along with this but gets too tanked up to recollect her shenanigans with the seemingly pleasant Paolo (Andrew Arcangeli), as they smooch on the dancefloor to disco tracks that won’t be released for another five years. Yes, I’m a saddo who can spot a pop music anachronism at a range of up to fifty yards.
Margaret regrets her night of hedonism. Oh well. Best repent and forget about it, right? Never mind the fact that other initially trustworthy authority figures, such as kindly Cardinal Lawrence (Bill Nighy) and strict Mother Superior Silva (Sônia Braga), start behaving in a vaguely sinister manner. Father Brennan (Ralph Inerson) tries to warn her evil things are afoot, but initially, Margaret thinks he’s a nutter. He’s imagining things, the way she used to imagine things growing up in a Stateside Catholic orphanage under the care of Cardinal Lawrence. Those demonic visions couldn’t have been real, could they?
Suffice it to say, satanic conspiracies are afoot, and sadly this is where things come a little unstuck. Whilst the first half of the film has some surprisingly unnerving moments, the latter half is a lot more predictable, before eventually going completely off the rails in a finale that foolish opts for more-is-more obvious reveals, including a shot of an infernal entity that looks like a rejected concept for the Balrog in The Lord of the Rings (2001–3). At the same time, a rather unnecessary third-act twist hedges narrative bets, doubtless in the event this one is a big hit, and further prequels are financially desirable.
However, before things deteriorate, this scores enough points to delight fans of the first film. The opening features a minor but memorable role for Charles Dance that recalls not one but two famously grisly deaths in the original. A later death scene is clearly inspired by the aforementioned gory lift scene in Damien: Omen II, but still delivers the shocking dramatic goods. Gnarly visions in an early birth scene are a particular stand-out, and even the jump scares are well deployed. Elsewhere, the screenplay by Arkasha Stevenson, Tim Smith, and Keith Thomas (from a story by Ben Jacoby), contains some deft misdirection that I obviously won’t spoil. And yes — you have to be patient, but eventually, there’s a blast of Jerry Goldsmith’s classic score, blended with Mark Korven’s effective new music for this instalment.
Ultimately, this is utter nonsense, just like the original. But it is made with passionate love for the 1976 film, by filmmakers who understand what made it creepy. That they get a fifty to sixty per cent success ratio with the scares is something of a diabolical miracle. To a limited degree, this also shares some of the concerns of Immaculate, concerning the wielding of corrupt religious power. Rioting students who have turned their backs on the church are the excuse the villains use to justify their wicked deeds. As such, this seems less about a spiritual battle between good and evil and more about a power struggle between the sacred and the secular. This is a different focus that gives the film a distinct identity compared with the original (or at least, for a good portion of the running time).
For these reasons — and I still can’t quite believe I’m saying this — I’m recommending a legacy prequel. The First Omen isn’t half bad.
(Originally published at Medium.)
The Dillon Empire beyond Substack
For a full list of my published novels, click click here.
For more on my novels and other fiction projects, click here.
For my Patreon page, click here.
For my Medium page, click here.