I must admit right off of the bat that this review is a little biased. "The Omen" is one of the scariest films ever made just because everything about it so brilliant. The direction by Richard Donner to the very notes of the score by legendary Hollywood Maestro Jerry Goldsmith, and the editing by Stuart Baird, it all works. I'm going to go ahead and say that Gregory Peck delivers one of the finest performances of his career and completely sells an otherwise ridiculous story about the Devil's next of kin.
A child dies during birth, but another who'd lost it's mother during birth but lived, are united in a hospital in Rome, late one night in 1970. The mother, Mrs. Katherine Thorn (Lee Remick) is not told. Her husband, US Ambassador to the UK Mr. Robert Thorne (Gregory Peck), could never break her heart in that way. One child dies, so that another may have an opportunity to lead a normal life. But bizarre occurrences begin to happen the child, Damien, turns 6. People begin to die, his behavior is a little weird, throwing a fit when he gets near a church. Father Brennan (Patrick Troughton) comes to Thorne with a warning to accept Christ because he and his wife are in danger and that his child may not be entirely human. Mrs. Baylock (Billie Whitelaw) arrives and says she was sent by the agency to be the Thorne's new nanny. She brings with her a menacing black German Shepard dog. Soon a photographer by the name of Jennings (David Warner) shows Robert strange photographs he's snapped around Damien. Soon, the pair travel to Rome to investigate the child's mysterious origins, believing that Damien Thorne may be the son of the Devil: The Anti - Christ.
Little kids in suits are scary.
Gregory Peck does wonders for the role that any actor simply could not. When the film went into production at 20th Century Fox, Alan Ladd Jr., the head of the studio, wanted Donner to attach a name to the film so that it could be a box office draw, despite its dark subject matter. Peck bring serious gravitas, charm, and sadness to the role. He is a man who has everything and yet slowly begins to have it stripped away by his seemingly harmless 6 year old son. The terror in his eyes is disturbing and the urgency in his voice as he begins to lose a sense of what is right or wrong about his son is unnerving. There is a powerful scene in the film in which Peck receives a shattering phone call. The dialogue that the delivers as Thorne is beautiful, pulling the audience in and losing any sense that we're watching actors on the screen.
Unlike yesterday's pick (read my review for "Resident Evil" here), "The Omen" delivers the message that we will be watching a straight forward horror picture from the very opening titles of the film. Set to latin text, Jerry Goldsmith composed a score for orchestra and choir. His love theme at the beginning of the film, featuring young Damien tells the story of a young family in love. It is so sentimental and bright that we forget that we're watching a horror picture. There is love for the child. Later in the film, Goldsmith varies the theme and it goes from being a lovely melody of romance, to a dark and desolate shell of what it once was. However, the cue that really kicks you in the head and never lets you go is "Ave Satani", Goldsmith's take on Ave Maria if it were turned around and used to, as the title says, hail satan. The music managed to get Goldsmith the only Oscar of his career and is a testament to how powerful a film score can be. I honestly believe that without the score, the film would not have worked. That's right, I will repeat that. Without Jerry Goldsmith's fantastically dark, atmospheric, and gothic score, "The Omen" would not have been as good of a film.
Thorne and Jennings attempt to find out the mystery behind Damien's origins in "The Omen."
The script by David Seltzer is solid. Richard Donner mentions in the bonus content on the Special Edition DVD release of the film, that he believes Gregory Peck's character has gone insane and that's what drives him to his actions in the third act of the film, which I will avoid spoiling for those who have not seen it. It's an interesting notion that I had not given much thought to for the idea that I was entirely sold on the movie's plot. That's how good Seltzer's script is. It does not give us an entire massive load of horror at once, but slowly begins to build and build right up until the scene in which Robert and Jennings leave Bugenhagen's (Leo McKern) home in Rome, when investigating the mysterious origins of the orphaned Damien.
This is a movie that doesn't feature a lot of action, but rather dialogue. It is an intriguing story that pulls us in from the beginning and does not let us go and as the story becomes more intense, so does the sense of drama played by our actors. Lee Remick grows more fearful of her own child and the mysterious Mrs. Baylock. What is she trying to hide? And the child himself, Damien, is creepier than hell. This movie taught me that if I ever had a little boy, I'm definitely not dressing him up in a suit. The fact that Robert Thorne is the US Ambassador the UK also means that the boy now has a means to the world of politics. After a grim scene involving Remick, Damien sits back and smiles. Creepy... Little kids are scary.
One final thing I'd like to mention about the film is the insane level of suspense that Richard Donner creates using the right camera angles, music, and sound effects. There is an incredible cat and mouse game that happens when Gregory Peck is trying to get past Mrs. Baylock's dog. The music in this scene is incredibly scary. An choir of tens of musicians is merely whispering and chanting as softly as possible, paired with the image on screen, I felt the incredible sense that Donner was telling us that the movie we're watching is dangerous, not to us physically, but to our senses. Anything could happen at anytime and for that reason, "The Omen" remains one of my favorite films ever. Not just from the horror genre, but across all movies I've ever seen.
8/10
Rated R
Directed by Richard Donner
Written by David Seltzer
Runtime - 111 minutes
Suggested Edition: Special edition DVD only $5.92 on amazon
7.6 of 10 stars on IMDb
85% on Rotten Tomatoes
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