The Omen(1976)- My intro to world of Horror
As a kid, one genre of movies i would dread watching, was horror flicks. I was shit scared of going to any horror movie, and i refused to watch such movies, with my parents. I somehow could not bring myself to watch a horror flick, and was just content to listening to the stories of movies like Exorcist, Dracula, which my Dad would narrate during dinner time. And even otherwise horror flicks were totally forbidden for us to see. I saw my first horror flick, when i was 16, along with some other friends on a VCR. It was a horror flick, which i heard a lot about as a kid, and the reason why i actually dared to watch it, was the fact that it did not really have much of ghoulish faces, except maybe in the end. This movie was my introduction to world of horror flicks, and after that have watched more and more, becomming a fan of this genre.
The movie i am referring to is the The Omen, the 1976 version, i have not seen the 2006 version. The Omen deals with the concept of 666, or the Number of the Beast as per Revelations in the New Testament. The movie starts off with a young baby, being put in the place of a still born baby, who was born to the wife of Robert Thorn( Gregory Peck), an American diplomat, in a hospital in Rome. The scene shits to England, where Robert Thorn is now the American Ambassador, and the child has grown up as Damien( Harvey Stephens), along with his adopted father, and mother, Katherine Thorn( Lee Remick). The Thorns have no knowledge that Damien is a Satanic representative and the future Antichrist.
The first inkling comes when Damien’s nanny, Holly, mysteriously commits suicide at Damien’s 5th birthday party, and a new nanny, Ms. Baylock( Billie Whitelaw), arrives to take charge. A series of incidents like Damien refusing to enter the church on his baptism ceremony, and an attack by baboons on their car in a wildlife park, begins to make Katherine concerned. In the meanwhile, a priest Father Brennan, warns Thorn, that his son Damien is indeed the anti Christ, and asks him to get rid of him, before its too late. Thorn sends away the priest, thinking him to be a crank. However the priests bizzare death, and an equally freakish accident to his wife Katherine, makes Thorn suspicious. And he sets out to Rome in tow, with a photographer Keith Jennings( David Warner), to find out the truth about his son. Dont want to give out too much, but do watch the movie to find out what happens.
The main concept of Omen is 666, or The Number of the Beast. This theory is based on what is found in Book of Revelation 13:17-18.
And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.
The 666 funda is given to it, that a person born on June 6, at 6th hour, posseses the beastly charactertistic. Or could be the next anti christ. Its one of the Western world’s big superstitions or belief, what ever you call it, along with the Friday of 13th thingie.
Omen belongs to the genre of super natural horror where a person is possesed by a demon as in Roman Polanski’s Rosemary’ Baby or The Exorcist or The Devil’s Advocate where Al Pacino played Satan himself, tempting Keanu Reeves. But where in The Exorcist, the horror was explicit, we could actually see Regan, being possesed by the demon, in The Omen, the horror is more implicit. We do not really get to see the demon himself, but we feel the horror from what is happening. The horror in Omen comes from watching each character die in the most bizarre circumstances.
Omen was director Richard Donner’s first major commercial success, and he later enjoyed acclaim with Superman series, Lethal Weapon series and The Goonies. Donner does a really good work, first in the way he actually establishes that Damien could be Satan’s child, in some really chilling scenes.
Damien refuses to entering the church for his baptism. I love the way Donner sets it up here. As the car approaches the church, we see his expressions changing, Jerry Goldsmith’s score getting louder, and then when the door opens, Damien refusing to enter inside, kicking and screaming.
The famous scene when the baboons attack Damien and his mom in their car is again quite a chiller.
One of the most chilling one is where Jenning’s head is decapitated by a sheet of flying glass. As also the scene in the graveyard, where Jennings and Thorn are attacked by a pack of wolves.
One of the most effective factors for a horror movie is the background music score. Jerry Goldsmith’s score is one of the scariest, and would rank right up there with John Williams score for Jaws and Bernard Hermann’s for Pyscho. It is a very strong choral tone, and has that eerie Latin chant of Sanguis bibimus, corpus edimus, tolle corpus Satani, along with the Ave Satani cries. Donner effectively uses this score at every point just before one of Damien’s victims is about to be killed.
Harvey Stephens exudes the right mix of innocence and danger as the cherubic Damien, whose smiling visage hides a dark secret. Gregory Peck is good enough as Thorn, while David Warner proves more than able foil as the wise cracking photographer Jennings.
All in all apart from the fact that it was my first horror flick, i would always rate Omen as one of my favorites in the Genre, along with Exorcist, The Shining, Alien and others.
Tags: horror, Supernatural Horror
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Ratnakar,
you got it spot on , bro. This was definitely one of the very first movies, ( i fail to recall whether it was this or evil dead…), which I watched on a rented VCR along with my cousins in hyderabad and I was scared shitless for a very very long time. It simply is a brilliant movie, with some very chilling sequences like the one you mentioned, glass head-chop scene, the church scene and nanny death scene, the spear killing the priest, the cemetary scene and even the ending of the movie. Its just amazingly shot. Of course, how could I forget the scene, when damien is on the tricycle and what brutality follows soon after. The demonic dog and all…..
Goldsmith’s tune is just brilliant, easily one of the best ever.
Nice writeup man. … The remake was stupid and though they tried doing sequels to the original omen calling it Damien ( only the 2nd part was part decent), the rest was a joke.
ppl who havent watched it – should watch it – ITS A MUST WATCH !!!
listen to the haunting OMEN THEME TUNE , here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAGnTAGnxPE
God bless youtube !!!
Ratnakar – this was definitely one of my first few horror flicks too.But the difference in my case is that I got a major kick of watching horror films even as a child.So enjoyed watching Evil Dead ( 1), Exorcist,The Omen etc as a kid.
Love “The Omen” Soundtrack by Jerry Goldsmith,
especially the gentle music where ambassador and his wife spending happy time with their satan kid,
(my throat get tight watching the love of parents for their child)
and other track; sinister one:
“Ave Satani”
send chill in my bones;
.
“Sanquis bibimus, Corpus edimus
Prode corpus Satani
Ave, Ave Versus Christus
Ave, Ave Satanti”
dekha padega Omen…have heard a lot about it…i would hear a lot of stories about how people would die after watchin evil dead! then some wiseguy comes and tells me about a movie which is, in his humble opinion, the scariest movie ever and about the many ppl died watchin it-silver bullet…anyone seen this one/heard about it?