The Omen movie review - Aussieboyreviews
IS THE OMEN THE GREATEST SATANIC HORROR MOVIE OF ALL TIME?
The Omen is pretty decent for a Satanic horror film. But it’s nowhere near as good as Rosemary’s Baby or The Exorcist. This movie is probably best for young teens looking into the supernatural horror genre.
Storyline
Following mysterious deaths and strange events surrounding the family of a married American ambassador, he begins to suspect that the young child he is raising may actually be the Antichrist.
Movie Images
Movie details
Director: Richard Donner
Cast: Gregory Peck, Lee Remick, Harvey Stephens, David Warner, Patrick Troughton, Billie Whitelaw
Writer: David Seltzer
Release Date (Australia): 23 December 1876
Runtime: 111 minutes/1h 51m
Genre: Horror
Country: UK, USA
Language: English
CONTENT GUIDE (warning: May contain spoilers)
The film features supernatural horror themes, a scene in which a woman commits suicide by hanging herself, references to the murder of an infant and depictions of violent deaths.
The film features scenes of strong horror violence, including a man being impaled by a metal pole, another man being decapitated by a sheet of glass and a woman being stabbed, accompanied by depictions of blood detail.
A man is asked if a woman was on drugs before she committed suicide.
None.
The film contains a verbal reference to a woman being “too sexy for the white house”.
mpaa rating
R (for an unknown reasoning)
Aussie boy's thoughts
The Omen is obviously inspired by the other Satanic horror classics of its era, including Rosemary’s Baby and The Exorcist. However, those involved in developing the concept need to know that shocking deaths, an alluring score and sustained shots won’t necessarily save an extremely weak, basic and unsurprising story. Or maybe it’s all because the methods really haven’t aged well. An American ambassador begins to suspect that his child may be the Antichrist, and strange events occur while people try to warn him. There could’ve at least been more depth in the themes, but that just wasn’t the case.
It’s only very rarely that audiences see gems of horror movies today that remind us that the classics aren’t all owned by the unforgotten past. Some horror films that may be old, but we still analyse how they achieve their affect and age well, include The Shining, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Halloween, The Blair Witch Project, and The Exorcist of course, but The Omen does not deserve to take place among them, although it deserves a few points.
How is soundtrack this exciting, eerie and memorable possible to be produced in not just the 1970s, but of all time? The music is usually straightforward, with no tiny details or big interruptions that horror movie scores of the recent years always try to fit in. But in a surprising abundance of scenes, the soundtrack is notably unsuitable or just completely unnecessary, and it seems dominate where the audience’s attention goes to.
Majority of the adult actors in this movie, including Gregory Peck, are all extremely overrated and the dull writing for their characters makes them out to be even more frail. There are some scary moments with value behind them due to an excellent child performance, but we don’t get to see this young star very often throughout the film. The filmmakers have managed to capture the creepy, off atmosphere admirably, but at the end of the day when you look at the story, this movie is lucky that its third act saved its dying first two acts.
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