45th anniversary of The Omen (1976)

The Omen (1976), directed by Richard Donner.

First review

I hadn't seen this for decades, but the characters all seem so familiar, probably because they have been reused and lampooned in later movies: the troublesome photographer (David Warner), the sinister nanny (Billie Whitelaw), the guilty, crazed, incoherent priest (Patrick Troughton, Doctor Who #2), and the amoral scientist who knows just what to do (Leo McKern, the real #2).

Less stereotyped are parents Gregory Peck and Lee Remick, gradually realizing the awful truth the audience has known since before the lights went down. Remick fears she is going insane and sees a shrink. Peck really does go nuts; how else to work up the will to kill a child you have come to believe is the antichrist?

As religious horror it has some good aspects but is a bit pale compared to The Exorcist (1973). A research topic: when (and why?) did children become proper subjects of evil in movies? Village of the Damned (1960), The Bad Seed (1956), that sort of thing.

As was common during that period they use some sort of lens filter that puts a star or cross on bright points of light; here they look like prismatic fans. It's an interesting effect but can't be good for the fine detail.

Jerry Goldsmith's score was, unbelievably, his only Oscar win. He has this really great "machinery of hell" motif when the car approaches the church wedding. The music is very "up front" throughout, more common then than now.

Available on Blu-ray.

Some thoughts on demoniacal horror movies. I care for only one small sub-genre, best represented by some of the episodes of Chris Carter's Millennium TV series with Lance Henricksen. In a lot of fiction (and rock music album covers) "evil" is represented as majestic and alluring, which of course it must be to be seductive. In the series evil is never any of those things, it is just... sad. The tragic, elegiac, autumnal tone to this treatment is appealing in a different way. I don't know if many movies take this approach; Fallen (1998) with Denzel Washington might be one.

Finally, Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman is a pretty good comic novel about the Beast and the Apocalypse. The first section contains a satire on The Omen: the son of Satan is supposed to be born to an American diplomatic family in Britain, but the babies are accidentally switched at the hospital... [Later: Expanded into a TV miniseries].

Second review

Additional notes and new thumbnails.

It begins with a lie and you might think that is dad's unknowing pact with the devil. It ends with the antichrist's sly smile and evil has won.

But think again. The lie was done out of love: dad's substitution of a baby to spare his wife pain. In the end Damien lives because his father hesitated to stab and murder him, a human response. Maybe Satan has won this battle, but not yet the war.

Notes:

• Gregory Peck and Lee Remick have weight and intelligence that balances out what might otherwise have been a pretty silly plot.
• The nanny who hangs herself at the birthday party: for the first time it occurred to me she might have been part of the cult and her sacrifice completely voluntary, not just a possessed compulsion.
• Patrick Troughton as the ranting priest would be more effective if he were less crazed.
• Watching Billie Whitelaw (Twisted Nerve (1968)) I thought of a comedy skit were she was Nanny McPhee's or Mary Poppins' evil cousin.
• What is that creepy painting in the library?
• Not a large budget but great use of different Euro locations.
• There is no omen in The Omen. The quoted prophecy is not from the Bible.

Available on Blu-ray with two commentary tracks:

• Thoughtful reflections by Nick Redmond, Lem Dobbs and Jeff Bond, with quite a lot about Jerry Goldsmith's score.
• A chatty conversation between Brian Hegeland and director Richard Donner. Some good stories but not very information dense.
  
  Donner says the film made so much more money than expected that it gave the studio funds to do Star Wars (1977) right. That film took cinematographer Gilbert Taylor based on this one.

My thumbnails are from an old Blu-ray; I believe it has been remastered since.

I'm not big on devil movies.

With few exceptions (The Exorcist; Curse/Night of the Demon; Burn, Witch, Burn; The Seventh Victim) they are a pretty unimpressive group.

Credit to The Omen for rising above the crowd, mostly because of the cast and especially Goldsmith's score.

I was manager of a theatre that showed The Omen in '76. It was one of those great old opera house structures built in 1922 with a massive stage and Grand Curtain. At the end of the movie I had to wait backstage to draw the curtain while Goldsmith's Ave Satani rustled the shadows around me, then walk through the now empty, silent auditorium. I was never one to shy from dark places, but those few moments called up from all those years ago can still send a shiver up my spine.

I haven't seen End of Days.

I got suckered into The Blair Witch Project because of the super-hyper publicity, but I've ranted about that one before, so I'll just say I don't like it.

I don't understand the love for found footage movies, which distance themselves from the viewer. I'm never connected to anyone or anything in the few I've tried.