Viking Night: The Omen
By Bruce Hall
December 11, 2012
BoxOfficeProphets.com
In fact, it almost feels like a prophecy.
Which is me, stumbling back around to The Omen. For those not in the know, that would be Richard Donner's Bicentennial classic about a couple who discover that their son is...well...the Antichrist. It starts out about the way you'd figure, with a child so evil that it starts murdering things the moment it was born.
Robert and Katherine Thorn (Gregory Peck, Lee Remick) desperately wanted a child. For a while, it looked like this was about to happen, and it did - but not quite the way they'd planned. Katherine loses the baby and nearly her life in childbirth, but a kindly priest offers him the newborn child of an anonymous mother who didn't survive her own delivery. It also turns out that Damien, as he comes to be named, was born at the exact moment the Thorn's child was delivered stillborn.
That also seems very odd. Sort of like...a prophecy.
Life seems great. The thorns and their little bundle of evil run, laugh, play, have picnics and wear lots of brightly colored polyester clothes for a few years, and then things change. Strange goings on begin to follow Damien around. Animals are terrified of him, he gives people the creeps, and his nanny happily commits suicide in front of everyone at his fifth birthday party. Later, Damien flips out and punches his mother in the face when the Thorns attempt to take him to church. Then, a creepy priest takes an unusual interest in Damien and begins following the child and his family around. He’s burdened by a horrible secret but like the mythical Cassandra, he has trouble getting anyone’s attention.
It’s not easy being a prophet.
Meanwhile hostility begins to develop between Katherine and Damien, to the point where any misfortune that befalls her she blames on a son she views like an alien life form. She doesn't know the kid isn't hers, and this comes back to haunt Robert when it turns out the Creepy Priest was on his side all along. At least he thinks he is, when he says that Damien really IS the Lord of Evil, and really DOES have the most adorably precocious power of life and death over whomever he wills. The clues keep coming to find Robert, until he finds himself convinced that the priest might be telling the truth, after all.
Of course, the real story is not when you find out your son is the Master of Disaster. It's what you DO about it that counts. But I can't tell you everything - partly because it would spoil the movie, but partly because there's so much fun in finding out! I'm not a huge horror fan, but the ones that work for me tend to be the films that realize true horror happens when you tell scary story. It's not about the "boo," it's about leading up to it. David Seltzer's script is - if I may dig into my bag of clichés - taut and efficient. The dialogue isn't quite fit to be preserved in marble but it does the job, does it well and gets out of its own way. But what really makes The Omen fun is how it slyly it morphs from a very effective domestic thriller into a very effective globetrotting espionage adventure.
With, of course, a tiny little Antichrist in the middle of it all.
In a way it sounds amusing, but only because it's been parodied so many times since 1976. But on its own, The Omen is a fine piece of filmmaking. It's a fine piece of storytelling. And by the way, it's sufficiently chilling. Enough so that it manages to fulfill the other common denominator in most of my favorite horror films - you start taking it seriously without realizing that you are. It works because it's professional grade entertainment, made by professionals. David Seltzer knows how to write a story. Richard Donner (in this case) knows how to shoot one.
Jerry Goldsmith's score might get a chuckle out of you at first, because you've heard it spoofed a million times. But later, as two unfortunate individuals are being torn to pieces by animals, your blood starts to crystallize and you realize it's the music. Gregory Peck is outstanding in a role that someone like Charlton Heston might have handled with far less distinction. David Warner looks a lot like Doctor Who with his flamboyant scarves and intrepid nature. But his inquiring photographer is integral to the plot, and years of Shakespearean gravitas makes the character credible - to us AND to Robert Thorn.
And really, isn’t that the difference between a Crazy Rant and a Prophecy? There are a lot of ways to make an effective horror film but in this case, it’s all about credibility.
That’s how The Omen gets it done, and it gets done in every phase of the game. In fact, I should point out Harvey Stephens, who plays Damien. It’s the only role he ever had and he’s only about five, so I can’t say that it’s his acting that gets to me. It the way Donner puts together the scenes where Damien is DOING something to someone. They’re so tightly shot, so well scored, so well set up that you become convinced he really might be the Spawn of Satan. It’s credible. It’s scary. And if you happen to be a little superstitious, you might have trouble sleeping for a while. The best scary movies are the ones that make you believe, if only a little.
The Omen makes you believe. A little.