Review of The Omen (1976) by Rameshwar N — 12 Oct 2012

It should rather be called The Omens as there are plenty of them leading up to the birth and accession to power of anti-Christ. The atmosphere and setup comes in on the same lines as The Exorcist though it is just dealt from the opposite perspective. It is quite audacious for its time to have the main antagonist of the movie to be a 8 year old kid.

Robert Thorn (Gregory Peck) is a diplomat assuming the role of an Ambassador to different countries on behalf of the U.S. government. When he was assigned in Italy, his wife Katherine (Lee Remick) delivers a stillborn, the head priest of the hospital offers a just born whose mother dies at child birth and keeps this truth from Katherine. After some strange events and his talk with a persistent priest about their child being an Antichrist, he tries to get to the bottom of this with the help of a photographer who seemed to have recorded some of these strange events.

When I first saw a snippet of this movie on TV, I was thrilled; especially the scene where the nanny commits suicide during a birthday party. It felt raw and intriguing at the same time. Gregory Peck does an excellent job as a practical person unable to make sense to the accusations on his child, either by his wife or the priest. The writers include some thrilling moments like the attack by dogs at the cemetery to go along with the investigative mode the story takes upon. The background score is intense though a bit loud. Billie Whitelaw plays the role of a nanny who is like an apostle to help the Antichrist gives a stage like performance which could have been a lot better without her closeup weird looks. Screenplay and editing is neat but the end felt a bit too hasty to wrap things up. The kid though actually doesn't do any acting has the perfect look of both sweet and mischief.

More a good thriller movie than a horror one. Fun to watch nevertheless.