Review of The Omen (1976) by Kyle L — 21 Aug 2012

The original 1976 Omen movie is one of the best Horror films in the 70's since Halloween, Jaws, The Exorcist and Poltergeist as well. I seriously like this movie along with the 2006 Omen remake and I did enjoy it as much as I enjoyed the 2006 remake.

This is a great film and the plot is about an ambassador name Robert Thorn who adopts a child name Damien after the child's mother died and after his wife's pregnancy ends in a hospital in Rome.

But soon Robert Thorn discovers some dark secrets about his son Damien after the first nanny commit suicide at Damien's birthday party and after a priest warns him about his son before the priest died and Robert Thorn's only choice is to kill Damien Thorn.

Like I said this is a great film and I seriously enjoyed it a lot. Everything done in this film is done in the same way as the 2006 remake the only difference is that the death scenes in the 2006 remake and the original 1976 film are both different they're done in different styles.

I did like the ideas of this movie a lot. What's great about The Omen is that the film has a lot of entertaining performances and the film is really suspenceful and the film is also full of impressive scares.

There are lots of suspenceful scenes in this film the scene where Damien attacks his mother when they were gonna visit the church is one of the most suspenceful scenes in the film and I like the idea that Damien attacks his mother when Damien sees the sign of the cross because Damien is an evil little boy and he is an Anti Christ throughout the entire film and I like how he got scared a lot in that scene and it was a pretty smart idea so far for the movie.

The scene where the monkeys in the zoo attack the car and started scaring Damien and his mother is one of the scariest parts of the film and I think it's probably the most suspenceful scene in the film as well.

What also intrigued me about the movie is that the child in the film really looks like a devil and I think the kid here is a bit more frightening than the kid in the 2006 remake I mean the one in the 2006 remake is just creepy but here in the original the kid is creepy and scary at the same time so normally I think the kid here is better so far.

What I was also fund of this movie is that the film also has a really fascinating soundtrack from Jerry Goldsmith and the music here in the original Omen is good also although I also like soundtrack of Marco Beltrami in the 2006 remake and mainly the differences of the soundtracks in both films are completely different.

Jerry Goldsmith's score creates tension suspense and some impressive scares in the original Omen while Marco Beltrami's score in the 2006 remake creates a really dark tone and Beltrami's music also creates atmosphere in the 2006 remake so mainly both composers have they're own style in they're own films and I did like it so far and among the two composers I think I would still stay to Marco Beltrami's music.

Though the film lacks atmosphere this is still a great film I mean this movie could have been better if there was more atmosphere because there are only a few atmospheric parts in the film and that is the scene where Robert Thorn enters his house to find Damien and the final part of the film where Robert tries to kill Damien in the church before Robert gets killed and I think the 2006 remake has more atmosphere compared to this one because the priest death scene in the 2006 remake is really atmospheric along with the cemetery scene where Robert and the photographer search for Damien's mother and Robert's other son so mainly I wished that this movie could have been better if it was really atmospheric as the 2006 remake so far.

What I was also intrigued with this film is that the movie is also full of suspenceful and intense kills the scene where the Nanny died is just creepy even the one in the 2006 remake is also creepy as well.

The priest's death scene is really suspenceful as well because that scene didn't really focus on the use of atmosphere like the 2006 remake because it used more on suspense music to keep the film's suspense on the wheel althoough I think this scene in both the 2006 remake and in this film are good for two different reasons.

First of all the priest death scene in the original is really suspenceful while the one in the 2006 remake is really atmospheric and suspenceful as well so I did like the style of both films so far. I also like the famous decapitation scene in this movie as well mainly I like how that scene was repeated many times to scare the audience a lot although I like the decapitation scene in the 2006 remake a bit more because that scene shows a lot of improvements over the decapitation scene in this film but I also like this one as well so far and that death scene is really Final Destination like a lot.

Now the acting is great the performances of Gregory Peck, Harvey Stephens and Lee Remick are really good and Harvey Stephens did a good job with his role as Damien Thorn and he looks really scary in this film a lot and I also like the performance of the evil nanny who is the apostle of the devil in the film although I think Mia Farrow did a better job in with her role as the evil nanny in the 2006 remake a bit more compared to the actress in this one but the actress in this one did a really good job as well although I think Mia Farrow did a better job in the remake.

Director Richard Donner and screenwriter David Seltzer did a good job in creating this movie and I like how Donner directed this film and I like how he handled this movie a lot with his directing and Richard Donner seriously created an impressive Horror film for Horror fans and I wished that he and David Seltzer could have worked on the third and final Omen film(Omen III The Final Conflict) instead of another director and new screenwriter in the third Omen movie if Donner and Seltzer returned for Omen III I would seriously watch Omen III a lot although I like the plot of each Omen film starting from the first movie Damien's birth, then his rise to power in Omen II and his Armageddon and fulfilling his destiny in Omen III The Final Conflict so I like the idea of the Omen films so far although the sequels could have been better if they were as suspenceful as the original Omen.

Overall The Omen gets a 10/10 because the movie is full of suspenceful and tense scenes along with other things that every horror fan needs.