Review of The Omen (1976) by Sean W — 16 Apr 2013

A man and his wife discover that their adopted son is the spawn of Satan.

In this addition to the genre of Devil movies, all the normal conventions appear: religion is imbued with a mysterious ethos, evil is perceived as something outside man, and sex and science are demonized (although, it must be said that this facet of devil movies is less pronounced in The Omen than in other films).

All this is not to say that The Omen is a bad film, just that it works to normalize a controversial cultural ideology. On the contrary, the film is well-made. The plot unfolds deftly, with few heavy-handed "must-happens," and Gregory Peck gives a strong performance. Richard Donner's direction is clever: most of the evil occurs around Damien rather than because of him, and this reduces most audiences' reticence about seeing a child involved in violence.

Overall, this film remains a classic in the Devil movie genre and is well worth a critical eye.