Review of The Omen (1976) by Filipeneto — 15 Apr 2020

To give this film a chance, the ideal is to forget the logic a little, because the script and the plot don't have much logic and, if we start thinking about it, everything falls apart easily. I felt it after seeing the movie. And believe me, the film is tense and a little scary, and it will be worth giving it a try. It was for me.

It all starts in a hospital in Rome, where the son of a senior American diplomat based there has just died at birth. Luckily, or just by chance, a young Italian mother also dies when she gives birth to a healthy baby boy. The diplomat then decides that he will be the father of that orphaned child and raise him as his own. It turns out that, over the years, the young boy seems to be accompanied by unusual characters and a scary dog, and dark things and deaths happen when he is around.

Well, the film is not that good as the story is somewhat unrealistic and it all sounds quite exaggerated, but, placed in the context of horror films in general, there is no doubt that it scares more than many CGI loaded films and skips that are done now. Unlike the films of today, which are based on the amount of jumps they can cause, it is a film that feeds a lot on the environment and the permanent tension, slowly built up. That works for me a lot better than making me jump in the chair. The actors' work is also quite good. Gregory Peck was already a veteran and did an excellent job, he is quite credible in his role and his growing doubt about his son's nature seems truly real. Lee Remick is also a good actress. She gives good support to Peck and her work gets even more interesting as she demonstrates her character's growing depression and anguish. Billie Whitelaw is truly scary and an important addition to create suspense and intensify the film. David Warner was fine, but I found his character weak and not very credible even by the standards of this film. Patrick Troughton was quite credible in the role of a priest who lost his mind, but he also has a debatable character.

Technically, the film is not a masterpiece but it met my expectations. Richard Donner was a good director and guaranteed good editing and post-production work, good footage and camera work. The film is a little dated: cinematography, a little faded, colorless and uninteresting to our eyes, was very common in the films of the Seventies, and the clothes, hairstyles and cars are from that decade too. But I handled it well, after all today's films will also look dated some fifty years from now. Of all the production values I would highlight especially the good filming locations and, above all, the extraordinary soundtrack by Jerry Goldsmith, winner of the Oscar for Best Soundtrack that year. It is rare, but sometimes it happens in horror films that we find a soundtrack that can, in fact, make the film even more frightening.

I don't know if this film has already reached the status of classic or cult, but I think it deserves to be revisited today. It is not a pearl, it will not mark anyone's life, but it does what a horror movie should do: mess with our fears and make us feel uncomfortable to the point of make us feel nervous if we hear a noise in the room while we see it.