#81: THE OMEN (1976)

TW: Suicide

THRILL SCALE 1-10

8

HAVE I SEEN IT BEFORE?

Yes, once, but I can barely remember when. It may have been 10 years ago, it may have been 20

BEST SEQUENCE

The very early scene when Damien's nanny hangs herself

BEST LINE

"Damien! Damien! Damien, look at me! I'm over here! Damien, I love you! Look at me, Damien. It's all for you." - The aforementioned nanny, her last words before jumping

ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE

86%

ROTTEN TOMATOES CRITICS CONSENSUS

"The Omen eschews an excess of gore in favor of ramping up the suspense -- and creates an enduring, dread-soaked horror classic along the way."

IMDB SYNOPSIS

"Mysterious deaths surround an American ambassador. Could the child that he is raising actually be the Antichrist? The Devil's own son?"

THOUGHTS

• More than any other movie so far, my reaction to this movie really fluctuated throughout, which is kind of surprising considering I've seen it before. My pick for the best sequence happens at only the 10-minute mark, and then it takes a good long while to pick up again. Full disclosure, it took me three sittings to see the whole movie. For a fair while, I was thinking I'd grade this around the 5/10 range
• But then we get to the last 20 minutes or so, and man does this movie stick the landing. I totally forgot how it ends, and it gets DARK. Extremely effective climax, especially since things are still left a little ambiguous as to whether or not Damien actually is the Antichrist or just, like, a creepy-looking kid
• The special effects may be a little dated, but there are some pretty gruesome death scenes in this movie, a few of which may have been contenders for the best sequence. There's a fairly infamous decapitation scene, and I also like the scene in which a character gets impaled by a metal rod falling from a church roof
• This is the second Gregory Peck movie on the AFI list (after The Guns of Navarone), and we'll be seeing him again (Cape Fear is coming up, and there may even be others that I'm forgetting). Funnily enough I never really considered him a "thrilling" actor, but he's certainly well represented in this list. Just like in The Guns of Navarone, he brings a lot of gravitas to his role
• Incidentally, Peck plays an American diplomat, the Ambassador to the United Kingdom, and I haven't a clue what that job actually entails
• This is also the second appearance of composer Jerry Goldsmith (I really liked his work on Poltergeist), and looking at Goldsmith's credits, we'll be hearing his music several more times throughout the list (Chinatown, Alien, and Planet of the Apes, to name a few). The Omen brought Goldsmith his only Oscar and it's a pretty effective score, heavily influenced by religious choral music
• Speaking of influences, I kept thinking of this movie as kind of a combination of Rosemary's Baby and The Exorcist, while not quite being as impactful as either of those classics. And the AFI agrees; Rosemary's Baby and The Exorcist are both in the top 10
• Finally, the significance of 666, the number of the beast, is really hammered home. People have birthmarks in the shape of the number, Damien was born at 6 AM on June 6th, and the movie was even released on June 6th, 1976, in the UK. I have to imagine that this movie played a big part in solidifying 666 as a satanic number in the public consciousness

Up next: Time to get caught up with Marvel! It'll be Eternals, which I've already seen, Spider-Man: No Way Home, which I'm planning to see in the theatre, and then I'm very excited to say we'll be starting on the first block of thrilling movies which have been voted into the list by readers like you!