Quick Thoughts: The First Omen (2024)
Like many groundbreaking horror films in the 1970’s, The Omen was subjected by producers Harvey Bernhard and Mace Neufeld and the higher-ups at 20th Century Fox to the franchise treatment after audiences were terrified by screenwriter David Seltzer and director Richard Donner’s tale of a diplomat who learns that his adopted child is really the Antichrist, the son of the Devil. While I admittedly haven’t seen any of the sequels nor have I seen the forgotten A&E television series Damien, I’m well-aware of their poor reputation amongst fans of the original film. I did see Max Payne director John Moore’s lazy, beat-for-beat 2006 remake, however, and the less said about that pale imitation of Donner’s classic, the better.
I didn’t see what else could possibly be done with this concept that hasn’t been done already, but with The First Omen, I was in for one hell of a surprise. Not only does Arkasha Stevenson’s film, a prequel that details what led to the birth of Damien Thorn, equal Donner’s film, but it’s a miracle that a horror film this genuinely disturbing in its imagery and themes and this daring in its formalism was released — and well-advertised — by a major Hollywood studio, let alone the Disney corporation. Beyond being the rare horror franchise prequel that gets right what a lot of others get terribly wrong, The First Omen functions beautifully as its own unique beast without taking the other films into account.
Collaborating with co-screenwriters Ben Jacoby, Tim Smith, and Keith Thomas, Stevenson crafts a spine-chilling, hair-raising story about the abuse of women and the corruption of power and faith within the Catholic Church, as a young nun finds herself having her agency and bodily autonomy taken away from her and used against her by radical zealots who seek to control the Antichrist. It hits harder than ever not only when factoring in is this story set against the Years of Lead, but also when factoring in the recent release of Immaculate and the tragic overturning of Roe v. Wade in the summer of 2022. How Stevenson and company go about exploring these ideas, both in terms of visuals and in terms of how they inform the characters, is insightful and makes for some truly smart, thoughtful storytelling, making it all the more unsettling and unnerving.
Having previously been impressed by her work on Tony Basgallop’s M. Night Shyamalan-produced Apple TV+ series Servant, I found Nell Tiger Free a force to be reckoned with in this film as Margaret. Not only is she an instantly likable screen presence, which makes what happens to her character across her journey even more upsetting, but Free’s acting chops are truly fearless, running the full emotional gamut while at the same time keeping it all grounded and believable. The journey Margaret as a character goes through, evolving from shy and cautious to fierce and protective, is perfectly realized through the marriage of Free’s powerhouse performance and Stevenson’s direction and co-written script. She’s greatly complemented by a superb supporting cast, with Bill Nighy especially chilling as the soft-spoken but ultimately sinister Cardinal Lawrence and Ralph Ineson making for a worthy substitute for Patrick Troughton in the role of Father Brennan.
In her feature directorial debut, Stevenson has captained a truly gorgeous production, with set designer Eve Stewart doing a fabulous job at recreating the beauty but also the dark side of early 1970's Italy, further aided by the Gothic costumes of Paco Delgado. Editors Bob Murawski and Amy E. Duddleston keep the film moving at a careful yet smooth pace, never overstaying its welcome, and how they and Stevenson incorporate a lot of the expressive cutting and transition techniques utilized by classic 1970’s horror films is a delight to behold, further benefiting the surreal atmosphere and creepy sense of dread. Cinematographer Aaron Morton chips in with a smorgasbord of truly stunning shots, rendered simultaneously haunting and painterly by his chiaroscuro lighting and the earthy color palette. Mark Korven also delivers on a majestic original score that pays effective tribute to the late great Jerry Goldsmith.
Even the ways in which they incorporate references and callbacks to the original film are so intelligently thought out and so artfully constructed that they never run the risk of feeling like a cheap gag or an obvious studio note. While watching it, I wasn’t too sure about how this retcons the story of the jackal, with the entity said to have birthed Damien now instead being the entity that fathered Damien, but after the film came to a close, the more I thought about it, the more I actually really like and appreciate it, especially on a thematic level. To introduce such a bold change to the mythology of the Omen series and execute it like gangbusters is a profoundly difficult task, but Stevenson proves herself to be more than up to that task. The First Omen is one of the year’s best horror films and one of my personal favorite films of the year thus far. Between this and the Hellraiser reboot, who knew producer David S. Goyer would turn out to be a savior of long-dormant horror franchises?
