31 Horrors: The Omen (#12)

Wherein I attempt to watch 31 horror films over the course of October. 31 horror films that I have never seen before, from obscure to acclaimed classics. We'll see how well I go in actually finding the time to watch and then write about them in some way.

Not even I can quite understand why I hadn't seen Richard Donner's The Omen until now. Sometimes one just has films pass by them, I guess. At least I can't say I've never seen the original, but have indeed seen the recent remake (like, say, House of Wax or The Fog). I remember the remake was released on 06/06/06 and that it starred Julia Stiles and Mia Farrow (and maybe Liev Schrieber?) - actually, I seem to remember more about it than I probably ought to about a film I haven't seen.

Oh wait, we're meant to be talking about the 1976 original.

Actually, maybe we can just scratch talking about The Omen - which is nicely effective with a couple of justly famous scenes (the fish bowl and the hanging) and a couple of wonderful kills (the spike and the decapitation - let's face it, who doesn't love a good beheading in a movie? Except for the, er, beheadee, I guess) amongst a nicely-scored piece of bitter chilly Brit horror - and focus instead of Lee Remick's scared face. She gets to use it enough times and it's rather fabulous.

Other than that, is there really all that much to say? I'm sure more than enough has been said about The Omen that I don't really need to go into what works and what doesn't (although maybe in the hindsight of 30 years maybe somebody needs to address some of the more ridiculous aspects of the film like that trip to Israel... surely there was a less silly way of getting that exposition out of the way? And what's going on with the church-goer expressions?) Still, for every somewhat out-of-place moment there is an even more amazing moment like this.


Or this.


Incredible. B

Can anyone say whether the sequels are worth checking out? Does Damien eventually become the President? Because that would be wild, it really would.