The First Omen

The First Omen: I tuned out and zoned out and rolled my eyes to the back of my head when I found out that, nearly twenty years after that poorly received Omen remake starring Julia Stiles and Liev Schreiber, 20th Century Studios through Walt Disney, was about to Release a prequel movie to the meshed but money making horror franchise.

The First Omen claimed to tell the story of how a little boy called Damien who is the spitting image of Satan himself was rescued in the most unusual manner by an American emperor’s envoy Robert Thorn Gregory Peck and his other half Kathy Lee Remick and their leaders during the 1976 movie by Richard Donner.

Richard Donner’s 1976 film is focused on Robert Thorn Gregory Peck, who in good faith adopts the son of Satan, Damien, as parents of Kathy Lee Remick. For good measure two trailers for the announcement of the premiere of The First Omen the first Omen threw me so much I made a supreme effort and did not look at the image of a movie actually placed in cupboard out of sight during your accurate screenings.

At least about sequels and prequels of The Evil Dead, I generally do not entertain even the most passing notions of it. What a fool I had been with How wrong I was with regards to The First Omen, the first film by writer/director Arkasha Stevenson.

It came as no surprise to me that it was Stevenson who directed the entire fabulous third season of the historically dismissed horror anthology television series Channel Zero, which was also referred to as “Butcher’s Block” in 2018 on SYFY.

Channel Zero is one of the most remarkable and revolutionary modern-day horror cinematography works, especially at this moment, when American horror films have hit the lowest of low. It, therefore, did not come as a shock that the director of The First Omen had not only exercised her Series was in her forethought but also guided into directing its second best season.

Right away, I was quite pleasantly surprised by her film; This is not a simple franchise cash parking, this is someone who knows what is a good horror film and why and who made this film almost completely their own. The few Marvel-type cameos add no value to the viewer even if they must be there, as this film is emotionally overwhelming and breathtaking in images almost stronger than horror itself.

The First Omen begins with two English priests, Father Harris (Charles Dance) and Father Brennan (Ralph Ineson), who in one of the scenes share the throes of nausea; these laughable moments however help in presenting the creation of an unknown cursed child (yes, Damien is a boy, but I will refrain from giving spoilers), a girl whose birth will bring about the most powerful evil imaginable who has ever lived.

The scene does not include and warns us about some disquieting images that are however evocative, we proceed with the scene and fast forward to the entry of an American prospective nun named Margaret (Nell Tiger Free). They are simple minded and sexually inexperienced, with great enthusiasm and cheer as well, she arrives in Roman, Italy in 1971 having been able to come on the heels of civil riots.

She is however helped to settle in by the older nuns in her new residence Vizzardeli Orphanage where she prepares to profess her vows for the service of God till her last breath. Her attention is diverted by her new roommate, the carefree Luz (Maria Caballero), who is convinced that since she has only a few more days before her last vows, she should spend them all taking advantage of her youth.

One of these nights, Luz manages to persuade an unwilling Margaret to get dressed and go out dancing at a disco, where she becomes intimate with a pleasant Italian boy. But come the morning, Margaret finds herself in the middle of dripping residue and drenched the last night’s events were such that even mere remnants of recollection remained; however, she is reassured that Margaret was fine when she broke the next day.

The disco night is the only weak link in Margaret’s armor and she is back to the grind at Vizzardeli. Over there, she develops a keen interest in teenage outcast Carlita (Nicole Sorace), who quite evidently (or too obviously, some may argue) seems to be the ideal person to carry Lucifer’s spawn.

A girl who is described as awfully looking like Samara from ‘The ring’, and had been restrained in a different room for murdering a kid and lunging at a nun’s breast with her teeth. In contrast to this harsh opinion, Margaret comforts Carlita because she and the girl have the similar histories: naughty misbehaving children from orphanages filled with weird dark fantasies.

Margaret, in the kindness that she is, seeks to console Carlita by explaining how nuns as well as other priests from her orphanage used to re-educate children who would have such visions, proving to them convincingly that there is nothing in such magical brains.

Nevertheless, a terrible confrontation of Carlita with Father Brennan threatens ill news to Margret, and she starts seeing and feeling weird satanic things: For example, a young nun (Ishtar Currie Wilson) self immolating by jumping off a ledge screaming ‘It’s all for you!’ while Carlita, Margaret, nuns and kids look on in horror.

And that callback, which is a rather comical zoom and in-joke at the end credits, complete with a personal photograph of the now-deceased Gregory Peck, offakes as much of reference importance as The First Omen ever ventures.

To ignore it would be to overlook the fact that the film is for the most part quite different from the ordinary American horror film genres, quite satisfying in fact, to witness in a spin-off of five follow-ups (all of which erode in quality).

From the very first scene which is all image, punch and no exposition; the brawl premise introduced at the end given that it has all the characteristics of a horror comedy and it seems culminative of all the previous installments.

It could sufficiently explain how or why Stevenson gave it such treatment and still retained the conception of The First Omen as a Hollywood bait. Slow motion pans and zooms evoke a certain nostalgia for the good old days of filmmaking (Aaron Morton was in charge of cinematography).

Jump scares are true transition devices towards creating a plot developed atmosphere instead of overpowering actual genre film making and there are images that are hard to look at and I don’t just mean that they involve gore. I mean the actual images just seem to inspire Quentin Tarantino.

It’s not in your face gore, but it is just so wrong, which is many a times more creepy than blood and guts ever will be.

For the girls who are in the know, none of this should come as a shock – Decker Anderson’s “Butcher’s Block” can be directly linked to The First Omen as if it had been a sixth-episode continuation of the tale of two sister’s who disturbed the peace of the small town inhabited by a family of immortal cannjbals that dwell in the sky. The Beginning is built with an entirely objective approach so that the story progresses without losing the viewers focus on image and depicting more and more evident scenes of the girl’s imaginations coming.

There is something so deeply inexplicable disturbing about pure black wilderness with nothing except the strange light of a ceiling and an unidentifiable ivory enforced staircase leading upwards only with a door set some feet high not far from the staircase. The staircase at the very top casually swings open and people encircled by dreadful yellowish corpses below have an almost compelling need to know the terrible things.

It is easy to see even from this single image from ‘Butcher’s Block’ that there is an unspoken understanding of how best possible horror film can be made. That what is excluded from the frame is feared the most and that is what happens in the case of The First Omen, the seen and unseen converge perfectly with stunning results.

There are, let’s admit it, some last minute spoils from Rosemary’s Baby that very unfairly rub off on the film, including some scenes, some particulars and, damn it all, even some dialogues. But without a doubt any film, in this case about the birth of the Antichrist would be inspired too much by the 1969’s work. She has been wronged even more than Rosemary Woodhouse ever was, but then Margaret gets her justice, so to speak, to what failed Rosemary.

The First Omen is certainly not a flawless piece of work. Evil other’s feeling the same way. In trying to avoid the ‘show them don’t tell them’ approach there are still a couple of exposition-infused lazy character tropes: “the wise character explains everything that has been shown to the viewer regarding the horrors backstory to another character that most likely is in the dark” and “how about we do some research mama.”

But, probably the best ways to allay one’s fears regarding The First Omen is that it is virtually devoid of a ‘this is how I coped, through art, with trauma’ the scriptwriter employs, but rather takes the period as a background for predicting, how will look the Antichrist in these modern times, and uses the bond of Carlita and Margaret as unexpectedly convincing pro-choice, about how the Church appropriates women’s bodies.

Oh well, maybe it’s only me who’s so giddy because I’ve been a hardcore horror fan since time immemorial and because of that, I have been let down so many times and I hardly have any faith left on what the recent American film industry dabbles with. Nevertheless, The First Omen is an extremely well achieved first feature and a refreshing film in a genre’s increasingly doing battered meandering mainstream.

Watch free movies like on Fmovies