From the director of acclaimed classics such as Max Payne and A Good Day to Die Hard, as well as the second-unit camera operator on Space Truckers, comes a movie made simply because its release date was badass. Join JoBlo Horror as we shout at the devil with The Omen. Welcome to our horror party, kids, where we take some horror films (good or bad) and make a fun game out of it. I’m Mike Conway, and because of the release of The First Omen, we are looking into the eyes of evil with The Omen released in 2006 (watch it HERE).
The Omen follows diplomat Robert Thorn and his wife Katherine. After Katherine unknowingly gives birth to a stillborn child, Robert is approached by a priest to take a newborn from a mother who had just died. As the years go by, grisly and mysterious deaths begin to surround their child, Damien. Robert is then approached by a priest who claims his son is the antichrist and must be killed. Now, with the help of a photographer… wait. I’m sorry. I was reading the summary of the first first Omen. Let’s do this again.
The Omen follows diplomat Robert Thorn and his wife Katherine. After Katherine unknowingly gives birth to a stillborn child, Robert is approached by a priest to take a newborn from a mother who had just died. As the years go by, grisly and mysterious deaths begin to surround their child, Damien. Robert is then approached by a priest who claims his son is the antichrist and must be killed. Now, with the help of a photographer, Robert tries to see if his boy really is the son of the devil and how he can be stopped.
So, what type of party is this movie? Well, according to our scale, this one looks to be best enjoyed with friends and a little of the devil weed. And as always, I’ll be making a drink to tie in with the movie.
EL ANTICHRISTO
1 ½ OZ TEQUILA
½ OZ LIME JUICE
1 OZ CRÈME DE CASSIS
3 OZ GINGER BEER
This one is all for you.
As with any game, there are some basic rules you can follow or modify. For today’s game, take a drink when:
Liev Schreiber doesn’t mumble his lines
Every time “Thorn” is mentioned
Every time “Damien” is mentioned
When a priest appears
Every time an actor from Harry Potter appears
And finally, with any kill
If alcohol isn’t your bag, there are plenty of other things to choose from. Cannabis if legal in your state, delta 8, 9, 10, or whatever the hell number they’re at now, caffeine, hot sauce, anything. Just know your tolerance. This is supposed to be fun; we don’t want to send you to the hospital. Basically, don’t be a dumbass.
Is The Omen a worthy entry into the franchise, or did someone take the same “How to remake a horror movie like Gus Van Zant” class? Regardless, let’s break this flick to see why we feel it’s worthy of a party movie.
The movie opens with a priest checking out the stars in the Vatican observatory. And go ahead and take a drink because this priest is none other than the High Master of Durmstrang himself, Igor Karkaroff (DRINK – POTTER). What exactly is he looking at? Well, I’ll get to that in just a bit. We then cut to Robert Thorn, played by Liev Schreiber. He’s rushing to the hospital after finding out his wife is giving birth. “There’s been complications.” After learning his newborn baby died during the delivery, he is offered option B: to do a little switcharoo with another newborn whose mother had just died. But it’s totally cool because “She doesn’t know.” Robert agrees to it, and they name him Damien. I mean, what’s the worst that could happen?
Several years pass, and as we see little Damien grow, the married couple remains looking the exact same, even keeping the same hairstyles. You know what? Bullshit. I had a lovely full of hair before my son was born. Now look at me.
After a freak accident causes the death of an ambassador, the Wild Thorns move to London and into a big house. Fast forward another few years, and Robert’s career is on the upswing as the youngest US ambassador. Which sounds fancy until you realize it comes with a side of supernatural chaos and even more bizarre deaths. Anarchy in the UK, amiright? Following the death of Damien’s nanny at his birthday party, Robert is approached by Father Brennan, who claims to know the truth about Damien’s origins. Meanwhile, photographer Keith Jennings, played by the fantastic David Thewlis (DRINK: HARRY POTTER), starts snapping pics that predict how folks will die.
The stay-at-home mom with no other job, Katherine, decides they need another nanny to replace the dead one. Enter Mrs. Baylock, played by Mia Farrow, who knows a thing or two about the spawns of Satan. She is very protective over Damien by making decisions left and right without consulting the Thorns, and even brings in a sweet little puppy home as extra protection. After Robert begins to believe something isn’t right with Damien, he pays a visit to Father Brennan, who tells him the boy is the Antichrist and must die. This sends Robert and Jennings on a quest to find the truth, where they meet up with Voldemort and Dumbledore (DRINK: HARRY POTTER), who tell them how to kill the boy. Will this Wild Thorn bury his son and rid the evil once and for all? Well…
You know exactly how this plays out if you have seen the original Richard Donner classic. Look, I’m not against remakes. Not at all. Just as long as you can bring something new and fresh to the table. When the teaser for this film dropped in 2006, I gotta be honest: I thought it was pretty badass we were getting another Omen movie on 6/6/06. But, as more trailers came out, I became less interested and ultimately forgot about it… until fairly recently, with the new one coming out. If you were like me, watching this for the first time, you probably said to yourself, “Wait, I’ve seen this before.” And you wouldn’t be wrong. While it’s not a COMPLETE shot-for-shot remake like Psycho, it’s almost word-for-word. In fact, screenwriter Dan McDermott was denied any writing credit since it was too close to the original script. Instead, original screenwriter David Seltzer got sole credit. However, instead of opening like the original, this opens with a priest seeing three comets, which signals Armageddon. Top that off with actual footage on the world today, and boom… that means it’s different, right? Don’t copy and paste something; sprinkle a few random lines and scenes and call it an original screenplay. That shit’s lazy. I’m looking at you, Disney remakes. However, there are some positives here. And that’s the kills. So, prepare your drink, and let’s play a game called
WHO DID IT BETTER?
The first one is probably the most iconic scene in the original. Only here, it looks like it’s taken place at Billy Madison’s kindergarten graduation. After Damien’s nanny has a staring match with this good boy, she heads up to the house’s roof, which conveniently has steps already in place at the ledge. She gets everyone’s attention, hilariously including these puppets, and shouts out the famous line. (“IT’S ALL FOR YOU”). Yeah, this is pretty much shot-for-shot, but it doesn’t mean it’s less effective. What helped make it so chilling in the first one was how realistic it looked and no music cues as she takes the jump. It’s the same thing here, with a little extra brutality added. And hey, afterward we get a little cameo from the original Damien himself. I call this one a tie.
Next on the list is Father Brennan. After Katherine suspects something isn’t right with her boy, Robert meets up with the overly anxious priest. He tells Robert he must kill the boy, but first has to go meet up with a man named Bugenhagen to show him how it’s done. Robert brushes this off and sends the frantic priest on his way. Now, it wouldn’t be a proper horror movie without a dramatic storm scene, would it? Brennan, caught in a torrential downpour, seeks refuge in a church. Unfortunately for him, it seems the Big Guy upstairs has other plans. A bolt of lightning strikes, and before you can say, “Here’s the church, here’s the steeple,” a steel rod impales Brennan. This scene is wonderfully shot. Much like the rest of the film, the main thing missing is the iconic score from Jerry Goldsmith. That being said, the remake wins the kill here.
Next up is Katherine. The setup to her death is all the same, with Damien knocking her over a rail inside the house. Now, I may get some gasps here, but I prefer Julia Stiles’ take on her over Lee Remick’s portrayal. Especially in this scene. I mean, shit, she even does her own stunt work here. But I digress. Unlike the previous kills, this one is completely different. In this one, Mrs. Baylock visits Katherine in the hospital. At first, she seems comforting until she pulls out a syringe and administers about Ten CCs She Hates About Death. What the hell is up with hospitals in horror movies? Where are the fucking nurses when the call alarm is going off? You know what? Let’s ask a professional if this death is medically accurate in a new segment I’d like to call:
WHAT THE HELL IS UP WITH HOSPITALS IN HORROR MOVIES?
While it could be a little hazardous, the amount of air she put in the IV would not be fatal. An air bubble in excess of 150 cc would be the closest to cause an embolism.
And that was, “What the hell is up with hospitals in horror movies?”
Even though Katherine’s death is goofy as fuck in the original, Mrs. Baylock is so menacing that I have no choice but to give 1976 the win here.
Next is Keith Jennings. As I’ve said before, Keith’s photographs have predicted the previous deaths. Unfortunately for him, he falls under that category. After Keith and Robert’s Bogus Journey to visit Bugenhagen, Robert declares he will not take his son’s life. Keith says screw that noise, and he will do it himself. As he walks away, we get a pretty great cameo of Death from Final Destination. In both films, they get decapitated in pretty gnarly ways, but in this one, it’s more brutal instead of the head of a dummy flying through a window. The remake wins here.
Like the original, the setup is the same for Mrs. Baylock. Robert returns home, grabs a pair of scissors, and heads upstairs to a sleeping Damien. He finds the number of the beast under his hair, which leads to Mrs. Baylock interfering. After a brief scuffle and a swift kick to the face, Robert takes a screaming Damien out of the house and throws him in the car. Baylock then returns mad as hell with a random sledgehammer that just suddenly appeared. Robert then puts the pedal to the metal and sends Baylock to meet her master. The original wasn’t so climatic as this, but that doesn’t mean it was worse. Instead, it takes place entirely in the house, but the struggle is more intense and shot so damn well. Plus, we get that wonderful Goldsmith score. OG for the win.
Which finally brings us to the end with the death of Robert. Mr. Thorn has had enough of this shit and rushes Damien to the church to sacrifice his boy. Just before he strikes down on a pleading Damien, the police show up and shoot Robert dead. Both are pretty identical here, so really, this is all up to who performed it better. Liev Schreiber is a fantastic actor, but for some reason, he felt completely emotionless the entire film until this point, when we finally get something from him. The same goes for Damien. Look. I can’t knock a kid’s acting, but the remake’s Damien looks like they went out of their way to make the child look evil as shit from the beginning. The original still had that boyish innocence to him that made you feel Robert’s pain when he chose to sacrifice his son. The original wins here, and with a score of 3 to 2 and one tie, the 1976 film wins overall.
And that’s it. The Omen was released in 2006, and it was heavily promoted as being released on 6/6/06. It did well financially but was critically panned. It’s really not terrible, but in the end, the remake is like that B-movie you stumble upon late at night, hoping for some scares but settling for a few laughs instead. It’s not exactly Oscar-worthy material, but hey, if you’re in the mood for some devilishly campy fun, it might just hit the spot. Just don’t expect it to outshine the original—it’s more like a doomed photocopy of a masterpiece.
What movies would you like us to cover in the future? Let us know in the comments and we will see you on the next one.
A couple previous episodes of the Best Horror Party Movies series can be seen below. To see more, and to check out some of our other shows, head over to the JoBlo Horror Originals YouTube channel – and subscribe while you’re there!