The Omen (1976)

The Omen is the first part of a four part movie marathon which starts at nine at night and ends around eight hours later in the early hours of Sunday morning. The 1976 Omen is arguably the best and starts at 6am on June 6 and sees Gregory Peck star as Robert Thorn who is the US Ambassador and his pregnant wife gives birth but sadly the baby dies. Thorn is given the choice of taking a baby who has just been born but has lost his mother and taking him as his new child but without telling his wife Katherine (Lee Remick).

Gregory Peck is very good as Robert. His world slowly starts to crumble and he seems to accept what is happening but with an understandable amount of scepticism. The only time this scepticism becomes an issue is when he is told to kill Damian and Robert goes back to seeing Damian as a child.Lee Remick does ok as Katherine although her role is somewhat limited and the only time she really gets anything to do is when Katherine jumps out of a window and into a neatly placed ambulance. It is always harsh to criticise child actors  as especially now they are quite good but back in the 1970’s that wasn't the case and Harvey Stephens does ok as Damian. He does a good job of looking like a normal young boy which plays into the ideal of him being the son of the devil even harder to believe.

I have never felt this before but the whole part of the film where Robert and Keith go to Italy and visit the graveyard is actually my favourite part of the entire film. It’s done with a great sense of atmosphere and it is the part of the film where we really get some development in the story and crucially some answers to what is going on. It takes place at night but we can still see what is going on which is the main issue with a lot of horror films today.

Being a Doctor Who fan, the inclusion of Patrick Troughton is a main reason why I will always rewatch the show. It is only three years since his last appearance as the Doctor and this might be a dumb thing to say but as Father Brown it is very different to the Cosmic Hobo that he played in Doctor Who. His run is also very different and shows that his run in Doctor Who was a stylistic choice instead of how he normally runs or it could have been a stylistic  choice in this film. His role in the film is important because he is trying to convince Robert of the danger that is about to come over his family. He is obviously dismissed by Robert but it leads to his death which is a really good one because it seems to come out of nowhere. David Warner is another person with Doctor Who connections having starred in several audio adventures right up until his death. In this he is very good as Keith. Saying Warner is good in something is an obvious thing to say but he brings something great to whatever role he is in and seems to have better luck in making Robert understand the severity of the situation. His importance to Robert inevitably leads to his death and its a very good death like Father Brown. He loses his due to a freak accident and whilst the prop head does look like a prop head, his death is still shocking.

Given that Damian isn't in it as much as you would expect, it's a credit to the film that his importance to the plot comes across as effective as it does. It’s only at the end when Robert takes Damian to the church with the intention of killing him that the scale of what could happen is really understood.

The writing and directing were very good. It always amuses me that the director of this would go onto direct The Goonies which is one of my favourite films and is tonally very different to this film. I like this film but have to admit that I don't love it. I think that there are moments which are very well done but there is something that doesn't quite work for me. I have watched it many times over the years and with each watch I hope that  something stands out to me but each time I find myself feeling the same. It’s not bad by any means but it doesn't work for me in the same way that it works for others. It is still the best of the series even though it works as a good double bill with The First Omen.