The Omen (1976)
Director: Richard Donner
Robert and Katherine Thorn seem to have it all. They are happily married and he is the US Ambassador to Great Britain, but they want more than to have children. When Katharine has a stillborn child, Robert is approached by a priest at the hospital who suggests that they take a healthy newborn whose mother has just died in childbirth. Without telling his wife he agrees. After relocating to London, strange events – and the ominous warnings of a priest – lead him to believe that the child he took from that Italian hospital is evil incarnate.
As blasphemous as this might sound, this was my first time seeing this horror classic. I had seen the remake, but never the original. And overall I’ve found that they pretty much seem to have copied this film straight out for the most part. They did alter a few things that the original here did do better. I also found with this film being a film of the 70s that it made for a much more creepy atmosphere. This a very creepy movie. And it deals with a very eerie subject matter. I think the date of the film helps with that. And while remastered for an HD presentation, I think the film still looks dated and creepy which is good. It also has strong acting, which helps a lot. I do believe depending on what you personal believe when it comes to religion can play a major factor in how scary you find this movie to be. It helps make it a bit more frightening for me, I can tell you that.
But the film does move at a rather slow pace. It builds the plot and the whole film builds to it’s dramatic ending. This can become somewhat boring, especially if you’ve seen where it’s probably heading before. So that might take away a lot more than anything else when you attempt re-watching this one from time to time. But for everything that does go slow while watching, I feel the movie more than makes up for it with it’s last part. Thats when all hell breaks loose, our hero realizes what is up, and it’s a lot of fun. It of course gives us an ending that does kind of get to you, but this film might not have made the impact it seemed to have made with any other ending. This might not be for everyone, with the slow pace. But if you do dig eerie horror films of the 70s, this is one for you. It’s well worth a watch, even if you never watch it again. It’s just a shame that the audio doesn’t seem that great on the Blu-ray. Nor is the picture that mind blowing either.
(7/10)
