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The Omen (1976)
Reviewed on 2010 June 27
This old gem is an actually scary ’70s horror flick about a couple who find themselves raising a child who may be the literal son of Satan.
Robert and Katherine Thorn (Gregory Peck and Lee Remick) are a wealthy couple with an almost charmed life. Robert is an ambassador, and his beautiful wife is about to bear him a son when tragedy strikes: he’s told the baby is stillborn. A priest at the hospital tells grief-stricken Robert he can spare his wife pain by taking another newborn, a boy whose mother just died in childbirth and needs a family. The priest even assures Robert the child looks a bit like the Thorns, and Robert agrees, shielding Katherine from the truth. The family relocates to England and things seem fine until little Damien’s (Harvey Stephens) fifth birthday party, and things just keep getting worse and worse for the Thorns.
I think everyone knows about Damien’s parentage by now, but back in the day we didn’t know for sure until well into the film if Damien, while an odd little kid, is truly is the Antichrist, or if the poor Thorns are just losing it, and that’s the beauty of it. Either way, the acting from Peck, Remick and Stephens is amazing. Any bets on whether or not Mrs. Baylock had a pulse? The music is extremely creepy and the trek to that sinister Italian graveyard still spooks me. This would make a good, nerve-stretching double feature with The Ring.
Three chocolate morsels. And the moral is, don’t keep stuff from your spouse.
— Shukti
