THE FIRST OMEN, US, 2024. Starring Nell Tiger Free, Bill Nighy, Sonia Braga, Ralph Ineson, Maria Caballero, Nicole Sorace, Charles Dance. Directed by Arkasha Stevenson. 121 minutes. Rated MA (Strong horror themes and a suicide scene, blood and gore)
It is almost 50 years since the high-profile original, The Omen, starring Gregory Peck and Lee Remick, showed an American ambassador and his wife adopting a charming child – who turned out to be Damien, the devil incarnate. There were two sequels, Damien growing up, then Damien played by Sam Neil, wreaking evil in the world. There was a fourth film in 1991 and a remake in 2006. Almost 50 years of the Omen franchise. Now, a prequel.
This time we are in 1971. There are early indications that the 1960s changed young people, giving them greater freedoms and there is a greater moving away from the churches. An eager young woman, Margaret (Free), arrives in Rome from the US to make her vows and work in an orphanage for girls – children of unmarried mothers. She has been invited by Cardinal Lawrence (Nighy) who has known her since childhood.
There is a prologue with an ominous meeting between two priests, Frs Brennan (Ineson) and Harris (Dance), indicating that something terrible is happening.
For audiences who saw Immaculate a month or so before the release of The First Omen, much will seem familiar. (Commentators are divided among the pro-Immaculate, pro-First Omen camps, with this reviewer inclining towards Immaculate.)
Needless to say, there are sinister things going on in the orphanage. There is a harridan of an abbess (Braga), many strange nuns in old-fashioned habits, a young worldly woman who would not be allowed to remain in formation, out on the town. The orphans are nice and playful but one, Carlita, is strange but bonds with Margaret.
Since the original films were about the incarnation of the devil, then we are expecting this kind of demonic sinister development. One of the variations on the theme is that there is a church cabal claiming orthodoxy, but who are despairing of defections from the church all over the world and who come up with the idea that if the devil became incarnate, this would so terrify people that they would want to return and take refuge with the church. A novel theological-pastoral approach which, someone in the film describes as ‘insane’. Yes.
However, once this premise is established, it is full steam ahead. There are sinister scientific machinations behind the scenes (those in Immaculate were even more imaginative), pregnancies, horrifying birth sequences, and the seeming victory of the fanatics.
A satisfying moment towards the end when the nuns arrange for the child to be adopted and a photo of Gregory Peck from the original film comes up. But, not quite, a final sequence which sets the scene for a sequel to the prequel.
Fox
Released 4 April 2024