X
- 1976
- R
- Twentieth Century Fox
- 1 h 51 m
- 1976
- R
- Twentieth Century Fox
- 1 h 51 m
Summary Mysterious deaths surround an American ambassador. Could the child that he is raising actually be the Antichrist? The Devil's own son?
Directed By: Richard Donner
Written By: David Seltzer
- 1976
- R
- Twentieth Century Fox
- 1 h 51 m
- 1976
- R
- Twentieth Century Fox
- 1 h 51 m
The Omen
62
7.8
Where to Watch
Summary Mysterious deaths surround an American ambassador. Could the child that he is raising actually be the Antichrist? The Devil's own son?
Directed By: Richard Donner
Written By: David Seltzer
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 11 Critic Reviews
62
45% Positive
5 Reviews
5 Reviews
55% Mixed
6 Reviews
6 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 11 Critic Reviews
62
45% Positive
5 Reviews
5 Reviews
55% Mixed
6 Reviews
6 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Much scarier than fellow possessed child flick The Exorcist, which predated it by three years, The Omen contains some of the most memorable untimely deaths in cinema history.
This apocalyptic movie mostly avoids physical gore to boost its relatively unoriginal storyline with suspense, some excellent acting (especially from Warner and Whitelaw), and a very deft, incident-packed script.
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 68 User Ratings
7.8
88% Positive
60 Ratings
60 Ratings
10% Mixed
7 Ratings
7 Ratings
1% Negative
1 Rating
1 Rating
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 68 User Ratings
7.8
88% Positive
60 Ratings
60 Ratings
10% Mixed
7 Ratings
7 Ratings
1% Negative
1 Rating
1 Rating
Antichrist Superstar is among us, he has the appearance of a 5 YO child. It is commendable as a film with a few special efects manages to generate tension and fear to the viewer, despite its calm rhythm. The most striking element is the score composed by Jerry Goldsmith. Enough for excel The Exorcist.
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The performance of Harvey Stephens as the young Damien has invested the film with the chill of genuine credibility.
Ambassador Gregory Peck finds that he's adopted the Antichrist (and he's a cute little feller too), in the slickest of the many demonic thrillers that followed in the wake of The Exorcist. Richard Donner directs more for speed than mood, but there are a few good shocks.
This silly and bloody, but at times very effective, horror film takes The Exorcist one step further by concentrating, not on possession by the Devil, but on the Antichrist himself.
A bald-faced lamprey hitching its razor-tipped maw on the chassis of The Exorcist, The Omen’s Sunday-school parable of gothic Cathsploitation comes twice as thick and thrice as pious.
The Omen is a dumb and largely dull movie. No true connoisseur of kitsch will confuse the work of writer David Seltzer and director Richard Donner with the masterpiece of psychic manipulation contrived by William Peter Blatty and William Friedkin in The Exorcist, not to mention what the diabolical Roman Polanski made out of Ira Levin's Rosemary's Baby. [12 July 1976, p.69]
To give this film a chance, the ideal is to forget the logic a little, because the script and the plot don't have much logic and, if we start thinking about it, everything falls apart easily. I felt it after seeing the movie. And believe me, the film is tense and a little scary, and it will be worth giving it a try. It was for me.
It all starts in a hospital in Rome, where the son of a senior American diplomat based there has just died at birth. Luckily, or just by chance, a young Italian mother also dies when she gives birth to a healthy baby boy. The diplomat then decides that he will be the father of that orphaned child and raise him as his own. It turns out that, over the years, the young boy seems to be accompanied by unusual characters and a scary dog, and dark things and deaths happen when he is around.
Well, the film is not that good as the story is somewhat unrealistic and it all sounds quite exaggerated, but, placed in the context of horror films in general, there is no doubt that it scares more than many CGI loaded films and skips that are done now. Unlike the films of today, which are based on the amount of jumps they can cause, it is a film that feeds a lot on the environment and the permanent tension, slowly built up. That works for me a lot better than making me jump in the chair. The actors' work is also quite good. Gregory Peck was already a veteran and did an excellent job, he is quite credible in his role and his growing doubt about his son's nature seems truly real. Lee Remick is also a good actress. She gives good support to Peck and her work gets even more interesting as she demonstrates her character's growing depression and anguish. Billie Whitelaw is truly scary and an important addition to create suspense and intensify the film. David Warner was fine, but I found his character weak and not very credible even by the standards of this film. Patrick Troughton was quite credible in the role of a priest who lost his mind, but he also has a debatable character.
Technically, the film is not a masterpiece but it met my expectations. Richard Donner was a good director and guaranteed good editing and post-production work, good footage and camera work. The film is a little dated: cinematography, a little faded, colorless and uninteresting to our eyes, was very common in the films of the Seventies, and the clothes, hairstyles and cars are from that decade too. But I handled it well, after all today's films will also look dated some fifty years from now. Of all the production values I would highlight especially the good filming locations and, above all, the extraordinary soundtrack by Jerry Goldsmith, winner of the Oscar for Best Soundtrack that year. It is rare, but sometimes it happens in horror films that we find a soundtrack that can, in fact, make the film even more frightening.
I don't know if this film has already reached the status of classic or cult, but I think it deserves to be revisited today. It is not a pearl, it will not mark anyone's life, but it does what a horror movie should do: mess with our fears and make us feel uncomfortable to the point of make us feel nervous if we hear a noise in the room while we see it.
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This film is so schlocky I love it. Its definitely a classic. Obviously you know it's about the devil's son and his younger years. Directed by Richard Donner of the Lethal Weapon movies the film pulls bo punches with its wild death set pieces. From a babysitter who hangs herself and crashes through a window to one hell of a decapitation by glass and even more. But what makes the film so effective besides the fine performances all around is the way in which the material was approached. In the beginning it's very much like a family drama and when it does become more it never tries to be scary it instead develops in truly shocking and freakish ways. The movie holds up and it's easy to see why it was a hit and spawned at least two good successful films.
Budget: $3m
Domestic Box Office: $61m
Worldwide Box Office: $61m
4.5/5
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The original Omen is a horror classic and in mind could almost be seen as a non-direct sequel to Rosemary's Baby. Richard Donner's direction is beautifully executed in his pre-Superman days.
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I enjoyed it for the most part, the orchestral and operatic Latin score is incredible. Love the demon nanny and demon dogs, but the lore discussions and the in between scenes here are pretty uninteresting.
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Une bonne ambiance diabolico-maléfique dans ce premier opus de la Malédiction qui exploite habilement les textes de l'Apocalypse et sait faire monter l'inquiétude et en même temps la fascination que peut exercer sur tout un chacun (croyant ou non) l'avènement de l'Anté-Christ et son cortège de superstitions vieilles comme... la Bible.
Le scénario est plutôt solide (sauf à la toute fin... hélas) et fort bien supporté par un Gregory Peck dubitatif puis déterminé à lutter contre le Malin en compagnie du journaliste d'un naturel très curieux des phénomènes... surnaturels (le très bon David Warner). Jerry Goldsmith a composé un excellent thème sinistrement satanique mais le reste de sa musique sombre beaucoup trop dans le criard désaccordé et caricatural.
Et l'autre souci non négligeable concerne une lenteur générale qui nuit sensiblement au rythme : quelques coupes auraient vraiment été les bienvenues parce que ça rame pas mal tout ça. De bonnes idées en tout cas mais pas forcément aussi bien mises en oeuvre qu'on aurait pu l'espérer.
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Awards
Academy Awards, USA
• 1 Win & 2 Nominations
Golden Globes, USA
• 1 Nomination
Online Film & Television Association
• 2 Wins & 2 Nominations
