Spotlight: The Omen

[No Personality]

I have some news for you, ladies and gentlemen... The Devil isn't real! Go ahead and breathe now. Doesn't it feel good to know that? The entire myth of Satan as a guy painted red with a little funny beard and mustache, horns, a pointy tail, and a pitchfork is nothing more than a product of dogma and, as Elizabeth Hurley's character puts it in Bedazzled (the remake), "just a Halloween costume." I'm not saying that when you die, nothing happens. We find that out for ourselves soon enough I fear. There is also no such thing as death as a prophecy. Well, other than someone saying, "I'm gonna kill that guy" and then killing him a week later. This applies to the bible as well. If any of the characters in that great work of fiction were real people, I'm willing to bet they weren't killing anyone for the fame of being written about. Or eternal life. Unless they were as freaking crazy as that Countess who used to bathe in the blood of murdered servant-girls, thinking that would keep her young forever.

I don't really have to go into the background of The Omen. It's plain as day: it owes its' entire existence to 2 far superior films, Rosemary's Baby and The Exorcist. The former was kinda more about the horror of people who believe something you don't having power over you. And the struggle of a woman for her independence and the right to have people trust her intuition without automatically assuming she's crazy or under the influence of the effects of pregnancy. It was freaking powerful, an epic psychological tragedy film, and highly relevant to people living in America over the span of many decades of culture. The Exorcist was a portrait of a family unit in turmoil over being spiritually violated and tormented by an evil, demonic spirit. And how they're eventually saved by a man questioning his faith. It was the Poltergeist of its' day, trying to make us believe in the force of Satan's power with shocking and spectacular special effects sequences.

But it was also a film that should leave viewers asking themselves- where else can a movie go in terms of confronting biblical fears of The Devil? The Omen's answer is to let Regan out of her room. It's less an us vs. the devil-made-flesh as it is the next phase in evolution from The Exorcist, which confined the physical presence of the demon in the possessed character's bedroom, and Rosemary's Baby, where the son of Satan was just a newborn cooing in a crib. And what do we really get? A very long series of "hunting for answers" scenes and a little brat you just want to smack. That's what happens when you try to show the face of evil. We all, sitting watching the movie, already have our own ideas of what the most evil person in the world looks like. And this kid is no Adolf Hitler, Ronald Reagan, or George W. Bush. Think more a brunet, bite-sized Junior from Problem Child, and you've got Damien Thorn.

I guess the concept alone is supposed to be enough to scare us. Not quite. So, to help the tyke along are a few fairly entertaining death scenes that almost seem like they're trying to tap into Mario Bava's Bay of Blood (or more appropriately in this case, Twitch of the Death Nerve), in that they're so show-stoppingly over-the-top and gratuitous. However, again: entertaining; I can't knock this element of the film, but that's because I was jaded by the film's long, boring stretches of sleepy dialogue and Gregory Peck's ultra-stiff performance. Though he actually fits right in with the proceedings. The only time the movie comes to life is when someone's getting offed by the invisible Grim Reaper (the movie reduces the image and legacy of this interesting spiritual entity to that of a vicious hitman, making it more a horror version of The Godfather; for more on that, watch its' 1981 sequel, The Final Conflict). Which makes this a sort of precursor to Final Destination (a significantly more intense film than this one).

As though I had to say it, there are too many examples of previous films doing this movie better than this movie. The scenes of horror here (not associated with cosmic, astrological murder and implications of Armageddon) are slow, dull, lack finesse in every possible way, and don't even try to mimic (which could have maybe led to campy fun) far more visceral or potent fears from other (better) movies related to doom, Satan, and evil kids. For example, It's Alive. Both movies begin with a mother going to the hospital to give birth. But the main character, the father, doesn't feel the need to be there until he receives the news that the baby has died. That's a brain teaser in itself. But by the time we get to a shot of the happy mother holding a beautiful baby in her arms and a shrill montage of other idyllic moments in the upbeat start of this new chapter in the characters' lives... it's obvious this thing is just working off the ending to Rosemary. Or what "could've have been" the ending, had the baby looked normal.

And it's not as though the genre had used up the last maternal fears of a mother's baby being a monster (just look at 1986's remake of The Fly). This movie simply chooses to skate-by on dread-inducing readings of text from the bible and those lingering dogmatic fears that may remain in some viewers. Which obviously limits the amount of viewers who will feel personally affected by the story. And there isn't even much of a story. It's a few choice character arcs driven by narrow emotional peaks. And as genuinely complex as a movie about a guy who has one long bad day, if we look at this from the outside point of view. And that's the only likely view from which to see this movie. That's how boring it is. Peck has one long bad day and meets several people who claim someone in his life is evil and trying to kill them. Oh yeah, and grow up to take over the world (@ 0:37 / Sorry, it's the best I could find).

Then later, the emotional part kicks in. As almost a last-minute attempt to give the movie true depth. When it's convenient for instilling in gullible viewers a few doubts about, for example- killing the very young boy playing Damien. Which is a controversial move for the story in any movie to make. And, by the time it comes up on the schedule, it's so late that you know it's not gonna happen. Hopefully, when this movie comes up in discussion among movie fans, no one who saw this thought the kid should've been spared. But the whole wide world already knows the ending to this movie ("it was foreTOLD!", heh heh) thanks to Bravo and VH1 and AMC and pop culture's love of spoiler-ing. Is it a scary ending? Well... kinda. When you think about how the kid didn't actually do anything. His shit-eating grin in the final shot is very much a silent, "Oh yeah, Baby! I'm the Puppet Master, and I've got everyone on strings..." Which is scary if you use it as a means to shatter the image of his doll-faced innocence in every scene up to this point.

But really, 2-hours for just 5 flashy death scenes and that twirpy kid's creepy final shot? This is where I mention that Carrie was released the same year and gave us a lot more bang for our buck than this film, and in record-timing. So did Suspiria a year later (they're obviously linked by the theme of impending violent death via getting on the bad side of the movie's evil force / overseers). I give some credit to the supporting cast, especially Lee Remick - who looks the most scared - and Billie Whitelaw - who looks the most scary, with her hypnotic psycho-eyes she's actually like a grown-up version of one of those kids from Village of the Damned. David Warner plays a slithery hippie photographer trying to rock a majorly outdated Beatles-esque moptop. Patrick Troughton looks way too much like the movie trying to copy Exorcist's Jason Miller but gives an almost moving performance as a guilty Priest understandably filled with guilt. Director Richard Donner, however, should just stick to goofy comedies and obnoxious action pics.