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Film Review: The Omen (2006)
By John Marrone
Jun 6, 2006, 18:06

Directed by:  John Moore
Running Time:  101 minutes
Body Count:  5

Trailer (quicktime)

"...From the Eternal Sea he rises
Creating armies on both sides
Turning man against his brother
'Til man exists no more..."

Youre going to get a lot of different reviews on The Omen as you switch channels, surf the web, turn the newspaper page...  In these times of religious sensitivity and questionable moralities, you will overhear a lot of different opinions on the film upon walking out of the theater - most of them derived from strong personal relations to the matter involved - religion, interpretations of the Bible, Satan, and evil in general.   Im going to do my best to filter out any opinion on that subject matter, and simply give you a horror fan's perspective on the film.  There's a lot to talk about.  The Omen is different - a crisp and stereotype shattering remake - and feels like an instant classic of sorts for anyone who can appreciate all the quality, balls, and depth this movie has to offer.

Its the classic tale of Damien, the Antichrist.  Robert Thorn (Liev Schrieber) is an American diplomat, hurrying to be by his wife Katherine (Julia Stiles) as she is in labor, expecting their first child.  Unbeknownst the Katherine, Robert is informed that the much anticipated baby has died, and soon the hospital priest, Father Spiletto, is introducing Robert Thorn to baby Damien - born from a single mother with no family, who died on the delivery table.  The priest offers this opportunity as an act of God - that God would overlook this small sin - if he and Katherine were to raise the child.

Never divulging this to his wife, Robert and Katherine raise Damien as their own - but as time goes on, strange things begin to occur.  For one, Damien is never sick.  A young nanny commits suicide at his birthday party.  Katherine becomes increasingly suspicious as to the nature of her son, while Robert receives visits from a priest who is trying to warn him:  his wife is in danger, they all will die, and how he must accept Christ in order to defeat the antichrist.  Robert soon tries to dismiss claims that his son was born of a jackal, and all further coincidences as religious speculation and conspiracy... all the while the signs mentioned appear around him - additionally highlighted by a curious photographer at his lab - showing him, in photographs even, the foretold signs of the deaths occuring around him.  Death and more death - beheadings and impailments - boiling over to the point of the horrific realization that Damien IS the antichrist, as indicated by several undenyable signs.  The flesh and bones of The Omen is just what it used to be - if you know the film, you know how it all ends up.  If you haven't, watch the climactic ending in theaters - I wont ruin it for you.

I have to be honest about my point of view going in.  Upon hearing about The Omen and seeing some of its early teasers, I was concerned like most enthusiasts of the genre because of the whole reputation remakes have been making for themselves in years of late - more specifically the horror remake.  I didn't want to see The Omen butchered - it would be like butchering a horror classic such as The Exorcist.  I didn't want to see an ornate music video of flames and devils CGI'd to overkill like some satanic Roger Rabbit movie.  I didn't want to see some child with glowing eyes posing throught the film.  I didn't want to see "Vin Deisel" and "Jessica Simpson" play the Thorns, if you catch my drift.  Im really happy to report that none of these things occured.

Liev Schrieber puts iron masculinity and intelligence into what was once Gregory Peck's role.  Julia Stiles, who seemed at first a bit young for the part, rescued any of that negative perspective with a sensitive and mature performance.  The boy who plays Damien, Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick, doesn't hog the screen with seethrough kiddy sneers or overacting.  Much to this film's credit, its not overdone.  The Omen isn't about flash and shock.  Its, as director John Moore puts it, "a lean race horse of a story..." that broods darkness and subsequent discussion about life, death, and the balance of humanity for a few days afterward. 

Today's younger horror moviegoers may not be fully familiar with Mia Farrow.  She is most popular amongst the genre for her role in Roman Polanski's Rosemary's Baby.  Her reprisal of Mrs. Baylock, the one who comes to "care for" and protect Damien as his nanny, was stellar.  Whats improved about the 2006 Omen is largely due to, among other things, Mia Farrow's perfect performance, which leaves you wishing she would choose to be in more horror films, to say the least.  In the 1976 version of The Omen, Mrs. Blaylock was obviously sinister, and was kind of "around", like the hellhound, more than she was an intriguing character in the story.  Mia evolved the role, entering the Thorn household with such a delicate subtle intention in her eye that she owns the audience as a result.  For such a serious film, her one or two moments of "comedy relief" are done so unexpected and keenly, she's a gift.  Mia Farrow was the underlying, shining star of this movie.

Not to take at all away from Liev Schrieber and Julia Stiles, who had also worked together previously in Michael Almereyda's "Hamlet".  They brough a sort of familiar and natural comradary to this Thorn marraige.  Susie Figgis, who handled casting, has to be given a pat on the back for choosing Liev and Julia, because in many ways, characteristically speaking, Schrieber is very similar to Peck, who was gruff and starched and a solid masculine lead.  Schrieber and Stiles and Farrow were fantastically accurate choices to play these roles and bring this story to new audiences, because in a lot of ways, The Omen 2006 is to Omen 1976 as say, Spanish is to English.  But for an exception, theyre essentially the same thing, screenplay for screenplay, act for act - it just looks modern.  With the word "modern" being so often associated with words like "hollow" or "hacked" the past few years by skeptics - it was great to see The Omen pound that steroetype into the ground and give remakes new hope and possibly a new leg to stand on.

The Omen was not chock full of belly gurgling scares or moments of shock or eye trauma.  The material is just very dark, and it leaves a stain that remains with you after you walk out of the theater.  The Omen 2006 starts off very gothic, and as the credits appear one by one, you're taken through a series of passages from Revelations.  Passages describing the coming of the apocalypse - the end of mankind - the great and final battle between Satan and the Heavens. 

As these passages are read, we are given glimpses into our own world events - modern events - the tsunami, 9/11 - that can be coincided with these scriptures.  Comets in the sky, genocide, massive storms.  What John Moore does effectively is translate in a few minutes, his own addition to The Omen - a prologue which makes this "coming of the antichrist" and "signs of the apocalypse" seem like they could be happening today.  Segway into the limosine with Mr. Thorn as in the beginning of the 76 Omen, and you're on your way.  Its all the film needed to be updated, twisted, manipulated, etc, and it fits just fine.  This is The Omen, as you expect and want it to be.

Back to the point.  The Omen is not eye candy or instant gratification.  Its a dark ass story, about a man who lets evil into his life, and watches everything fall apart, as everyone and everything his world is about, is destroyed - to the point where he is in a church about to murder his son with daggers.  Moore pays great homage to the original by leaving the story, for the most part, intact.  His self-admitted agnosticism also lends to a minor point in the remake - that a lot of evil is within man - and the relation of the events that transpire are probably the work of Satan - but it speculative, because there's never any "hard" evidence that this is the case.  There is certainly evil at hand and at work, but a lot of it seems to be caused by the manipulation of man in the name of Satan, and that's where this film seems to lean slightly between the lines.  This possibility is at no point in the movie at the forefront - you can simply derive this from how Moore tells it if you look deep enough.  On the surface though, The Omen is still entirely about the son of Satan being born into the world.

John Moore seems to understand that there are two things that make a film great - the story and the storyteller.  A film such as The Omen has lasted throughout the ages with respect because it was a deep, novel-like story of evil and speculation, and because Richard Donner delivered it with passion and upper eschelon actors.  Everything remains intact with this remake, and John Moore handles this film with such bravery and clarity as to what makes The Omen a great piece.  It won't knock you off your feet, but chances are, you'll want the DVD and watch it several times and several years before it gets old - which is rare as hell with updated films.

Not to say that this movie doesn't have its teeth.  Watch all the God fearing members of the audience, if you can spot them.  See how they shun.  See how people creeped out by the Devil just seem to be really uncomfortable with the matter on the screen.  Some people still very sensitive to 9/11 material will not enjoy seeing the World Trade Center collapse up on the screen - as the highly controversail usage of September 11th footage was used, for the first time, in a fictional piece NOT about those events.  At the screening, a later rumored freelance reporter for a very major newspaper ranted after the film in front of a packed theater that included director John Moore, that Moore was basically appauling for using something that hurt a lot of people in order to try and manipulate the audience into believing his horror film.  I being a native New Yorker have personally waited for this day to come - when someone would use a dark image such as that to relate to a dark piece of fiction, upsetting a lot of people who want that day treated with the utmost respect and not "used" by someone to make a horror buck.  I feel for those people, but I also think that New Yorkers are a little stronger than that, are able to weigh out whats tasteful and not tasteful without being told by someone else, and would rather be exposed to the reality of things than hide from that horror for the rest of our lives.  To Moore's credit, he only showed a snippet of film which lasted maybe two seconds.  What he was saying in The Omen, of which there is no doubt, is that it was an act of pure evil, by man or otherwise, and that we were in the midst of a dark time in history.  Is this not true?

Final analysis:  You're gonna hear a lotta bitching from horror fans that are seeking bang-bang scares and shock-type horror.  Almost completely CGI-less, The Omen is a classic tale the supercedes the need for eye candy and instant gratifications.  Like a throwback to a time when movies were about good stories, good actors and good storytelling - nothing more - The Omen is a deep and dark series of acts about death and evil that is well weaved, cinematically artful, and classic, and will spark conversation about religion, evil, and the world today.  Being a fan of the original, and skeptic to how this would turn out, I felt John Moore's The Omen broke out of the remake mold and shows everyone out there how it should be done.  Anyone seeking empty-calorie thrills and wows should go seek out Tarantino.  More evolved fans of the horror genre, here's one you can respect.

Catch it in theaters starting 06/06/06

Retro Review:  The Omen (1976)
Article:  Omen/9-11 Dilemma
Interview:  Director John Moore
Interview:  Actor Liev Schrieber
Interview: Actress Mia Farrow
Interview: Actress Julia Stiles