Halloween Movie Countdown #8: The Omen

Paired along with Rosemary's Baby, here we have all the material you'll ever need to instill fear of starting a family. Call it cinematic contraception. Does the above pictured little boy instill fear in you? Well, maybe he should and maybe he shouldn't. Most everyone, as a result of The Omen, will forever associate the name Damien with this youngster. In other words, most pop culture savvy parents will do their best to never name their boy Damien, probably with good reason.

The Omen is the sum of many great parts. If one of these parts had not been up to snuff, this would simply have been one of those weird horror movies that no one cares about. The power of this film comes from Richard Donner's restrained but atmospheric direction, Jerry Goldsmith's goosebump inducing score, David Seltzer's original and creative script, and, most importantly of all, Gregory Peck's sympathetic and completely honest portrayal of a normal man going mad with signs that his son may represent all the evil of the world. Peck carries this film on his shoulders and makes every otherwise goofy situation scary and ultimately tragic. The Omen may be labeled as nothing more than one of the occult thrillers of the 70s, but it is so much more. Here, we have the most subtle apocalyptic movie of its era, a fascinating morality play, and the incredibly tragic tale of a once promising man.

Do I really even need to describe the plot to you? I'm sure everyone knows the gist of it. Gregory Peck plays Robert Thorn, a prominent American ambassador living in Britain with his wife and young son, Damien. The night of Damien's birth, Thorn was informed that his wife had birthed a stillborn, but that same night, another woman died in childbirth but there was a baby boy who was perfectly healthy. Making the morally questionable decision of switching the two babies so his wife would never know the awful truth, they go on to live their lives as any normal family would. As Damien gets older, strange things begin to happen and Thorn is approached by an old priest with ties to the hospital Damien was born in claiming the child is evil, the spawn of Satan, born to bring about the end of the world. Thorn refuses to accept this, but soon the signs become more and more telling and he must reconsider the situation and how he could possibly change things.

I'm not exactly the biggest Richard Donner fan out there. Unlike the rest of the world, I think those old Superman movies are pains to watch. Why couldn't he have made more movies like this? Here, he demonstrates a very controlled yet subtle tone, letting you discover the true nature of the situation no sooner than when Thorn himself does. The reveals are big, but the film is never playing with you. The genius of it all is how simple things end up being, yet how crazy the implications of such a scenario are. As stated above, I called this the most subtle apocalyptic movie of its era. You know, The Omen may be one of the most subtle apocalypse movies of all time. This is about the beginning of the end of everything. It's the rise of evil, but it's not even about that. All of that provides the wonderfully creepy backdrop for the tale of Thorn trying to figure out what the hell is going on.

Unlike Rosemary's Baby, The Omen presents a number of absolutely insane moral dilemmas. Just think about the basic implication of the film. What if your child, a seemingly normal youngster you've raised for five years now, is the manifestation of all evil? What would you do to stop it? Would you do anything? Could you do anything? These are the daily questions Robert Thorn has to face and the stakes only get raised higher and higher. There's no relenting once this film gets its pace going. Is it perfect? No. There are a few logical flaws with the screenplay, but I dare you not to have some internal reaction to the climax of this movie. It was created to get inside your skin and crawl all over. In this respect, The Omen is wonderfully done.

The Omen is not the film to watch for a lighthearted Halloween night, but it's definitely one worth seeing as far as creepy cinema is concerned. The last shot of the movie will leave you disturbed and ready for a good laugh. That's quality horror right there, right? Overwhelming and ultimately unstoppable evil makes for a wonderfully spooky watch. You may have been able to pray for Rosemary's baby, but this family is way past that already.