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.

Halloween Movie Countdown #10: Rosemary's Baby

Here we are, the scariest time of the year, 10 days away from Halloween. It's only fair to celebrate the way cinema has captured fear in our hearts and minds for these last ten days by counting down to Halloween. Expect some of the creepiest stuff to ever hit celluloid (or ugly digital camera memory cards) here. To start out, we have to return to the 1960s when paranoia cinema was just at its own height. This golden age of paranoid cinema hit its peak early with the Roman Polanski classic Rosemary's Baby.

This is classic horror storytelling at its finest. Rather than using fake scares, jumps, or even loud music, here we have a fantastically made character study of paranoia. What's so great about the film is how it's not even so much outlandish paranoia. We follow Rosemary Woodhouse, a housewife who has just moved into a new apartment with her actor husband. They are a happy couple hoping to have a baby. Rosemary becomes pregnant, but begins to be plagued by strange nightmares, and paranoia regarding her neighbors, her doctor, and her nosy neighbors. Is Rosemary just falling apart under the pressure of the pregnancy or is there validity to her fears - and what could be going on if she is right?

My advice on this film is simple - see it but read as little as possible about the plot. More than any other film, Rosemary's Baby is generally completely spoiled by every single plot description. It really bothers the hell out of me because part of the brilliance of this film is the journey of discovery or complete insanity we get to follow Rosemary on. This film gets every note right. Every single second of its runtime is completely devoted to telling you something, even if you don't exactly realize it.

Polanski creates a wonderfully controlled voice through the camera work and scene jumps, and it helps, of course, that he assembled a fantastic cast of Mia Farrow, John Cassavetes, Ruth Gordon, and Sydney Blackmer. It's this kind of perfectionist approach to horror that's more or less nonexistent in the modern cinematic landscape that really helps you buy into what you're seeing, because, this film completely relies on flawless acting to succeed. Succeed it does. This is the great mama of paranoia thrillers partially because of its subject matter. Together it combines two scary notions: pregnancy and insanity. Both are conditions that have a drastic outcome that you really have very little control over.

To take the concept of pregnancy, taught by most religions as a sacred and beautiful thing, and turn it into this disturbing and ultimately terrifying condition was really groundbreaking and oh so effective. You're pregnant and there are strange possibly occult things happening all around you. What if your neighbors, your doctor, and even your husband are actively working to harm your baby? Even worse than that, what if there's something terribly wrong with your baby already and you don't even know it? Of course, now that you've effectively cancelled out all notions of trust, you have to ask another question - what if none of this is true and you're just going crazy with paranoia? What implications does that have not only for your future, but for the child's?

If you love cinema, you really have no excuse not to give Rosemary's Baby your full attention for two and a half hours. It's not only completely worth it, but it will really get to you. Polanski's carefully constructed tone manages to illicit completely reasonable fear from the everyday details and yet also presents a very chilling satire on society, religion, and trust. Does that make Rosemary's Baby a complicated statement on existence? Well, no, not really. It is one hell of a fantastic horror film experience, however, and a classic you cannot let yourself ignore.

These are old school thrills, fantastic characters, and an ending you'll remember for quite some time. It may not be the scariest film out there, but it carries the capacity disturb you more psychologically than most films ever will. It's a great film and the highlight of Roman Polanski's mostly successful career. Get out there; see this movie and pray for Rosemary's baby.