Ambassador Robert Thorn (Gregory Peck) secretly adopts a baby to replace his wife’s (Lee Remick) stillborn child. Five years later, people begin to die around the child and Thorn teams with photographer Keith Jennings (David Warner) to discover who the child really is.
It’s been copied in so many ways over the years that it feels jam-packed with clichés, but in 1976, before the Antichrist showed up on most sitcoms, The Omen changed horror. Its references to evil and the devil are straight out of the Bible. The Book of Revelations prophecies the coming of the Antichrist, and The Omen produced him. It took its subject very seriously, something I usually argue against, but with the weight of the Bible for the story (more or less), and Gregory Peck for respectability, a solemn approach had far more power.
Director Richard Donner and writer David Seltzer cleverly shift the action from the universal to the personal. Yes, it’s about the coming apocalypse, but it is seen through one man and what this means to him, his wife, and what he’s hoped to be his family. The only misstep is the babbling priest who could explain everything early on, but instead speaks in vague prophecies and riddles. Why are priests always doing that in horror films?
Due to its somber tone, The Omen may not be a film you’ll want to watch over and over, but horror fans and Christians should see it at least once.