The Omen ***** (1976, Gregory Peck, Lee Remick, Harvey Stephens, Billie Whitelaw) – Classic Movie Review 247

All of the brilliantly staged shocks in the thrilling and clever 1976 classic horror thriller The Omen are still eye-catching and chilling. It is very smartly written by David Seltzer and slickly directed by Richard Donner. Jerry Goldsmith won the film’s only Oscar – for Best Original Score – and received the film’s only other nomination – for Best Original Song (‘Ave Satani’).

Gregory Peck and Lee Remick star as Robert and Katherine Thorn, who are delighted to find themselves in London as the new American ambassador to Britain and his wife. However, Peck is less pleased to find that their son Damien (a chilling Harvey Stephens), secretly swapped for their stillborn child at birth at 6.00am on 6 June in Rome, has the devil’s mark of 666 on his head. He is the Antichrist with diabolical powers who intends to kill everyone who gets in his way!

Where this movie has the edge over its respectful 2006 remake The Omen is its ultra-eerie, super-tense atmosphere, and its sweaty-palmed series of brilliantly staged set pieces, with the exits of priest Patrick Troughton and photographer David Warner particularly memorable.

The other clear advantage it has is the brilliantly classy acting from the vintage cast. Peck and Remick are just perfect, credibly troubled and tormented, Billie Whitelaw has a great time and is astoundingly creepy as Damien’s sinister housekeeper pal Mrs Baylock, while Troughton and Warner are so much better as the understandably anxious Father Brennan and Jennings than Pete Postlethwaite and David Thewliss in the remake that it hurts.

Jerry Goldsmith’s excellent, drivingly eerie classic score pounds things along. It’s a special, exciting soundtrack, so the movie sounds great. Goldsmith won an Oscar for Best Original Score and was nominated for the song ‘Ave Satani’. It was Goldsmith’s only Oscar after eight previous nominations, with eight more nominations to follow, starting with Peck’s The Boys from Brazil (1978).

And Gilbert Taylor’s cinematography in London and Rome makes it look great too.

With audiences thrilling to its dynamic, continuing sequence of expertly handled, edge-of-seat horror sequences, it was a big hit. And, unlike many Seventies movies, it is ageing well and deservedly remains popular and respected.

It is the last film of Anthony Nicholls (as Dr Becker), who died in February 1977. Stephens has a cameo as a tabloid reporter in the 2006 remake.

Opening credits prologue: ‘ROME JUNE 6TH-6AM’

Closing credits epilogue: ‘Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is 666.’ Book of Revelation Chapter 13 Verse 18.

Harvey Stephens was chosen as Damien after he came at Richard Donner at the casting. When Donner asked the boys to ‘come at him’ as if they were attacking Katherine Thorn, Harvey screamed, clawed at Donner’s face and kicked him in the groin. Donner cast him as Damien and ordered his blond hair dyed black.

The 2006 remake The Omen was greenlit in July 2005 with Dan McDermott attached to write, but he was denied a writing credit by the Writers Guild of America as the screenplay was determined to bear too close a resemblance to David Seltzer’s script for the 1976 film. So Seltzer received sole credit despite being uninvolved with the production of the remake.

Harvey Stephens (born 12 November 1970) earned a Golden Globe nomination for Best Acting Debut in a Motion Picture – Male. The Omen is the only major film role in his career.

Billie Whitelaw died on December 21 2014, aged 82. She won the Evening Standard British Film Award for Best Actress in The Omen.

Damien Omen II (1978), Omen III: The Final Conflict (1981) and Omen IV: The Awakening (1991) followed.

The Omen was released on 25 June 1976 in the US and 16 September 1976 in the UK.

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© Derek Winnert 2013 Classic Movie Review 247

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