Review: 'The First Omen' creates a brooding tone and some effective scares, but the ending shows the limits of being both a prequel and a franchise launch
It’s an intriguing movie-watching exercise to try to figure out why the people behind “The First Omen” wanted to create a prequel for a movie that otherwise would have disappeared down the memory hole.
Richard Donner’s 1976 horror thriller “The Omen,” coming just two years after the success of “The Exorcist,” wasn’t all that remarkable — other than the fact that big-name stars like Gregory Peck and Lee Remick could be persuaded into playing the parents of a five-year-old antichrist in training named Damien. Still, it was a hit, and spawned two sequels (the latter starring a young Sam Neill as the adult Damien) and a 2006 remake with Liev Schreiber and Julia Stiles.
The new movie is set in Rome, 1971, and centers on an American woman, Margaret (Nell Tiger Free), who’s planning to take her vows as a nun at an ancient abbey there. Margaret is the protege of the kindly Cardinal Lawrence (Bill Nighy), and instructed by the Abbess, Sister Silva (Sônia Braga). Margaret tries to teach the girls in the orphanage the order operates — but she’s warned to stay away from a moody teen girl living there, Carlita (Nicole Sorace).
Outside the orphanage, Margaret is troubled by conflicting messages. Her roommate, Luz (Maria Caballero), another nun-in-training, urges Margaret to live a little before taking the vows — and loans her a low-cut dress and takes her to a disco. Then there’s Father Brennan (Ralph Ineson, from “The Witch”), who gives Margaret a dire warning about the order and about Carlita.
Director Arkasha Stevenson, a rookie, creates a dark foreboding tone, as the innocent Margaret loses her sense of self amid the withering frescoes and candle-lit menace of the abbey. And there are enough shocking images to make all but the most jaded of horror fans recoil in their seats.
It’s hard to sustain that kind of shock and brooding for nearly two hours, and Stevenson can’t quite get all the way through without things sometimes looking silly. That’s particularly true toward the finale, when the producers try to have things both ways — tying the ending to the events of Donner’s 1976 movie, while also suggesting a franchise starter on another track. The problem like a title like “The First Omen” is that it’s a promise, or a threat, not to be the last.
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‘The First Omen’
★★1/2
Opens Friday, April 5, in theaters everywhere. Rated R for violent content, grisly/disturbing images, and brief graphic nudity. Running time: 115 minutes.