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The First Omen<\/strong> (2024)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 20th<\/sup> Century\/Horror\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 120 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (violent content, grisly\/disturbing images, brief graphic nudity)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Arkasha Stevenson\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Tim Smith, Arkasha Stevenson and Keith Thomas\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Mark Korven\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0Cinematography: Aaron Morton\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: April 5, 2024 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Nell Tiger Free, Ralph Ineson, Sonia Braga, Tawfeek Barhom, Maria Caballero, Charles Dance, Bill Nighy, Nicole Sorace, Ishtar Currie Wilson, Andrea Arcangeli, Guido Quaglione, Dora Romano, Michelangelo Dalisi, Anton Alexander, Mia McGovern Zaini, Eugenia Delbue.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Rating<\/strong>: ***<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u00a0I\u2019ve been a fan of the Omen films since I first saw the first two on network TV circa 1979-80. I read the novelizations not long after. It was the perfect lead-in to the third movie The Final Conflict which hit cinemas in March 1981. That one I saw at the movies at the tender age of 13. While the rise of the Antichrist (Damien Thorn in his human form) is thrilling in and of itself, what I really like about the Omen movies is the death scenes. The characters typically met their demise in strange and gruesome ways upon learning Damien\u2019s true identity. Who can forget the decapitation of the photographer in the first movie? The doctor getting cut in half by the elevator cable in the second? The iron in the eye in the third? Cool scenes, all of them. I was hoping for the same in The First Omen<\/strong>.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u00a0In this age of remakes, reboots and requels, I had some misgivings about The First Omen<\/strong>, a prequel to the original 1976 film. It seems like Hollywood is bound and determined to tarnish our memories of horror classics like Halloween and The Exorcist by producing inferior new films that rely too much on CGI and not enough on scaring audiences on a visceral level. Who didn\u2019t have the s*** scared out of them by the original Exorcist in 1973? Last fall\u2019s retcon sequel The Exorcist: Believer is an insult to fans. I didn\u2019t want to see that happen to The Omen. Why mess with perfection?<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u00a0Let me be clear. I did NOT hate The First Omen<\/strong>. It\u2019s actually not bad. It starts off slow, but gets more interesting as it goes on. It\u2019s technically a horror film, but it\u2019s also a paranoid thriller replete with a protagonist who questions her own sanity after she stumbles across something that points to a big conspiracy to which she\u2019s seemingly the only one not privy. In this case, it\u2019s a novitiate nun named Margaret (Free, Servant) who comes to Rome to take her final vows. She\u2019ll be working at an orphanage for girls under the watchful eye of the strict abbess Sister Silvia (Braga, Kiss of the Spider Woman). It\u2019s there that she meets Carlita (newcomer Sorace), a girl of about 12 who\u2019s considered a problem child. She\u2019s often kept locked in a room by herself away from the other girls. Margaret relates to her because she was a problem child herself at her age.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u00a0There\u2019s something about Carlita. She has a purpose. What that purpose is should be clear to those familiar with the series. Obviously, Margaret has no idea what she\u2019s up against. There is conspiracy afoot in the Catholic Church and it\u2019s connected to the girl….. or is it? Father Brennan (Ineson, The Witch), a character fans know well, seems to think so. He\u2019s lurking around trying to get her files so he can confirm his theory about her. He\u2019ll need help to do that. That\u2019s where Margaret comes in.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u00a0Let\u2019s start with the most important thing. Are there any cool kill scenes in The First Omen<\/strong>? The answer is yes, but not as many as I would have liked. One death scene is a direct reference to the original movie; the soon-to-be deceased even repeats an iconic line before…. well, you know. In another scene, a guy ends up cut in half after a car rams into him on the street. It doesn\u2019t look as convincing as the elevator victim in Damien: Omen II (blame it on the CGI), but it\u2019s still pretty cool. The body count in The First Omen<\/strong> is comparatively low, but director Arkasha Stevenson (this is her first feature film) makes up for it in other ways.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u00a0The First Omen<\/strong> is heavy with atmosphere and loaded with suspense. Here we have a troubled young woman at a creepy Catholic place surrounded by priests and nuns who might be out to do her harm. In that respect, it\u2019s similar to last month\u2019s Immaculate. Both films also deal with women being forced to give up bodily autonomy for a greater cause. Given recent IRL events, it\u2019s a timely theme. I don\u2019t know if I\u2019d call The First Omen<\/strong>, but it is creepy as hell. Stevenson, for the most part, eschews modern techniques to create a throwback to old school horror. The authentic, Neorealist production design and haunting score by Mark Korven are two of its strongest assets.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u00a0The acting in The First Omen<\/strong> is quite good. Free is believable as a nice but na\u00efve girl slowly losing her mind as she finds out more and more about what\u2019s going on around her. Bill Nighy (Love Actually) has some great scenes as the Cardinal, the one who helped her through a rough childhood. He\u2019s the one that guided her towards a life of serving the Lord. Hmmm, that doesn\u2019t sound suspicious, does it? NAH! The real MVP in The First Omen<\/strong> is Sorace. She is positively haunting as an orphan girl with issues. What\u2019s really up with her? Why do the other nuns want Margaret to stay away from her? She brings her A-game to her first major role.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u00a0So how would I rank The First Omen<\/strong>? While it has its good points including how seamlessly it ties into the OG film (great nod to Gregory Peck\u2019s character), it ranks below the trilogy. That doesn\u2019t mean it sucks. It simply means it doesn\u2019t quite measure up to the OGs. It\u2019s still pretty good though. If you like the Omen movies, there\u2019s no reason you won\u2019t like this one too.<\/p>\r\n The First Omen (2024)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 20th Century\/Horror\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 120 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (violent content, grisly\/disturbing images, brief graphic nudity)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Arkasha Stevenson\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Tim Smith, Arkasha Stevenson and Keith Thomas\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Mark Korven\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0Cinematography: Aaron Morton\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: April 5, 2024 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Nell Tiger Free, Ralph Ineson, Sonia Braga, Tawfeek Barhom, Maria Caballero, Charles Dance, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1013,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-288","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-horror"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/The-First-Omen-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=288"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1014,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288\/revisions\/1014"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1013"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=288"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=288"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=288"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/The-First-Omen-POSTER.jpg?resize=620%2C924&ssl=1\")
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