The First Omen

The 2006 remake of The Omen was averagely forgettable, but it had two excellent teaser trailers. And yes, I saw both films that same year. I'll have little trouble forgetting this prequel, The First Omen, which sees the directorial debut of TV director Arkasha Stevenson. Let's see why you won't forget it either.

Margaret Daino (Nell Tiger Free) is a novitiate who heads off to Rome to take her vows. She's first assigned to an orphanage where she meets a few characters. She tries to connect with Carlita (Nicole Sorace), a troubled orphan who draws her own nightmares, against uptight Sister Silvia's (Sonia Braga) instructions. Her fellow novitiate Luz (Maria Caballero) takes her to a disco for their last night of freedom. Margaret meets a guy, Paolo (Andrea Arcangeli) and they hit it off. And...

Margaret begins hallucinating demonic sights. She's been troubled by hallucinations all her life, much like Carlita is now, but it's gotten much worse. She also contends with actual disturbances, including the suicide of another nun, Anjelica (Ishtar Currie-Wilson), and the concurrent Years of Lead. The ultimate disturbance comes when Father Brennan (Ralph Ineson, tagging in for Patrick Troughton from the original) tells her of a conspiracy to bring about the Antichrist. Carlita is at the center of that conspiracy ... or, is she?

I know what some of you might be thinking. "Didn't I see this movie recently?" I didn't, but some of you may have, seen the movie Immaculate, which came out just a few weeks ago. That means there are two movies that center on a conspiracy to bring about the antichrist. I almost thought I went into the wrong movie for the first few minutes (why? I don't know). My theatre doesn't label their auditoriums, so for all I know, it could have been playing in the next auditorium over. 

Anyway, its first few minutes have Father Brennan take confession from a semi-reluctant conspirator, Father Harris (Charles Dance). Harris's ensuing death is a nervously amusing homage to Brennan's eventual demise in The Omen. Paolo's death by truck is so obviously telegraphed I was thinking "look both ways, you idiot" before it happened. Still, Paolo's death comes with a surprisingly gruesome twist. Anjelica's suicide, another homage to The Omen, gets creepier when she shows up in Margaret's nightmares. Its most disturbing imagery, however, comes from its depictions of childbirth, and with good reason. I can't describe it in detail here. Let's just say the conspiracy makes those scenes much worse.

Margaret starts off quite likable as she tries to get used to living abroad. She turns compelling when she tries to circumnavigate, and later fight back, against the conspirators. She has a strong relationship with Carlita as she tries to get her out of her shell, and it spectacularly pays off at the end. By herself, Carlita is just a compelling a lead as Margaret is. The conspirators - including Sister Silvia and Bill Nighy's Cardinal Lawrence - have a loony rationale, but that doesn't stop them from being certifiably odious.  Father Brennan has his best moments when he outlines the conspiracy to Margaret. He really sells us on the danger the villains pose to the world. He and the young Father Gabriel (Tawfeek Barhom) turn out to be our heroines' only real friends here.

Its gruesomeness is excellently constructed by editors Mark Murawski and Amy E. Duddleston. One disturbing highlight has Anjelica slowly reveal herself out of the darkness in a nightmare. Another highlight is a pivotal flashback where we see glimpses of Satan himself - a demonic jackal portrayed by a perfectly gruesome animatronic. The gloomy production design and cinematography collaborate the best when we're in the conspirators' lair. The sound design does wonders in accentuating the squickiness of it all. Mark Korven's score, much like Jerry Goldsmith's Oscar-winning score from The Omen, is a good mix of booming terror and sweet serenity. Its most powerful moment comes when Ave Satani, The Omen's Oscar-nominated theme song, kicks in at the climax.

To say that The First Omen is disturbing is like saying water is wet. Of course it is. This happens to be a well-made disturbing film with a great lead and strong production values. I'm certain even the most avid horror fans might want to avert their eyes during a few scenes. It's a decently compelling prequel even if its script has a few inconsistencies with its originator. I'm a bit curious to see how a follow-up explains them away. But that's it for now.