The Omen
- Starring Gregory Peck, Lee Remick, David Warner
- Directed by Richard Donner
- Horror
- Rated R: Violence
The realease date was
June 25, 1976.
The Omen locations include brief visits to
Rome (at the beginning) and Israel (to visit Bugenhagen), but most of the film is shot in the
UK. Fiming locations were: All Saints Church, Fulham, London, England, UK.
The Omen was released following a successful $2.8 million marketing campaign inspired by the one from Jaws one year prior, with two weeks of sneak previews, a novelization by screenwriter David Seltzer, and the logo with "666" inside the film's title as the centerpiece of the advertisement. The film was a massive commercial success in the United States.
This lies in the full-on nature of the deaths achieved by brilliant camerawork and special effects. By having the omens appear only as black lines on photographs, the film pulls a clever trick: we know who will die, but we are never exactly sure how. Hence when the nanny hangs herself or the priest gets impaled with a flagpole, it’s a real shock.
The death of David Warner’s character is a perfect example of this. We first realise that he is destined to die when we see a photograph of him with a black line through his neck. We then follow his every movement closely, looking out for any object that could possibly achieve that effect. After Leo McKern fills us with some form of hope, we stop worrying about him and start to relax. But jut at that moment, Warner’s head is cut clean off by a sheet of glass. We sit there open-mouthed, wondering how they did it and recovering from the fright of our life.
The Omen has a brilliantly creepy atmosphere, making you feel constantly surrounded by the very essence of evil. Richard Donner draws on the rich traditions of Gothic horror and the more serious end of Hammer, using architecture and pace to create deep-seated unease. The Thorns’ home in England is full of high staircases, dark passageways and open rooms with large windows. The churches are forbidding fortresses, and the weather is wild and unpredictable.
The Omen is also a demonstration of how effective horror can be achieved through a simple choice of editing and camera angles, something which has often been neglected at the gorier end of the spectrum. Take the use of close-ups at the hospital, as the camera cuts back and forth between Kathy Thorn and Mrs. Baylock. It’s a simple device which easily creates tension and prevents the score from descending into melodrama. Brennan’s death is another example of effective editing: the camera cuts back and forth between the falling pole and his scream, before cutting to the wide shot of the pole passing straight through him.
Review
It is a bit difficult to accept our leads at first for not recognizing the unsettling events around them. Though I am all too aware of the genre conventions to watch out for,because the opening scenes following the growing family, they really do put you off your guard. After a series of grizzly deaths, Gregory Peck and Daivd Warner travel the world on a quest for the truth about the boy, Damien. This is quite easily the best part of the movie as the tension heightens with each discovery and the frights in this part are subtle. The exhuming of the graveyard ruin caused me to squirm in my seat more than any of the film's many graphic scenes. This makes the urgent conclusion, seem a bit slow by comparison as it involves more traditional set ups of a stretch of silence before something jumps out of the dark corner.
Director Richarad Donner sets the grim atmosphere perfectly, using a series of unique shots and camera angles to convey alienation and to staggering effect.
Jerry Goldsmith’s score is one that really puts him through his paces. It bends emotions by starting off with a sentimental sound only slowly introduce untuned instruments to render the scene unsettling.
It that respect its a hard film to rate because it succeeds so well at being so uncomfortable to the audience and extremenly frightening.
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