hyped garbage

Admirable film.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Weird, I was overly intellectual in my reviews of "Rosemary's Baby" and "The Exorcist", raving about the way these two horror milestones built up their premise around universal aspects of fear: loneliness in the midst of a conspiracy and fear of the unknown, mostly due to the fact that the 'villains' were invisible. About Polanski's masterpiece I concluded that its secret was to know how to keep a secret and that "The Exorcist" was so eerie it was scary even before the scare happened. Yet, given my adoration of New Hollywood, I never called a spade a spade and mentioned that these movies dealt with Satan, which was quite groundbreaking for its time. Religion has always prevailed in cinema's history as the Bible was a great provider of stories with as much thrills and hearts than any fictional best-seller or juicy screenplay... but religion has often served the epic genre and elevated glorious and uncorrupted figures without allowing Satan to rise above, with a few unlikely exceptions like Disney in "Fantasia". Maybe the devil is such a larger-than-life villain that the his existence is disturbing enough and there's no need to make a cinematic fuss about.Still, the New Hollywood period started with violence and sex ceasing to be taboos, so the days of religion were counted as well. "Rosemary's Baby" was the first to deal with it and had the nerve to feature such lines as "Hail, Satan". Some sneaky thinkers will add that the year after, Polanski's wife was savagely assassinated by Charles Manson's followers, cutting through Hollywood's state of grace with the realization that the world of sex, drugs and rock'n'roll had its evil counterpart, just like the Holy Trinity with the Anti-Christ. But the show went on and "The Exorcist" became one of the seminal blockbuster movies with the devil as the star, and once again, many strange events undermined the making of the picture, if not the crews' lives.It's just as if you couldn't make a movie about Satan without his eventual interference as if a giant had been awakened. But these movies barely showed the devil and were much about him as "The Godfather" was about Mafia, we saw, we understood, we perceived the malevolence but in an intimate way. Richard Donner's "The Omen" is intimate all right, as it's centered on a family: Mr. and Mrs. Thorn played by Gregory Peck and Lee Remick, but it also leaves no secret that we're dealing with the Anti-Christ. Writer David Seltzer knew the impact such a movie would have and decided to set the bar even higher than "Rosemary's Baby" yet with less supernatural extravaganza as the exorcist, and you've got it to hand it to the writing/directing, the dosage works. Indeed, this a solemn and serious horror drama, whose poignancy is enhanced by the behavior of the two parents, a rich and wealthy ambassador who learned his son's death and adopted a motherless newborn child the same night, both things unbeknownst to his wife. The story then is a stressful and disturbing escalation toward the necessary realization that something is wrong with the kid Damien, played Harvey Stephens, perhaps the most intimidating and frightening child from any film. He's as ominous as Danny in "The Shining" (some scenes even seem to foreshadow Kubrick's film) and unlike Regan in "The Exorcist", with his cherubim-like face, there's always a reasonable doubt over his vileness. Does the film work, now? Yes, and no... and then, yes. It works because all the signs leading to the final revelation are cleverly incorporated within the story, so that you have a fine alternation between shocks and interrogations, "what just happened?" and "what the hell is happening?". Many scenes became staples of horror movie and I must say some kept my eyes open wide and my mouth agape, it's one thing to wait for something bad to happen, and another to be shocked even after the anticipation... even that one we all know it was coming because of the premonition. So without spoiling any possible aspect, let's say that this is one hell of a hellish journey. Now, I'm not saying there are instances the film doesn't work, there's just a short sequence that slightly undermines the credibility of the story. When new nanny Mrs. Baylock (Billie Whitelaw) comes, you know there's something not very orthodox about her. Now I could accept trust at first sight, but her insistence not to take the child to church or to have a scary Rottweiler as a guard dog, should have alerted them. Or when the priest supposed to warn Peck starts quoting the Bible instead of just saying it played and straight. Many times, the film is in danger to fall in the 'idiot plot' trap but thankfully, it pulls itself together and get back on track when they finally become suspicious.But after all, these movies are all about signs, even more disturbing because they can be attributed to coincidences or accidents. Exactly like the curses we've mentioned, was "Rosemary's Baby" or "The Exorcist" or "The Omen" for that matter cursed (some coincidences are pretty creepy)? This is the stuff that can happen but we wish to ignore for our own peace of mind. Peck is the ultimate decent man, a rich, educated and good parent who can't believe in things that don't make sense, until it hits him in the face, sometimes painfully, sometimes with the help of people from a nosy photographer played by David Warner to an exorcist played by Leo McKern. The atmosphere is heavy loaded, the anticipations keep our hearts hooked, Jerry Goldsmith's Oscar winning score a haunting to the ears, the jump scares always effective... and there's that thorn you definitely wouldn't want in your side, that damned "Damien!", with his angelic face, would you believe that Gregory Peck would have the guts to do it? that question is disturbing enough to encourage you to watch this film.

A-Z Horror Movie of the Day..."The Omen" (R - 1976 - US)Sub-Genre: Paranormal/DemonMy Score: 7.6Cast=8 Acting=7 Plot=8 Ending=9 Story=9 Scare=8 Jump=5 F/X=6 Creep=8 Demon=8Mysterious deaths surround an American ambassador. Could the child that he is raising actually be the Antichrist? The Devil's own son? "Look at me Damien...It's all for you." Pound for pound one of the greatest horror franchises ever made!! I feel it's a little dated, but still one of the best classic horror films. If you ever watch a possessed child movie...you almost have to compare it to Damien. Some say this is a better movie than "The Exorcist". I don't agree with that, but if you have never seen it this would be a great watch!!

Honestly Peck is a very stiff actor... not one of my favorite actors for certain. But dammit he "gets the job done" in this one (also see Cape Fear the original). Warner ... very underrated actor. Saw another reviewer say the same thing. Didn't steal it from them, but I do agree. Brilliant in this film anyway. Don't see "The Island" if you can help it. He actually saves that wretched movie! When that first Nanny jumps off the window ledge and crashes into the window below...? WOW! The first time you see that scene... if the hair does not stand up on your arms and the back of your neck at the same time.... I don't know? Are you human?!? Maybe you're "The Anti-Christ". And Mrs. Blaylock... I don't get nightmares very easily, but that is the creepiest performance I have ever seen in my entire life. Talk about brilliant casting and a super job of acting. Holy Crap Batman! Unreal movie on the heels of The Exorcist. Completely different film, but equally compelling. I see these people giving this movie a low rating, and I think... they just want to find fault with something great. Makes themselves feel better about themselves, I guess. If it's not your "cup", then why watch it to start with? Just to find fault? It's not Disney here people.if you are actually a fan of the genre, and you don't like this movie... I don't know? It's not Saw or Wrong Turn....thank God!

While I see the significance of this movie to the horror genre as a whole, by today's standards it does not classify as great. The trope of evil child was revolutionary for his time and some of the scenes are still chilling to this day but, besides this plot device, there's nothing that makes it stand out from a "good" horror film. The cinematography is good, the script is good, the acting is good (Peck almost always is), the music, everything. But nothing about it stands out as great. There was never a point where I felt completely enthralled by what I was watching on the screen.It is effective as a horror movie. It may be a bit rushed at times but it is never boring. Despite it's 110 minute run time, it felt less than 90 minutes due to the brisk pace of the plot. It's a solid movie but not something I see myself revisiting anytime soon.