The Omen (1976)

A runaway success way back in 1976, partly due to the ingenious marketing techniques that Fox employed for promotion.  The studio spent more on advertising than they did on the film’s production but was completely justified, as The Omen became one of the year’s top-grossing films.

It’s a pretty old-fashioned hokum about the rise of Satan through a powerful and unsuspecting family.  The film moves briskly and is littered with tremendous amounts of very over-wrought acting by almost everyone involved.

Billie Whitelaw as the evil nanny “apostate of Hell” is the scene stealer along with the rather cute looking “dog-apostate of Hell” Rottweiler, Jerry Goldsmith, borrowing a touch from the score of Tombs of the Blind Dead produced a rollicking score to win him the Oscar for 1976.

1999’s Phantom Menace seems to have lifted parts of The Omen soundtrack; it is that similar.  Stylish, gory death sequences also came into the mainstream for the first time in a big way.  The infamous beheading sequence looked great for its era and spectacular death falls, impaling, etc.

Some people found and still find this film intensely frightening – we found it entertaining, campy, and not too scary.  Sequels followed.   Damien – Omen 2 and later by a preposterous Final Conflict – Omen 3.  There was another that went straight to video, and mercifully, that was that for the moment, at any rate.

Wonder what became of Harvey Stephen’s the cherub who got to play Satan’s spawn without knowing the historical importance of his role!  Incidentally, The Omen has listed at least one publication that selects their “worst ever films”.  We would argue against its inclusion, but not too vehemently—stylish and hugely enjoyable piffle.  Richard Donner does brilliantly craft a well-mounted and elegant horror film rather than end up with a Turkey.  20^th Century Fox had the last laugh as the film raked up above $250 at the US Box Office, ending up as one of the highest-grossing horror films ever.