The First Omen

Religious horror is going through a bit of a boom at the moment. From last month’s sleeper success, the Sydney Sweeney-starring/produced Immaculate, and now this prequel to the 1976 classic The Omen, the genre has seen two very similar films just one month apart. It’s actually not too dissimilar to the Deep Impact/Armageddon or Olympus Has Fallen/White House Down situation. Two films that share nearly identical plots, coming out very close to each other. However, this deeply unsettling horror prequel has the upper hand thanks to relatively low expectations and some genuine shocks.

Courtesy 20th Century Studios

Set in 1971, five years before the events of the original film, Margaret (Nell Tiger Free, Too Old to Die Young) is a young American relocating to Rome to join the Vizzardeli Orphanage and eventually take her vows to become a nun. She is recruited by Cardinal Lawrence (Bill Nighy), who looked after the former troubled child at the orphanage she grew up in. Margaret meets young Carlita (Nicole Sorace), a disturbed young girl who reminds her a lot of her younger self. Carlita is shunned by the other nuns, including the intimidating Sister Silva (the great Sonia Braga), refusing to let her play with the other children, and locking her in a glorified confinement cell dubbed “the bad room”. As Margaret begins to forge a bond with Carlita, she is approached by a weary Father Brennan (Ralph Ineson, inheriting the role originally portrayed by Patrick Troughton) with insight on a dark conspiracy involving the church to birth the antichrist, which may or may not involve the young girl. Margaret suddenly finds herself engulfed in an insidious plot that threatens to upend everything she knows.

For the sixth entry of The Omen franchise, director Arkasha Stevenson brings a newfound sense of life and urgency. Known for her impressive television work, helming episodes for FX’s Legion and Netflix’s Brand New Cherry Flavor, Stevenson makes a bold statement of a feature film debut. The First Omen is far more provocative and grandiose than your typical studio horror film. It should be noted that for every head-scratching decision to send films like Prey and No One Will Save You straight to streaming, 20th Century Studios has put out both Barbarian and The Empty Man, two highly ambitious genre films, and now this assured prequel. Stevenson’s astute visual language compliments the film’s lingering sense of dread. Over the course of the runtime, you can feel the stakes build and the atmosphere grow more and more palpable. There’s a grandiosity to Stevenson’s compositions gorgeously rendered with cinematographer Aaron Morton (2013’s Evil Dead). The camera work is evocative of 70’s horror cinema, with lots of slow pans, static wide frames and even a well-utilized snap zoom.

Courtesy 20th Century Studios

The First Omen is also responsible for some of the most genuinely upsetting, gruesome images to come from a studio film in quite some time. There is a birthing scene about halfway through the film that is so twisted — and reportedly had to be trimmed over 5 times to please the ratings board — that I get shutters just from thinking about it. Stevenson shows a great deal of confidence in showing restraint during the film’s biggest reveals, heightening tension by choosing the perfect moments to reveal information and when to hold back, building to some major shocks. Nell Tiger Free is a strong heroine in a challenging performance. One extraordinary scene of body horror requires a feral transformative element that Free embodies capably. Not only is it a performance that warrants comparison to Isabelle Adjani’s role in Andrei Zulawski’s Possession, but the scene actually derives quite a bit from the film’s notorious “freakout” sequence; white fluids and all. Set against the backdrop of the sexual revolution, there’s a sense of discovery with Margaret. In one scene, her roommate drags her out to a disco in hopes of meeting some local guys before they take the veil for good.  The sociopolitical setting is actually cleverly utilized within the framework of The First Omen.

Where the film falters is largely when it feels the need to tie itself into franchise lore. The few callbacks to the original film mostly fall flat, included a rejuvenated attempt to one-up the “it’s all for you” suicide scene that serves little purpose to the overall narrative. A central mystery fails to build too much of a twist given what we know of the original film, stunting some of the suspense. The ending also feels like a noted attempt to leave the door open for more installments, which does leave the film on a bit of low note.

Courtesy 20th Century Studios

The First Omen is a terrific and unexpected prequel to a classic that didn’t otherwise need one. For a studio horror film, this is a provocative film with several notable shocks and unnerving sequences. It’s one of this year’s finest cinematic surprises.

The First Omen is now playing in theaters.