I have a certain amount of affection for the movie Rosemary’s Baby, the story of a woman who unknowningly carries the devil’s child to term. Along the same lines, there’s The Omen, though I think this one may be closer in plot to the novel/mini-series Good Omens, but there is a part of me that wonders whether or not Rosemary’s baby would want to have a playdate with Damien, the devilish child in this movie.
I suppose you can never have too many devilish children, but cosmic horror always wonders if anything the human race can do will reverse the predictions of the End Times. Could anyone stop the devil’s son if the child is a five year old boy with the most innocent of exteriors?
Wealthy American Robert Thorn (Gregory Peck) is in Rome awaiting the birth of his son to wife Katherine (Lee Remick), but something went wrong and the child died. A helpful priest offers up an orphaned baby, born at the same time, so Thorn’s wife need never know what tragic thing happened to their firstborn son. They name the child Damien, and around the boy’s fifth birthday, Thorn, a personal friend of the President of the United States, gets a new job as Ambassador to Great Britain. But there are odd things afoot around Damien. At his elaborate fifth birthday party, a nanny hangs herself “for him,” and new nanny Mrs. Blaylock (Billie Whiteshaw) shows up without any references and seems to make pronouncements for Damien without consulting either of his parents, beginning with the arrival of a large dog that Damien had spotted earlier and waved at. The boy freaks out when his parents try to take him to church, and strange deaths and accidents happen. Can the warnings of a priest (Patrick Troughton, my favorite Doctor Who) and a photographer (David Warner) get through to Thorn that Damien may be a lot worse than just a stubborn child?
There’s a lot to like about The Omen, and I remember seeing parts of it at a younger age flipping channels–particularly the death of Troughton’s Father Brennan–so seeing these scenes in context helped a great deal. My earlier impression was this was a movie with a lot of onscreen deaths, but considering who and what Damien is, it’s a fairly low bodycount. Not as low as Rosemary’s Baby‘s two deaths, but you get the idea. The horror here is less how many people die because of Damien, directly or otherwise, but the horror of what he represents: the end of humanity. He just has to grow up first.
As for the cast, I think there’s something interesting about putting Peck in the lead role. Robert Thorn is no Atticus Finch, but Peck’s deep voice always lends an air of gravitas to the proceedings. His Thorn only gradually comes to the conclusion his son in the Antichrist, and even more reluctantly comes to the conclusion of what he needs to do about that. Of course, that just raises the question of whether any mortal man has the power to stop the End Times and the devil by himself, or even with a little help. Every prophecy, whether Biblical or otherwise, seems to be coming true, and it may take drastic measures to make sure nothing bad happens.
Then again, I knew going into this movie that there were sequels.
As for the rest of the cast, everyone is fine, but the characters are more rote. I noted Remick had some of the bluest eyes I’ve ever seen, and Warner’s photographer who becomes something of Thorn’s sidekick is about as close as anyone else gets to having a three-dimensional character to play. Young Damien doesn’t talk much, but child actor Harvey Spencer Stephens does fine. Getting a kid that young that can play any part is enough of a challenge, but the real star may be director Richard Donner. The future director of the likes of Superman the Motion Picture and a host of Lethal Weapon movies made his first big hit here, and it’s easy to see why he’s continued to get work since this one. Though this wasn’t my favorite demonic child movie, it makes for a strong second place showing in my unofficial mental rankings for such movies.
Grade: B+
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