The Omen (2006)

Live Schreiber
Julia Stiles
Mia Farrow
David Thewlis
Michael Gambon

Directed by John Moore

Plot: Robert Thorn is a senior American diplomat whose wife, Katherine, endures a difficult delivery where their newborn child has died. Thorn knows the news will devastate Katherine, who had suffered two previous miscarriages. The hospital priest presents Thorn with another child born that night, whose mother died in childbirth. The priest compels Thorn to take the infant boy as his own; Katherine will never know the truth, and their son, which they name Damien, will be raised as their flesh and blood. As the child turns five, unsettling events begin to occur: Damien’s nanny hangs herself at the youngsters birthday party; a strange priest brings dire warnings to Thorn; a children’s trip to the zoo results in a panicked frenzy; Damien becomes hysterical during a drive to church; and blurred movements in a series of photographs portend shocking deaths. Enter Mrs. Baylock, Damien’s new nanny, who seems to have a preordained devotion to the child. Then tragedy strikes closer to home. But only later does Thorn comprehend the truth: Damien is no ordinary child; he is the long-prophesized Anti-Christ. Now, Thorn must make the ultimate sacrifice to prevent the unspeakable terror that awaits the world.

Review: I don’t think I have ever seen the original Omen all the way through. I wasn’t allowed to watch when I was a kid. I know the movie is a good film, I just never got around to watching it. I really wanted to see this new one, just because of my love of horror films, but I knew I wouldn’t get the gore I wanted. I love films with creepy kids, so I thought this one had to be a home run.

I wasn’t all that impressed with this movie. The cinematography was excellent, but that wasn’t enough. This movie has a pretty in depth storyline and needs to be explained. The problem here is that that’s all they seem to do is explain stuff. It moves very slow and started to loose me a few times. The performances were ok, but could have been better. Once you get into Damien and his crazy nanny doing something, then it gets good. Unfortunately, it takes a while to get to this point. I don’t know how close to the original it is, but I can tell you it’s no where near as good.
 

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