{"id":1166,"date":"2024-06-20T00:55:18","date_gmt":"2024-06-20T00:55:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/2024\/06\/20\/the-first-omen\/"},"modified":"2024-06-20T00:55:18","modified_gmt":"2024-06-20T00:55:18","slug":"the-first-omen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/2024\/06\/20\/the-first-omen\/","title":{"rendered":"The First Omen"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cThe miracle of life can be a messy business,\u201d you hear in \u201cThe First Omen,\u201d a stunning prequel to Richard Donner\u2019s timeless horror classic, \u201cThe Omen\u201d (1976), about the evildoings of a demonic orphan adopted by a pair of unsuspecting Americans in London. And just like in the recent, Sydney Sweeney-starring religious gaslighting knockout \u201cImmaculate,\u201d it is<\/em> a messy, skin-crawling business indeed, considering the life created is no other than that of the Antichrist.<\/p>\n

\u201cTwo genre films that revel in supernatural Catholic horror? In this economy?,\u201d you might rightfully ask. But allow this critic to assure you that you should consider yourself lucky for this contemporary time in movie theaters that gleefully slices up an abdomen and lets it hemorrhage as if it\u2019s the bloody \u201860s or \u201870s out there. In that, if \u201cImmaculate\u201d is a fiendish wink towards the Giallos and nunsploitation flicks of the era, then the massively talented first-time feature director Arkasha Stevenson\u2019s \u201cThe First Omen\u201d is both in the latter camp, and a first-rate paranoid thriller with a vintage tinge \u00e0 la \u201cRosemary\u2019s Baby\u201d.<\/p>\n

But first and foremost, \u201cThe First Omen\u201d is proudly an \u201cOmen\u201d movie with all its symbolism, \u201870s vibes and earthy color palette and insidious scares intact; ones that will linger and multiply once you turn your lights off nightly. So if the idea of a legacy-prequel to a classic made you roll your eyes at first, think again. Not only does Stevenson, alongside her co-writers Keith Thomas and Tim Smith, remind us what made the line \u201cIt\u2019s all for you, Damien!\u201d so chillingly iconic back in 1976, they also instantly justify the need for an origin story for Damien, the Antichrist parented by an American diplomat and his wife, played by Gregory Peck and Lee Remick. (The new film\u2019s homage to Peck is both wonderful and a cue that you can run straight back home and press play on Donner\u2019s film for an experience as seamless as watching the first two \u201cHalloween\u201d movies back-to-back.)<\/p>\n

The story is of Margaret Daino (a terrific Nell Tiger Free), a fresh-off-the-boat American novitiate in Rome, tasked to work at an orphanage prior to taking her vows. She arrives at the Italian capital all wide-eyed and innocently excited as if she is the \u201cSuspiria\u201d dancer pirouetting into her dance academy. To Margaret, the wows of chastity and poverty she is about to take is her existential purpose, especially at a time when there is political unrest everywhere and people are turning their backs to the church. Still, she does let a fellow novitiate\u2014the enthralling Maria Caballero\u2019s Luz\u2014dress her up in seductive clothes and take her to a hot dance club. Why cover their bodies and give up on adventures sooner than they need to, Luz believes. Perhaps a little tempted, and definitely too timid to challenge the confident authority of Luz, Margaret follows her lead, and wakes up alarmingly not recalling what happened with the guy she met the night before.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, Margaret immediately forms a bond with Carlita played by Nicole Sorace, an unforgettable newcomer we\u2019ll hopefully hear more from, delivering a performance both vulnerable and terrifying. An eerie troublemaker like Margaret used to be during her problem-child days, Carlita gradually settles into Margaret affection and protection, something that doesn\u2019t sit well with the orphanage\u2019s elders like the strict and intimidating Sister Silva (Sonia Braga). The other elders in the film range from Bill Nighy\u2019s high-ranking Cardinal Lawrence and Ralph Ineson\u2019s Father Brennan, a character who looks like he just walked out of the set of the 1976 film and arrived at Stevenson\u2019s prequel. Also in the mazy mix is Father Gabriel, a young priest Margaret befriends before finding herself stuck deep inside a bone-chilling conspiracy where no one can be trusted.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cThe miracle of life can be a messy business,\u201d you hear in \u201cThe First Omen,\u201d a stunning prequel to Richard Donner\u2019s timeless horror classic, \u201cThe Omen\u201d (1976), about the evildoings of a demonic orphan adopted by a pair of unsuspecting Americans in London. And just like in the recent, Sydney Sweeney-starring religious gaslighting knockout \u201cImmaculate,\u201d …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[48],"class_list":["post-1166","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-horror-movies","tag-horror"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1166","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1166"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1166\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1166"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1166"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}