From The Eternal Sea, He Rises...

Halloween Countdown: #4 The Omen

Wow, this is an unsettling film! Full of sinister, pseudo-religious prophecy and a kid that really does have a stare of pure evil, The Omen (1976) is a firm #4 in my list. The Black Mass title music, 'Ave Satani' (translation - Hail Satan) immediately sets the tone of the film. I think the title music is fantastically eerie so kudos to composer Jerry Goldsmith who came up with it. A sudden feeling of impending doom always sweeps over me whenever I hear that dark chanting and it gets particularly unnerving towards the end when the chants become powerful screams. I think as scores go, this one in particular is perfectly done.

So before I jump in and start talking through the plot, once again I will say:

SPOILERS! SPOILERS! SPOILERS!

Are we clear? Good! Let's move on!

The Omen's plot revolves around US diplomat Robert Thorn (Gregory Peck), his wife Kathy (Lee Remick) and their son Damien. It is learnt at the very start of the film (in Rome) that the Thorns' newborn son was stillborn, but only Mr Thorn is informed of this by the hospital chaplain. Robert is also told that, at the same time, the hospital have been left with an orphaned newborn boy who's mother had died in childbirth. The hospital chaplain persuades Thorn to secretly adopt this orphaned newborn, however he keeps this and the biological child's death secret from Kathy. Thorn is later appointed US Ambassador to Great Britain and he and his family move over to London. By this point of the film, Damien is five and it is at his birthday party where the hints of something untoward begin. As Damien and his friends are playing, a voice is heard calling out to him. This turns out to be his nanny who is teetering on the roof of the Thorn's house, with a rope around her neck. By now, everyone's attention is drawn to her as she declares to Damien "It's all for you" and steps off the roof, hanging herself. In fact, here's the scene in question:

 

The appearance of the Rottweiler dog towards the end is actually worth noting. The Rottweiler makes several appearances throughout the film, presumably as the indication to the audience that evil is present. Pretty much all of the dog's appearances are aptly intimidating and I certainly wouldn't like to try and take it on! 

One of the key scenes in the film takes places the day after the party, where Thorn is ambushed in his office by priest Father Brennan. Brennan ambiguously urges Thorn to accept Christ as his saviour: 

 "You must take communion. Drink the blood of Christ and eat his flesh. Only if he is within you can you defeat the son of the devil"

Thorn is naturally sceptical with Brennan's rambling and is preparing security to eject him, when Brennan states that he was at the hospital in Rome when Damien was born. It transpires that Brennan is clumsily trying to tell Thorn that Damien is the spawn of Satan and Thorn must ready himself to destroy him. Of course, because Brennan speaks in riddles, Thorn loses patience and security eject him from the office.

Back at the Thorn household, replacement nanny Mrs Baylock (Bille Whitelaw) arrives for Damien. She appears cool, calm and ready for work. After the Thorns realise that neither one of them hired her, Mrs Baylock is questioned about how she came to arrive. She explains that the agency had heard about the previous nanny's suicide and automatically sent her to them. This explanation placates the Thorns and they let her go to Damien. As soon as Mrs Baylock is alone with Damien, it becomes clear that she's another figure to be wary of: "Have no fear, little one. I am here to protect thee". I'd like to praise Billie Whitelaw's initial understated menace. You can tell immediately that she's a wrong'un! This becomes more apparent when Mrs Baylock tries to discourage Kathy from taking Damien to church. Kathy is shocked by her forwardness and firmly rebuffs her and orders her to get Damien ready. Baylock reluctantly backs down, but Damien doesn't disappoint her as he has a major freak-out as he approaches the church which prevents the Thorns from attending after all.

 

Already we're getting more and more signs that Damien is not as he seems and the Safari Park scene is just another incident that reinforces this suspicion. This scene is one that really stuck out to me. There's always been the notion that animals can sense things before humans and this is the perfect portrayal of that. Kathy takes Damien to see the animals, but they really don't want to see him! Giraffes run away from him, but the most extreme reaction is from the Baboon enclosure. I find this scene particularly scary because of the way the baboons swarm over the car Kathy and Damien are in and also because of the sheer ferocity of them. Their frantic cries and the huge teeth they bare seriously worry me and  was always convinced that they would've found a way into that car. FOr animals, they genuinely look like they hate that kid!

The second (and last) meeting between Brennan and Thorn is where the key events of the film are laid out:

"When the Jews return to Zion, and a comet rips the sky, and the Holy Roman Empire rises, then you and I must die. From the Eternal Sea, He rises, creating armies on either shore, turning man against his brother, till man exists, no more." The Book of Revelation predicted it all"

The Book of Revelation in the Bible predicts the eventual emergence of the Anti-Christ and the eventual Armageddon that will occur as a result of this. Brennan, still ambiguously, tells Thorn "It is by means of a human personality entirely in his possession that Satan will wage his last formidable offence". Basically, Brennan is telling Thorn that Satan is working his evil through Damien and he warns Thorn that Damien will eradicate everything connected to Thorn (including an unborn baby of Kathy's) then Thorn himself when Damien inherits everything of his. Brennan gives Thorn all the information he needs to fight back and destroy the Anti-Christ, but Thorn rubbishes the priest and gives a last warning for him to stay away. Straight after Thorn leaves, a powerful storm takes over and Brennan flees to a nearby , but to no avail as he ends up getting impaled by a spire that falls from the roof after a lightning strike. As dramatic as this scene is, I can't help but give a little giggle at the fact that the guy just stands and waits for the spire to hit him! He looks up and just shouts "NOOOOOO!" until he's impaled. It's still a good scene though and it's the first proper sign that shiz is getting real! 

  

Brennan's words start to become reality. Kathy reveals she is pregnant, but has begun to see a therapist after life with Damien is getting too much. She decides against another child and Thorn decides to talk to the therapist about Kathy's refusal to carry out the pregnancy. Thorn stresses that he wants this baby to live on order to defy Brennan's prophecy, but Kathy loses the baby after Damien crashes into her in an upstairs hallway and knocks her over the bannister. This is another great little scene where the use of slow-motion ramps up the drama. The brief shot before the accident is rather chilling too as Mrs Baylock seems to be almost waiting for the perfect moment to let Damien loose on Kathy.Of course, when Thorn learns about Kathy's "accident" and loss of the baby, his dismissal of Brennan begins to weaken, especially when he visits Kathy and she weakly says "Don't let him kill me". Everything seems to be falling into place and Thorn really has to start taking Brennan's words seriously.

He does so when photographer Keith Jennings (David Warner) gets in touch with him. Jennings had been hovering around and taking pictures during moments such as the nanny hanging and Brennan's hounding of Thorn. When Thorn meets him in his green room, the photos that Jennings had taken seem to foreshadow the eventual death of the subjects; the nanny's picture has a shadow around her neck and Brennan's photo has a long thin shadow protruding from his arm. The pair visit Brennan's house and find the walls covered in Bible pages. They discuss Brennan's motives and Thorn finally accepts that there was method in the madness. Thorn decides to go back to Italy to gather information on Damien's birth. Jennings decides to accompany him after accidentally taking a photo of himself and spotting a foreshadowing of his potential death. The pair track down the hospital chaplain from the start of the film (who is badly scarred from a fire which consumed the hospital five years previously) and he directs them to the place where they can find Damien's mother. At this point, I have to say that the discovery of Damien's origin is the scariest scene for me - SEE HERE. The tension is really unbearable as the revelation that Damien was the offspring of a jackal (Brennan was on the verge of revealing this before he was ejected) and that the hospital had deliberately killed the Thorn baby in order to establish Damien's role in the world. The shot of the skeletons in their graves is such a dramatic, frightening moment, but there's no time for it to properly sink in as Thorn and Jennings are suddenly ambushed by yet more Rottweilers! They are out to kill on this occasion and Thorn and Jennings barely escape them. Just like the baboons, the ferocity of the dogs makes the scene 10x scarier.

Back in England, meanwhile, Kathy gets a phone call from Thorn who pleads with her to join him in Italy immediately. She's bemused, but agrees to it, however Mrs Baylock appears from nowhere and pushes her out of the window to her death. It's a jump-scare moment that isn't expected. It's safe to assume that Kathy isn't going to make it to Italy, but to die by Mrs Baylock's hands is a good twist. The next day, Thorn and Jennings track down another man who presents Thorn with seven daggers and instructions on how to kill the Anti-Christ. Thorn suddenly has second thoughts and throws the daggers away, but Jennings decides to retrieve them to do the job for Thorn. What happens next is an iconic scene in horror history...

The total lack of build-up and music is what makes this scene. There isn't even buckets of blood and gore. The scene is so simple, yet brilliantly effective and it catapults Thorn into the climax of the film - eliminating Damien.  After locking the dog in the basement, Thorn reaches Damien and discovers the mark of the Anti-Christ (666) on him. Before he can act, Mrs Baylock attacks Thorn and the two fight until Thorn overpowers her and kills her. Hearing the dog howl after Baylock is killed is a nice recognition of the connection the minions of Satan had. The finale of the film is a race against time for Thorn as he grabs Damien and races to the church to dispose of him. His frantic behaviour alerts police who give chase, pursuing him to the church. The penultimate scene with Thorn holding Damien down while brandishing the dagger is too tense for words. Despite knowing what Damien truly is, Thorn's hesitation in killing him creates a tug-at-the-heartstrings moment. Damien's childish cries of "Daddy, no!" do, for a moment, throw me and a small part of me doesn't want him killed. It's the human element of Damien trying to appeal to Thorn that really makes this scene gut-wrenchingly hard to watch. In layman's terms, this is a father trying to kill, how could that ever be easy viewing? It's this hesitation which allows the police to burst in and the cliffhanger of them shooting at Thorn as he finally brings the dagger down is just a perfect end to the scene. The next scene that follows is a good fake-out for the audience: We assume Damien is in one of the two coffins that are seen at the end, only for the camera to pan down to show Damien, alive and well, smiling at the camera. Cue a repeat of 'Ave Satani'. Just fantatsic. 

The Omen isn't a gory film packed full of special effects. The menace and terror is far more subtle. There are jump-scare moments, but they are occasional which (in my opinion) make them more effective. Damien himself, although a child, really does seem to have that bad vibe. I'm particularly drawn to the scene after the nanny hanging, where Damien stares at the dog with this piercing look. It's a brief scene, but it really hammers home the point that this kid is evil. I think The Omen is a brilliantly told story and basing the plot on biblical scripture really makes it work. I'd highly recommend The Omen to people who prefer a solid plot-driven film rather than a film pouring with blood and guts.