I saw "The First Omen" with friends on April 5, 2024. When it was over, I had a lot to say. At dinner we broke it down. They seemed to like it more than I did. These are smart guys with good movie sense. And we all agreed that there were lots of positives.
But we differed on the negatives. Or rather, how much the negatives outweighed the positives. These guys like and appreciate the original, but I'm the die-hard. I'm the one who runs a fan website dedicated to “The Omen” and its franchise, and I've done so, to various degrees, for almost 25 years.
And I had issues. But I knew it was going to take a while to hash them out properly, so in the interim, I wrote down my initial first impression and posted it to Disciples of the Watch — a Facebook Group I run for fans of the Omen franchise.
But that was over a month ago, and I'm still not done refining the deep-dive review. So, for now, I'm going to share that first impression below. And I'll try to get the "real" review published before the flick drops on home video!
April 5, 2024
Brennan: What do you think that Church most frightened of?
Margaret: The Devil?
Brennan: Secularism!
I'm sitting here trying to reconcile my feelings about what "The First Omen" is and what it isn't. It's beautifully photographed. Arkasha Stevenson directs with bold and acute intent. Nell Tiger Free gives us a fearless performance. And Mark Korven's musical score is intense and inventive.
But its plot is a convoluted mess. The more they tried to explain just how the Antichrist is born, the more goofy it sounded. I thought nothing could one-up "Omen IV: The Awakening"'s "fetus papyraceous" reveal, but here comes "The First Omen" saying, "Hold my beer!"
Look, there's a really interesting movie here, with its own lore and mythos. It could have stood on its own. But we'll never know. Because they've shoehorned into "The Omen." Like Cinderella's step-sisters trying to jam their feet into the glass slipper. It just doesn't fit.
Why? Because the very premise of each film is at odds with each other.
"The First Omen" is about a Church splinter group who are so upset that people have left the Church, that they conspire to birth the Antichrist himself so that his presence in the world will scare the faithless back to the Church.
Okay?
Now here's the premise of "The Omen": a Biblical prophecy foretold for thousands of years is fulfilled with the birth of the Antichrist who will rise up to dominate the world and bring about Armageddon (FYI, that's the End of the World).
"The First Omen" completely rewrites the whole purpose of Damien's birth. No wonder the filmmakers kept the original writer of "The Omen," David Seltzer, out of the loop during its eight years of development and then stonewalled him as it approached release.
I think "The First Omen" has some sharp observations about the Church and some timely, important things to say about female bodily autonomy. But in order to say them they have to change the premise of the original.
Well, I'm sorry, but waltzing-in 50 years later to hollow-out the guts of "The Omen" so that your movie can fit all nice and tidy into its empty husk is just lazy and cheap and profoundly disrespectful of the original.
2.5/5 — Paul K. Bisson