Blog Post

The First Impression

Paul K. Bisson • May 10, 2024

My Initial Thoughts About 'The First Omen'


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

The Omen writer, David Seltzer
By Paul K. Bisson January 24, 2024
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Book covers to Poland's first edition of The Omen published 2018 and Brazil's second edition, 2020.
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Order yours here: https://www.shoutfactory.com/product/the-omen-collection-deluxe-edition
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In 2016 The Hollywood Reporter broke news that an Omen prequel was in the works — tentatively titled, The First Omen — and indie filmmaker Antonio Compos was attached to direct. At that time, I outlined one potential way a prequel could work . Since then there has been no new developments reported about the film.
By Paul K. Bisson June 8, 2018
It's been a year since Glen Mazzara's Damien, starring Bradly James was released on DVD. And we still don't have a Blu-ray edition! What's a Damien fan to do? Easy: get the whole series, all ten episodes, in HD for a ridiculously low $4.99. That's right, Amazon, iTunes, Google Play / YouTube, and VuDu are all offering the series in HD for FIVE BUCKS! You can also watch the show if you subscribe to Hulu. This is for North America. It may be different elsewhere. So get your Thorn on! And happy watching.
By Paul K. Bisson March 11, 2017
One year ago this week A&E premiered a drama that dared to ask the question: What ever happened to that little boy at the end of The Omen ? Showrunner Glen Mazzara didn’t care that the question had already been asked – and answered – in two Omen sequels; the Shield and Walking Dead producer had his own ideas. He cast British heartthrob Bradley James ( Merlin’s King Arthur ) as the Antichrist and set out to tell an alternate future for DAMIEN .
By Paul K. Bisson May 2, 2016
On Thursday, The Hollywood Reporter broke news that a prequel to The Omen was coming from 20th Century Fox . Appropriately titled The First Omen , it’s being produced by David Goyer and Kevin Turen through their Phantom Four production company and a script has already been written by Ben Jacoby . Antonio Campos is in talks to direct. Now… I don’t know who Jacoby is and I haven’t seen anything by Campos or Turen. But I’m sure we’re all familiar with Goyer. Initially, I assumed the news was about Platinum Dunes finally gaining some traction on the Omen remake that Bloody Disgusting reported on in 2014. But no – this is really about a prequel!
By Paul K. Bisson March 9, 2016
When Damien was announced in late 2014, I was blown away by the idea. To die-hard fans of The Omen , this was exciting news. Of course, I don’t speak for all Omen fans; I’m sure some hated the idea – and still do. They’re usually the same people who think it’s cool to hate sequels, prequels, and remakes, (some on principal alone) and who drone on and on about how unoriginal Hollywood has become. But sequels and remakes are nothing new – they’ve been around almost as long as filmmaking itself. Are they all good? Hell, no. Most are inferior to the original. And many downright suck. But when it works – it’s great. It’s all about storytelling. If the story works and it’s told well, does it really matter how derivative it is? And if it doesn’t work, so what? We still have the originals. I’m annoyed when people say a poor sequel has somehow ruined the integrity of the original. No, it hasn’t. Grow up.
By Paul K. Bisson December 8, 2014
Merlin star, Bradley James has landed the title role of “Damien” in the upcoming Lifetime original series based on the 1976 classic, The Omen. Here’s an image to celebrate the news (click to enlarge). Details in the Deadline news article here. We’ll post more news as it happens.
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