The child is dead. He breathed for a moment. Then he breathed no more. The child is dead. Dead. The child is dead.
Director: Richard Donner
Cast: Gregory Peck, Lee Remick, David Warner, Harvey Spencer Stephens
Plot: An orphan replaces the stillborn child of Robert Thorn and Katherine without the knowledge of his new mother Katherine. The ominous signs that follow can only mean one thing; the child had satanic origins.
Horror Highlights: Mixing signs from the bible, a priest who knows too much, suicide by hanging and an evil child will give you the creepiest concoctions of all. The right ingredients are all there, and evens without the gruesome deaths, and the biblical signs – Damien would have caused us nightmares. His presence and silence don’t seem to interfere with his determination to do pure evil.
Best Scare: After the all knowing priest’s death Damien’s father and his friend the photographer decide to investigate Damien’s past and birth. The discovery of what truly lies in his biological mother’s grave is what turns stomachs and makes the audience squeal with both surprise and disgust.
THE OMEN followed films like CHILDREN OF THE DAMNED, THE BAD SEED and THE EXORCIST. The 60s and 70s were obsessed with the idea of evil children, either that were turned evil by inhuman forces, or were born evil. After over 40 years Damien still lives on in people’s minds, and it’s not thanks to the 2006 remake of the film. To this day, on a bad day women around the world refer to their mischievous sons as Damien to point out their antichrist behaviour. The film mixes brilliantly brings together the unspoken fear with the obvious. The infamous decapitation scene rubs terror straight into our face, while the dead and howling settings of the Thorn mansion along with a eerie Damien messes with our heads in a completely different way. This is brought together by the priest who knows everything, tells us everything and yet we can’t grasp the evil that the innocent child Damien carries.
Damien, it’s all for you!
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