The Omen (1976)

Robert Thorn (Gregory Peck) is a rich diplomat whose wife lost a child at birth. Not wanting to disappoint her he is pressured into getting a replacement baby by some rando priest, and doesn’t tell her. Born at exactly the same time, too: June 6 at 6 AM. Wonder what that means. Things are fine until the boy turns five and bad stuff starts to happen.

Much like the other two great Demon horror films of the era, The Omen is a well acted, well written, slow burn that avoids the cheesy pitfalls common with the genre. A big difference with The Exorcist is the lack of horror effects. Little gore and no devil iconography. One could question if this was happening all in his mind. I have yet to see Rosemary’s Baby.

Gregory Peck’s son had killed himself prior to casting and the role of the grieving, conflicted parent appealed to him. Plus being married to Lee Remick is pretty sweet.

Smart, well acted horror films are a rarity with even some of the more popular ones being cliche laden exploitation films. The Omen is a great movie that also happens to be a horror film. It didn’t change cinema quite like how The Exorcist did, a slightly better film, but perhaps it would have had the former not existed. AMRU 4. I have to say I had a similar reaction to going to church as a boy.

“Look at me, Damien! It's all for you!”