The Omen

One of my favorite guilty pleasures is watching horror films. I like them for entertainment value, but mainly, I like them as an act of defiance. I DARE them to scare me. I've always believed that real life terror eclipses whatever Hollywood can come up with in terms of fear, and most horror films come off as dark or tragic comedies.

I saw the remake of this film last week. It was definitely a faithful adaptation of the original (which is important to me as a purist). It's a great piece of American lore and is particularly poignant at this time with all the strife, disasters, and political upheaval--and the popularity of "end times" theology. It really is good timing to come out with this one.

The film uses the traditional horror devices without a lot of bells and whistles. Gore is really unnecessary and you don't have to MTV-up everything, if you ask me. The filmmaker uses the subtlety of light, sound, music, color, and the element of surprise. One of the most notable features is that the filmmaker puts a hint of one particular shade of blood red in some item in every single shot--thereby unifying the film's "look". The red is in stark contrast with earth colors and grays. It really is a nice aesthetic device for this particular story.

Mia Farrow returns to the Satanic horror genre with gusto. She plays the nanny and the insane devotee of Damien and insane, she is. She's hardly the mousy Rosemary in this film. Liev Schrieber amply fills the shoes of Gregory Peck (which is hard to do), but it is Julia Stiles who virtually reincarnates Lee Remick's performance, but with her own personalized style. Lest I forget the anti-Christ himself, Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick is a boy of few words who chillingly plays the role once made famous by Harvey Stephens. This Damien is probably scarier than the original to me, but the reader will have to see for him/herself.



Overall, I would say it was a decent horror film. Mostly, it was a well-done remake. Did it scare me? No. Well, maybe when the Satanic rottweilers jumped at me. ; )


The Omen's official website