When I first heard The Omen was being re-made I was sick a little in my mouth; The Omen in my opinion was one of the finest horror movies of its time. Now in a time that a series of dreadful re-makes had hit the market I had little reason to suspect that The Omen would be no exception. I'm neither going to praise or slate The Omen because I feel that in doing so I'll be doing damage to the original. The problem you see is that there is little difference between them, the death are shocking, most of the script is the same, and even the musical score is the same as the original.
The Omen is a simple story, a child dies at birth at the same time another child is orphaned; the father of the dead child enters into an arrangement with the hospital staff that it will be exchanged for the orphaned child meaning that theoretically all will be happy. All is good until the child known as Damien celebrates his fifth birthday, then all hell breaks loose and we are quickly made aware that Damien is the son of the Devil....THE ANTICHRIST! As people become aware of the power of Damien they are quickly removed from the game that Damien is playing by means of a gratuitous death.
If you have
seen the original version of The Omen; you cannot help but have a disillusioned and limited perspective of what the new version will offer, whether your intrigued by the new movie or not. So I'll start by focusing on the plus side of the movie.
Rather like the 1999 remake of Psycho, The Omen is pretty much a scene for scene remake with obvious more modern influences. Vast portions of the script are exact to the most minuscule detail. Part of what the Omen movies were famous for in the 70's and early 80's were the imaginative deaths of the principal characters of the movie. While staying somewhat faithful to the original this new versions twists the deaths to new levels of obscurity, so even those really familiar with the story still are rewarded by a new style of legendary death. For good measure a few new deaths have been thrown in to make use of the new style of imaginative deaths. One major death now seems more plausible and gives Mia Farrow the opportunity to work for her money; talking of whom Mia Farrow is without a doubt a masterstroke of casting. She plays psycho nanny Mrs Blalock even better than Billie Whitelaw did in the 1976 original. This is a spectacular return to the silver screen for Farrow. I thin the movie in 2006 has a much darker feel to its 30 year old parent, lots of menacing and scary faces are giving fleeting glimpses, and the whole atmosphere is far more menacing.
Casting takes me on to my only major criticism of the movie, the lead cast members are pretty poorly cast. Liev Schreiber looks very out of place as the powerful Robert Thorn, rather like a child in dressing up clothes. Julia Stiles suffers a similar fate, because mainly you can only associate her with ditzy teen romance tales regardless of how good an actress she is. When I think back on the movie I see it in all its glory but cannot place either actor, instead I see Gregory Peck and Lee Remick; their performances were not strong enough to eradicate their predecessors. Similar can be said for David Thewlis who offered up a pale imitation of David Warner's tabloid photographer, and Pete Postlethwaite (an actor I really like) as the cursed priest originally played by Patrick Troughton. Only one actor lifted the lid and obliterated their predecessors role and that is Mia Farrow as I mentioned before. What's also missing from this movie is the "lifestyle"; you got a real feel for the life that the Thorns had created for themselves, here however their life seems inherited and the depth and romantic charge between the characters is lost; a term you could you to describe the relationship between the Thorns in 2006 is almost a "marriage of convenience".
Omen 666 as it is known in some circles is a pleasant surprise, it still feels very British despite all the American money thrown into it. The casting of key British actors helps this feel. I can safely say that I was not sorry for viewing this remake, and although it will never be better than the original it will come a close second. I await with some anticipation their remake of Damien: Omen 2 which is currently in casting.
Special Features
Audio commentary by John Moore, Glen Williamson and Dan Zimmerman Omenisms - The Making of 666 (50 mins) 'Abbey Road' featurette 'Revelations 666' featurette Extended scenes Alternative ending Trailers
I cannot lie, I felt no compulsion to watch the special features, however I did listen to part of the audio commentary which I feel is a fair effort and certainly at times interesting. However there was nothing among any of the features that struck me as being must see viewing.
The Omen is available on DVD from 23rd October 2006 priced £12.99 (play.com price)
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I agree that the remake wasn't that bad, quite surprised actually! Chris
ultrafrosty 23.10.2006 22:48
I really liked this - and as a fan of the original version. For that same reason though, it didn't really hold too many surprises as it follows the original pretty much by the letter... although there are a couple of bloody good frights in this one because some of the old scenes have been done a little differently... I think it was only released this year for the gimmick of the release date of 06/06/06... Nice gimmick though... Though apparently they have discovered that the "number of the Beast" is actually 616 and not 666. Never mind. D.
bonsi6337 22.10.2006 21:20
And I am sooooo looking forward to this one! Great review as always mate. Di xx
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Oct 1st, 2006
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