Rating:

If the question is “Eric, would you like to see a horror movie starring Gregory Peck?” I immediately fire back the answer of “Hells, yes!” I’ll give you that answer every time. I love horror as much as every red-blooded American ought, and Greogry Peck was perhaps the very ultimate achievement in manhood. Gregory Peck knew how to be awesome at all times. He also knew that if your child was a demonspawn destined to destroy all of Christendom, the least you could do was stab him in ritualistic fashion with a series of ceremonial knives. The wisdom of Solomon, he had.

It’s not just the Peckinator that makes The Omen great, though. This may well be my very favorite horror movie of all time. I’m usually torn between it and Poltergeist, an odd state of affairs when you consider that neither film has any excessive gore or exposed breasts and that The Omen doesn’t even have any bad words! Not an f-bomb or raunchy sex scene in sight, yet I love this picture. You know what that means right? That means it must be really good to hold my toddler-like attention span and keep me from wandering outside to throw rocks at squirrels.

Being that this is the story of a little boy who’s totally the Antichrist, this movie fits into one of the major subgenres of horror. In contrast to Poltergeist and The Exorcist, which feature a cute little kid being unfairly terrorized, this is one of many films that feature a totally creepy kid who terrorizes everyone else. He stands there looking sinister and glaring up at you from his dead eyes, and you can’t help but fall into a feces-squirting fit of fright. Is there anything more unsettling than the menacing child? It’s completely unnatural for a little youngling to seem all malevolent and scareifying, and so our very foundations are shaken by this creepy Damien kid. Which is why we fully support the Peckster when he decides it’s time to rise up righteous and do something about his hellbaby.

Hey, you know who else is in this movie, in the role of the plucky photographer who joins Gregory Peck in his globetrotting adventures to learn how to murder his goat-legged boychild? It’s none other than David Warner! You may not recognize the name immediately, but you’d definitely recognize the guy. He’s an extremely awesome British chap who has appeared in such excellent movies as Star Trek VI and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II. Plus about a million other things. I’ve been obsessed with David Warner since I was still in shortpants, when I saw him as Bob Cratchitt in a TV version of A Christmas Carol (the one with George C. Scott as Scrooge). His appearance in the Ninja Turtles sequel only further cemented him in my mind as the most bodacious Briton since…well, I can’t think of any really cool Englanders from centuries past, but trust me, David Warner’s rockin’. Let’s just hope he doesn’t start to panic and…lose his head?! (HAHAHAHAforeshadowing?)

Any movie about a moody silent kid who pushes his mother over railings and enjoys the sight of nannies hanging themselves and causes apes to go (ready?) apeshit is going to naturally be scary. But there’s something about getting the Catholic church involved that always (with the exception of Stigmata, which I’d just as soon forget) manages to bump things up to the next level, isn’t there? I personally have no system of faith of any kind, much less one as elaborate and structured as Catholicism, but I totally dig any of these stories about biblical prophecy and Catholic rites and whatnot. The fancy robes and the nifty Latin words and the divide between clergy and laity and all the sturm und drang of the various rituals and ceremonies make everything seem so serious and full of gravitas. A Protestant minister wouldn’t be nearly so interesting as a Catholic priest, and their lack of milennia-old rigidly defined procedures just make them seem like a bunch of chumps. Some Methodist is comin’ around telling me about the Antichrist? Get out of here! Bring on the blood-drinkin’ Romans, please! Only they truly understand that end-times signs lurk around every corner.

Let’s not overlook the awesome score that Jerry Goldsmith put together for this movie. If ever there were music that was synonymous with the Adversary himself, this is it. I’m pretty sure this is what Lucifer rocks out to when he does spring cleaning in his office in hell. A choir of devil voices chants things like “Ave Satani” o’er and o’er, whipping young Damien into a frenzy of demonic bloodlust. Eerie chimes are tolling here and there, like playing a Black Sabbath album during a seance at a funeral. It’s music to warp your spine and flatten your soul, that’s what this is. It’s just what a film about Beelzebub, Jr. needs.

Yes, this movie truly has everything for the discerning viewer. A spookbaby, killer death music, violent babysitters, prophecy in the form of quatrains, and Gregory “The Stud” Peck wielding his frown like a lethal weapon. Pushy clergymen and resourceful shutterbugs abound. It’s the perfect horror film, I say. Don’t mess around with the 2006 remake, which managed to be exactly the same except with boring actors and no spark of enjoyment anywhere, and go straight for the Peck-laden original. It’s the best thing for you to do.

Discussion Question: What kind of parents name their kid Damien, anyway? Isn’t that just asking for trouble? Explain.

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