The Omen 666

Synopsis: Robert Thorn (Liev Schrieber) is a senior American diplomat. His wife Katherine (Julia Stiles), has endured a difficult delivery and she’s as yet unaware their newborn child has died. Thorn’s concern turns to Katherine, who had suffered two previous miscarriages knowing that the news will surely devastate her. Fortunately there is another child, whose mother has rather conveniently died. Without Katherine’s knowledge Robert takes in Damien (Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick). Who could have known the child is the Anti-Christ?

Then God said, "Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about." (Genesis 22:2)

Killing your own child is one of the most monstrous things a person could ever imagine. But it’s there in the Bible, God telling a man to kill his son. Pretty awful stuff when you think about it. Would it be any easier to do it when your son is the Anti-Christ?

Back in 1976, the original version of this, The Omen. came out and forever damned anyone named Damien to jokes about their satanic affinities. Directed by Richard Donner, it was a boring and laughably bad horror film. The new version doesn’t feel as tedious, though Liev Schrieber is no Gregory Peck, but it’s still much the same.

You’d think that the story of a cuckoo child who is the spawn of the devil could be developed into something better than a vaguely creepy tale of menacing dogs, a dodgy nanny and a kid that can look baleful. There is so much material that could be played with. A good film could be had from the moral dimensions of the battle between good and evil. The ethics of killing a child, albeit one that would plunge the world into Armageddon, is an interesting idea to dig into. The biblical link to the story of Abraham and Isaac could be played with. Abraham was prepared to kill his son on God’s say so. Fortunately he didn’t have to. But in the space of a few minutes of screen time, Robert Thorn goes from determinedly seeking the means to kill his adoptive son to raging against the killing of a child (only after it’s made clear it’ll be an involved process from which he doesn’t get to escape). There’s real horror in the idea of killing a child, but it barely even gets a look-in amongst all the dull ponderous “mood setting” of satanic priests, over-protective nannies and a severe case of post-natal depression. We don’t even get much of Jerry Goldsmiths’ original score, which was the only cool thing about the 1976 version. “Ave Satani” gets played over the end credits, but it’s a cut down version. The original full-length version is genuinely creepy. (And works well on a wedding video, trust me.)

Despite all those complaints, The Omen 666 is entertainingly awful. With Rube Goldberg-style deaths and religious hokery that only The Da Vinci Code could top for mediocrity it’s one of the best so-bad-it’s-almost-good films around.I laughed myself stupid and it’s a good bet that many people will enjoy it as kitsch fun when it hits DVD. But taken as what it wants to be, a serious religious horror movie it’s an abject failure. With solid performances from good actors and solid editing and pacing, it’s not bad enough to be outright awful, but not good enough to be almost good. When the filmmakers were consulting the Book of Revelations, they might have done better to think of this nugget: “Because you are lukewarm - neither hot nor cold - I am about to spit you out of my mouth” (Revelations 3:16).

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