The First Omen
A prequel to the 1976 box-office hit proves surprisingly tedious and all-too-familiar.
Damien’s damsels: Sônia Braga and Nell Tiger Free
“Are you there God? It's me, Margaret, and I want to take up the veil and vow my allegiance to your Almighty grace.” Funnily enough, not only is Margaret Daino (Nell Tiger Free) an American virgin, but she is seeking to join her fellow nuns in Italy, far from her home in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. Funny how? Well, just two weeks ago an American virgin sought the habit in Italy in another horror film, Immaculate. Equally bizarre is the number of scenes that both films share, involving caesareans and balconies and close-ups of fingernails, but we won’t even go there…
Eighteen years after the last Omen film, The Omen (2006) – a remake of the 1976 original – this rip-off posits itself as a prequel to the first film, in which Gregory Peck played the American Ambassador to the UK. The year is now 1971 and after the requisite prologue, we find Margaret at Leonardo da Vinci Airport, where she’s greeted by Cardinal Lawrence (Bill Nighy), a lifelong friend. There are angry protestors on the streets of Rome (“rejecting authority, even the church”, notes Nighy), but otherwise it’s a jaunty reception for the American novitiate. That is until she encounters Carlita (Nicole Sorace), a sorry soul who draws ominous pictures in charcoal…
The knack of any horror film is to successfully suspend disbelief, but the clichés are piled so high in Arkasha Stevenson’s feature debut that boredom settles in abruptly. Stevenson, a former photojournalist, is a little too fond of her own imagery and soon it’s impossible to separate real life from Margaret’s disturbing visions. The tropes are all here and the film is staggeringly predictable, combing over the embers of a franchise that was pretty dull in the first place.
JAMES CAMERON-WILSON
Cast: Nell Tiger Free, Ralph Ineson, Sônia Braga, Tawfeek Barhom, Maria Caballero, Charles Dance, Bill Nighy, Nicole Sorace, Ishtar Currie Wilson, Andrea Arcangeli.
Dir Arkasha Stevenson, Pro David S. Goyer and Keith Levine, Screenplay Tim Smith, Arkasha Stevenson and Keith Thomas, from a story by Ben Jacoby, Ph Aaron Morton, Pro Des Eve Stewart, Ed Bob Murawski and Amy E. Duddleston, Music Mark Korven, Costumes Paco Delgado, Sound Ric Schnupp, Jussi Tegelman and Tim Farrell.
Phantom Four-20th Century Studios.
119 mins. USA/Italy/UK/Canada/Serbia. 2024. UK and US Rel: 5 April 2024. Cert. 15.
