A couple of years ago, the Reverend Jerry Falwell, the
ubiquitous face of the religious right, founder of Liberty University, and spokesman
for the neo-Neanderthal wing of the Republican party, announced that the world
would soon confront the Last Days — so what else is new? — and that one
element of that event, the Antichrist, was a Jewish man dwelling in the United
States. (This insight may have preceded his analysis of the sexual orientation
of the Teletubbies.) The comedian Al Franken wondered if the man might be
Marvin Hamlisch, though I still hold out for Alan Dershowitz, Falwell’s
frequent debating opponent. As students of the Bible and of film already knew,
of course, the Antichrist and Satan, inextricably confused in the
nontheological mind, not only walk the earth, but also appear in horror movies,
which have exploited his presence for more than a generation.
Ever since 1968, when Rosemary’s Baby appeared, Satan
assumed an important place in the horror film, ranking up there with Dracula,
Frankenstein’s monster, and a horde of nameless menaces. With the addition of The
Exorcist in 1973 and The Omen in 1976 and the subsequent sequels,
remakes, and imitations, the Devil became a star, and now, in the words of the
Catholic prayer, roams the earth seeking the ruin of souls. The most recent
visitation occurs in the remake of The Omen, which, along with Poseidon,
continues the apparent Hollywood compulsion to revisit the past and shovel the
snows of yesteryear.
With a few minor variations, the new Omen pretty much
follows the pattern of the first movie. As in The DaVinci Code, the
Roman Catholic Church again provides the material for exploring the
consequences of Satan’s latest incarnation, in the form of his spawn, a nasty
little kid named Damien Thorn (Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick). Informed by a priest
that his baby was born dead, an American diplomat in Rome, Robert Thorn (Liev
Schreiber), agrees to deceive his wife and substitute another newborn as if the
infant were their own, a deception they all come to regret.
From early childhood Damien exerts his destructive force
against anyone who impedes the progress of the Satanic
plan. Through some inexplicable mental power he manages an accident that kills
the ambassador so that Thorn can succeed him in the post in Great Britain (a
bit of nepotism also assists the ascent). Once there, little Damien really
comes into his own, influencing his nanny to commit suicide in full public view
at his fifth birthday party and contriving that his parents hire a replacement
in the form of Mia Farrow, returned from her stint as the mother of Rosemary’s
Baby, and all too ready to serve Satan once again.
After that spectacular event, a couple of people attempt to
warn the ambassador of the danger in his evil child. A crazed priest (Pete
Postlethwaite) tells him the true story of Damien’s birth, and a tabloid
photographer (David Thewlis) notices ominous marks in his pictures of Damien’s
victims. Naturally Thorn dismisses all the information as insanity and
foolishness until the priest dies spectacularly and his pregnant wife suffers a
bad fall that kills the potential threat to Damien’s power.
The rest of the movie settles into a standard thriller plot,
with Thorn and the photographer traveling to Italy to find the truth about
Damien’s parentage and to Israel to acquire the means to kill the little devil.
They learn, of course, about the coming final conflict and Damien’s role in
Armageddon, which in fact leads them to the location in Israel where the battle
will take place. A few more deaths and a series of brief flashes of horror
enhance the suspense of their journey and emphasize the power arrayed against
them and, consequently, all of humankind.
When it first appeared, The Omen reawakened interest
in the Book of Revelations, surely the most puzzling in the Bible, and alerted
audiences to the Number of the Beast, the notorious 666. The number accounts
for the movie’s unusual release on a Tuesday, June 6, a date which, to the
disappointment of many, did not signal the end of the world or even the end of
bad movies about the end of the world.
The Omen (R),
directed by John Moore, is now playing at Culver Ridge 16, Henrietta 18,
Webster 12, Tinseltown, Greece Ridge 12, Eastview 13
This article appears in Jun 14-20, 2006.
