The Omen

The skillfully written plot, in which the basic concepts of Satanism are explained in a very effective way, has lost none of its captivating qualities even after all these years. The tension builds up with almost "step-like" precision and leads to the end, where the final fifteen minutes should be taught as a lesson - there were moments when I even forgot to breathe. An interesting setting with cold, grand buildings, including the ambassador's house and numerous churches, adds to the uncertain investigation of Gregory Peck, who is a joy to watch. Together with him, the film creates an almost unhealthy emotional tension, to which Jerry Goldsmith's music significantly contributes. In my opinion, The Omen is the best film of its subgenre. Nonetheless, I give it "only" four stars because horror movies with Satanic themes never really grew on me. (29/09/2005)

In my opinion, The Omen does not have the same power and impact as the very similarly themed The Exorcist. There aren’t as many intense moments, nor any scene of exorcism, which is not necessarily a problem, but occasionally the film can be a bit boring. (22/09/2005)

An amazing piece of filmmaking supported by an equally amazing music score. The story at the beginning is a bit too tedious for my taste, but things improve with every minute, and the last half hour (or rather, from the visit to the cemetery on) it’s already a five-star worthy experience. One of the most balanced horror movies I've seen, where not a single component (direction, music, actors, script) lags significantly behind the others. (18/05/2008)

The winged adage for (porn) directors is that the hardest work on set is with children and animals. And given that The Omen works the entire time either with one, the other, or a combination of both all the time, it's no wonder he was chosen to direct Superman for his next film. The Omen is clearly the biggest screenwriting splurge of the iconic Satanic trio (along with The Exorcist and Rosemary's Baby), and it doesn't deny that it was made as a result of the general popularity of these themes and is heavily inspired by Friedkin's opus. Family crises, quests in the Holy Land, mysterious priests, there's a whole convenient package of artefacts for the Satanic sub-genre. But the script really doesn't make sense most of the time (the devil marks on photos how and when he's going to murder certain characters, what's that?) and after all, its author himself admitted he wrote it because he didn't have any cash and still marvels that people keep lapping up the brutishness. It's lifted up by the enthusiastic direction of the young Donner, who, apparently as a hopeful for becoming the next big name in New Hollywood, wasn't particularly limited in his methods and procedures by the studio, which makes the film, for example, have a really weirdly fast-paced editing track in places, even in scenes where I had trouble justifying it, yet also as a result it rather cleverly uses it to get out of a lot of scenes that would otherwise seem impossible to film without them looking ridiculous. Unfortunately, down the line it once again brings down the academic acting of almost everyone involved, and Gregory Peck reminds me in some ways of Petr Haničinec in The Woman Behind the Counter. (17/01/2021)

Yes, there is only one The Exorcist, and as much as the ending gives me chills, I probably won't get chills from the ending of any other movie, except... except that The Omen is just extra-class, too. And Goldsmith's music in particular. I only knew it from listening to it on my own, but only here was it so demonic that I understood why even deaf academics were finally willing to give Goldsmith the Oscar (although he should have had at least three for Planet of the Apes, Patton and Papillon). (22/06/2016)