The Omen was a 1976 movie that spawned three sequels (and a remake that didn't need to be made) and is my favorite horror movie of all-time. It starred Gregory Peck, Lee Remick, Harvey Spencer Stevens, Patrick Troughton, David Warner, Billie Whitelaw, and Leo McKern. Diplomat Robert Thorn (Gregory Peck) doesn't want to tell his wife Katherine (Lee Remick) that their baby died at birth, so at a shady priest's urging, he adopts the baby of a woman who died in childbirth; the child is named Damien, and strange things happen in his presence because he just so happens to be the Antichrist. At Damien's (Harvey Stephens) fifth birthday party, his nanny hangs herself after shouting, "It's all for you, Damien!" Father Brennan (Patrick Troughton), who was there the night of Damien's birth, tries to warn Robert that Damien is not what he seems, but Robert refuses to listen because this is a horror movie. When Katherine takes Damien to a safari park, some animals run away from Damien, terrified, and others become violent, attacking the car Katherine and Damien are in. Kids scare me in general, but Damien is on a whole other level...he's such a little shit that he causes his mother to have a miscarriage after running his tricycle into her and knocking her over the upstairs railing; before Robert even knew that Katherine was pregnant, Father Brennan warned him that Damien would stop Katherine from having the baby.
There's an extra on The Omen DVD that talks about the weird things that happened to people who were involved with the movie. Here are a few:
-John Richardson, who designed the film's decapitation scene, was later in a car accident where his girlfriend was decapitated by a piece of the windshield.
-Gregory Peck and David Seltzer (the writer) were on separate planes that were struck by lightning three days apart.
-A charter plane that had been rented for use in the movie crashed the day they were supposed to use it, killing the passengers in the car it hit; the victims were the pilot's wife and children. (Did anyone else just get chills?)
-A guard was killed while the crew was filming at the safari park; two lions came into his booth and attacked him.
There's a longer documentary called The Curse of The Omen, and when I watch it, I'll write a blog post that goes into more detail about these incidents and any other incidents the documentary covers.
I love The Omen, and watching the Omen Trilogy over a day or two inspired me to write my first Satan play...and now I've written almost twenty of them. Thanks, Damien!
My rating: 10/10
Crystal, that was one of the best horror pictures. I never saw any of the sequels but I will now that I've read your piece above. And I'm going to check out the documentary, too, although I don't believe in curses, per se. It's fun to pretend, tho'. Just how many Satan plays can you write before it becomes redundant. There are so many afterlife and netherworld themes that you could create stories from. Just sayin'. But thanks for the inspiration!
ReplyDeleteThanks for reading and commenting on my blog! I hope you enjoy the sequels...they're not as good as the first movie, but they're better than a lot of horror sequels. I don't think my Satan plays have become redundant yet because they have a twist...he's the good guy! ; )
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