Review: The First Omen
The First Omen answers the burning question, “How was that antichrist Damien birthed?” Whether the question needed an answer is irrelevant. The Omen franchise has three sequels and a remake, all of which haven’t diminished the power of the original. In the age of resurrecting long-dormant IPs, it makes sense Disney/Fox would go back to this well. Thus, the prequel The First Omen is born and thankfully it’s not a slapdash cash-in with “Omen” slapped on it. The film tries to approximate the aura of the original while also carving its own path. Instead of making a carbon copy horror, first-time director Arkasha Stevenson presents a timeless allegory on how governing bodies have power over women, while also managing to be scary as hell.
Set in the early 1970s, we follow Margaret Daino (Nell Tiger Free) as she travels to Rome, called to complete her final stage of becoming a nun under the guidance of Cardinal Lawrence (Bill Nighy). Before her official veil ceremony, she works at an orphanage with a pack of nuns who, it turns out, are holding back a few secrets. She befriends a teenage orphan there, Carlita Skianna (Nicole Sorace), who’s been isolated because of her unusual behavior. Then, an outcast priest, Father Brennan (Ralph Ineson), warns Margaret that there’s a dark conspiracy afoot involving Carlita, all leading to, you guessed it, the birth of the antichrist.
The ending is telegraphed, of course, but there are a few honest surprises throughout. The film mostly casts aside the paranoia thriller structure from the original—unfortunately, that means fewer Rube Goldberg machine-esque deaths. Instead, the film is a mix of psychological thriller and body horror, focused on its lead, played by a wide-eyed, ever-haunted Nell Tiger Free. As she learns that Carlita and she share similar dark visions, we start to see what’s tormenting Margaret. There are a few easy jump-scares—a coat hanging in Margaret’s dark bedroom comes to life in a predictable yet effective shock. The more unsettling moments in the film take place in the orphanage’s operating rooms. As the world around Margaret starts to unravel, she witnesses a woman giving birth and what starts as a startling look at childbirth, becomes shockingly unholy. It sets the tone for the rest of the film.
Margaret wrestles with her faith as she’s tested by the nuns at the orphanage and even by her roommate Luz Valez (Maria Caballero). The nuns dismiss Margaret’s claims that Carlita is being mistreated and after she starts exhibiting unusual behavior herself, the nuns cast doubt on whether Margaret should continue on as a nun. Her roommate Luz is a free spirit who pushes Margaret to live a little and go clubbing before dedicating herself to the lord for the rest of her life. It becomes increasingly clear Margaret isn’t in control, not at the orphanage and not even on the dance floor—she blacks out after a few drinks and what’s frightening is not knowing exactly what happened during that missing time.
There are also student protests happening in Rome on the outskirts of the main story—a character in the film puts it succinctly: there’s a revolution happening and the church needs to strengthen its hold on the world if it wants to keep control. It just so happens Margaret’s soul is at the center of a new holy battle which just so happens to involve the antichrist. The First Omen keeps things intimate with Margaret’s personal crusade while also re-stating the apocalyptic fable at the heart of the franchise—it’s a great balance that reinvigorates the ideas established in the original The Omen.
It’s hard to ignore the other nun-centric horror film about a demonic pregnancy that came out less than a month ago, Immaculate. Both films take similar beats but they end in two very different ways. It boils down to this: The First Omen is a tried and true horror franchise film. Like the end of The Omen, the possibilities are endless with what we could see in the potential First Omen II. In that way, the film plays it safe as it leaves threads open for another chapter. Immaculate on the other hand is drastically more singular—its brutal finality is a breath of fresh air. Make no mistake, despite its shortcomings, The First Omen is intense—the centerpiece is the final birth scene which really tests the boundaries of its R-rating. The First Omen is a blessing. How often do we see R-rated horror that pushes the extremes like this? And we have two films that do that in theaters now. Whether you think one is better than the other doesn’t matter—let the blood-soaked demonic spawn continue to be birthed.
