I wanted to see this movie for so long. Now I own it, it's in my BluRay collection. And the day it arrived I started watching it. Couldn't finish it though, so I watched the last 40 minutes today and I'm now done with the movie.
First off, I don't know if this was a problem with my version of the BluRay or if this is normal, but the sound was a little too quiet, I sometimes had problems understanding it over the background sounds and the music.
Talking about the music: WOW. That's what I call a soundtrack. All the songs were written for this movie and they fit perfectly. I think this is honestly one of my favorite original scores. My BluRay has a special feature where you can only listen to the soundtrack over the movie scenes and I wondered why you would have that, now I get it. It's just pure awesomeness. Jerry Goldsmith did an fantastic job.
But now I should talk about the story first.
US Ambassador Robert Thorn (Gregory Peck) and his wife Katherine (Lee Remick) have a good life. They live in a big house and have a beautiful little five year old child called Damien (Harvey Stephens). What Katherine doesn't know is that her child died in birth and Robert Thorn accepted another kid that was born that night but whose mother died.
What both don't know is that Damien is the son of Satan. And this is not a spoiler. The movie makes it clear from the very beginning that this is not something that is just in the main characters mind or something, no, Damien is the child of Satan. We get many occasions where this is shown to us. Giraffes run away. Baboons attack. The Nanny kills herself on his 5th birthday.
So instead of making it sort of a thriller, instead of making us wonder if it's all in his head (like "the Twilight Zone" would probable do it), we KNOW he is the Antichrist.
It's all about the way Robert Thorn finds it out.
And of course, to hinder the apocalypse, the child must be killed. And that is the most horrible thought possible. Just imagine having a 5 year old son that you watched grow up, that you cared for, and then you have to kill him. Also, there are a good handful of scenes where we see Damien as the cute little boy. He seems to love his parents and they love him.
The acting was good. The death scenes were good by 1976 standards and still hold up pretty well.
Richard Donner did a good job, and the story was very well thought out. Also the scenes where Harvey Stephens was in were either really well played of that boy was an evil kid in reality.
I give this movie 4 out of 5 stars, I wanted to give it 3.5 but I had to raise it about half a point just for the music. Must see for horror fans.
I'm a movie fan and a horror geek. This is my blog about movies and horror. Enjoy ;)
Wednesday, May 6, 2015
The Omen, 1976 - ★★★★
You can also find this review on Letterboxd
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment