The Omen (1976)

The Omen is a 1976 American/British suspense horror film directed by Richard Donner. The film stars Gregory Peck, Lee Remick, David Warner, Harvey Spencer Stephens, Billie Whitelaw,Patrick Troughton, Martin Benson and Leo McKern. It is the first film in The Omen series and was scripted by David Seltzer.

Contents
[hide]  *1 Plot ==Plot[edit] == In Rome, the son of American diplomat Robert Thorn (Gregory Peck) and his wife, Katherine (Lee Remick), dies at birth. Robert is convinced by the hospital chaplain, Father Spiletto (Martin Benson), to secretly adopt an orphan whose mother died at the same time. Out of concern for his wife's mental well-being, Robert agrees, but does not reveal to her that the child is not theirs. They name the child Damien (Harvey Spencer Stephens).
 * 2 Cast
 * 3 Music
 * 4 Reception
 * 4.1 Box office performance
 * 4.2 Critical reception
 * 4.3 Awards and nominations
 * 4.4 Parodies
 * 4.5 International versions
 * 5 Novels
 * 6 See also
 * 7 References
 * 8 External links

Soon after, Robert is appointed U.S. Ambassador to Great Britain. Mysterious events plague the Thorns. Animals, with the exception of large dogs congregating near the Thorn home, are terrified of the child. Damien violently resists entering a church. Damien's nanny publicly hangs herself at his fifth birthday party. A new nanny, Mrs. Baylock (Billie Whitelaw), arrives to replace her. When the Thorns question her unexpected arrival, she claims "the agency" sent her after reading about the death in the newspapers.

Father Brennan (Patrick Troughton), a Catholic priest, tries repeatedly to warn the Ambassador of his son's mysterious origins. The priest hints that Damien may not be human. Thorn is irritated by the man and rebuffs his persistent intrusions, believing that the priest is mentally disturbed. Finally convincing Thorn to meet him near the Thames, the priest tells Robert that Katherine is pregnant, and that Damien will prevent her from having the child. Afterward, a sudden storm appears and Brennan is impaled by a lightning rod thrown from the roof of his church.

Upon returning home, Katherine tells Robert that she is pregnant. Robert is surprised but delighted, but Katherine wants an abortion. Katherine claims that she feels overwhelmed and threatened by Damien.

Learning of Father Brennan's death, photographer Keith Jennings (David Warner) begins investigating Damien. He notices shadows in photographs of the nanny and of Father Brennan that seem to predict their bizarre deaths. Photos of Jennings also show these shadows. Jennings shows Robert the photos and tells him he also believes that Damien is a threat and that wants to help Robert.

While Robert is away, Mrs. Baylock allows Damien to work himself into a frenzy. Speeding through the mansion on his tricycle, he rams into a stool on which Katherine is standing, and Katherine falls over an upstairs railing to the floor below. Robert receives a phone call from a hospital, and rushes to Katherine's side. She miscarries.

Jennings and Robert travel to Rome to investigate Damien's birth. A fire has destroyed the hospital records and the maternity and nursery wards; most of the staff on duty died in the fire. Robert and Jennings trace Father Spiletto to a rural monastery, where he is recuperating from his injuries but is not expected to survive. Stricken mute, Spiletto writes the name of an ancientEtruscan cemetery where Damien's biological mother is buried. Robert and Jennings find a jackal's skeleton in the grave and a child's skeleton with a shattered skull: Damien's unnatural "mother" and the remains of the Thorns' own child, murdered at birth so that Damien could take his place. Jennings reiterates Father Brennan's belief that Damien is the Antichrist, whose coming is being supported by a conspiracy of Satanists. A pack of wild dogs, similar to ones seen near the Thorn's mansion, attack Robert and Jennings. They escape the cemetery with injuries.

Robert and Jennings travel to Israel to find Karl Bugenhagen (Leo McKern), an archaeologist and expert on the Antichrist. Bugenhagen explains to Robert that Damien will possess a birthmark in the shape of three sixes if he is the Antichrist. Robert learns that the only way to kill the Antichrist is with seven mystical daggers from Megiddo. Appalled by the idea of murdering a child, Robert discards the daggers. Jennings tries to retrieve the daggers, but he is decapitated by a sheet of window glass sliding off a truck.

Back in London, Mrs. Baylock murders Katherine by pushing her out of her hospital window.

Agonized by the deaths, Robert resolves to end the nightmare. Returning home, he waylays a large dog that is standing guard at the mansion and examines Damien for the birthmark. As he finds it on Damien's scalp, Mrs. Baylock attacks him. Robert kills her. He loads Damien and the daggers into a car and drives to the nearest church. Due to his erratic driving and excessive speed, he is followed by the police, who arrive as he is dragging the screaming Damien to the altar. An officer orders him to raise his hands and stand away. Robert raises the first dagger, and the officer fires his gun, killing Robert and saving Damien.

Damien attends the funeral of Katherine and Robert in the custody of the U.S. President. The final shot focuses on Damien, who smiles gleefully as the ceremony ends. ==Cast[edit] == ==Music[edit] == An original score for the film, including the movie's theme song "Ave Satani," was composed by Jerry Goldsmith, for which he received the only Oscar of his long career. The score features a strong choral segment, with a foreboding Latin chant. The refrain to the chant is, "Sanguis bibimus, corpus edimus, tolle corpus Satani" (ungrammatical Latin for, "We drink the blood, we eat the flesh, raise the body of Satan"; note that the correct Latin would be, "Sanguinem bibimus, corpus edimus, tolle corpus Satani"), interspersed with cries of "Ave Satani!" and "Ave Versus Christus" (Latin, "Hail, Satan!" and "Hail, Antichrist!"). Aside from the choral work, the score includes lyrical themes portraying the pleasant home life of the Thorn family, which are contrasted with the more disturbing scenes of the family's confrontation with evil.
 * Gregory Peck as Robert Thorn
 * Lee Remick as Katherine Thorn
 * David Warner as Keith Jennings
 * Billie Whitelaw as Mrs Baylock
 * Harvey Spencer Stephens as Damien Thorn
 * Patrick Troughton as Father Brennan
 * Martin Benson as Father Spiletto
 * Leo McKern as Carl Bugenhagen
 * Robert Rietti as Monk
 * Tommy Duggan as Priest
 * John Stride as The Psychiatrist
 * Anthony Nicholls as Dr Becker
 * Holly Palance as Nanny
 * Roy Boyd as Reporter
 * Freda Dowie as Nun
 * Sheila Raynor as Mrs Horton
 * Robert MacLeod as Horton
 * Bruce Boa as Thorn's Aide

<p style="line-height:19.1875px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;">On October 9, 2001, a deluxe version of the soundtrack was released with eight additional tracks.
 * 1) "Ave Satani" – 2:32
 * 2) "New Ambassador" – 2:33
 * 3) "Killer's Storm" – 2:51
 * 4) "Sad Message" – 1:42
 * 5) "Demise of Mrs. Baylock" – 2:52
 * 6) "Don't Let Him" – 2:48
 * 7) "Piper Dreams" – 2:39
 * 8) "Fall" – 3:42
 * 9) "Safari Park" – 2:04
 * 10) "Dog's Attack" – 5:50
 * 11) "Homecoming" – 2:43
 * 12) "Altar" – 2:00

==Reception<span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;padding-right:0.25em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[edit] == ===Box office performance<span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;padding-right:0.25em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[edit] === <p style="line-height:19.1875px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;">The Omen was released following a successful $2.8 million marketing campaign inspired by the one from Jaws one year prior, with two weeks of sneak previews, a novelization by screenwriter David Seltzer, and the logo with "666" inside the film's title as the centerpiece of the advertisement.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-newam_3-0" style="line-height:1em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[3]  The film was a massive commercial success in the United States. It grossed $4,273,886 in its opening weekend and $60,922,980 domestically on a tight budget of $2.8 million.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-4" style="line-height:1em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[4] <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-5" style="line-height:1em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[5]  The film was the fifth highest grossing movie of 1976. ===Critical reception<span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;padding-right:0.25em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[edit] === <p style="line-height:19.1875px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;">The Omen received mostly positive reviews from critics and is considered by many as one of the best films of 1976, as well as one of the best horror films ever made.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-6" style="line-height:1em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[6] <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-7" style="line-height:1em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[7] <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-8" style="line-height:1em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[8]  The film holds an 82% "Fresh" rating on the review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-9" style="line-height:1em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[9]  The movie boasted a particularly disturbing scene, in which a character willingly and joyfully hangs herself at a birthday party attended by young children. It also features a violent decapitation scene (caused by a horizontal sheet of plate glass), one of mainstream Hollywood's first: "If there were a special Madame Defarge Humanitarian Award for best decapitation," wrote Kim Newman in Nightmare Movies (1988), "this lingering, slow-motion sequence would get my vote."
 * 1) "Ave Satani" – 2:35
 * 2) "On This Night" – 2:36
 * 3) "The New Ambassador" – 2:34
 * 4) "Where Is He?" – :56
 * 5) "I Was There" – 2:27
 * 6) "Broken Vows" – 2:12
 * 7) "Safari Park" – 3:24
 * 8) "A Doctor, Please" – 1:44
 * 9) "The Killer Storm" – 2:54
 * 10) "The Fall" – 3:45
 * 11) "Don't Let Him" – 2:49
 * 12) "The Day He Died" – 2:14
 * 13) "The Dog's Attack" – 5:54
 * 14) "A Sad Message" – 1:44
 * 15) "Beheaded" – 1:49
 * 16) "The Bed" – 1:08
 * 17) "666" – :44
 * 18) "The Demise of Mrs. Baylock" – 2:54
 * 19) "The Altar" – 2:07
 * 20) "The Piper Dreams" – 2:41

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19.1875px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;">On the flip side, The Omen appeared in the 1978 book The Fifty Worst Films of All Time by Harry Medved (co-author of the Golden Turkey Awards) and Randy Dreyfuss.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19.1875px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;">The Omen received recognition from the American Film Institute. It was ranked number 81 on ''[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AFI%27s_100_Years%E2%80%A6100_Thrills 100 Years... 100 Thrills], a list of America's most heart-pounding films<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-10" style="line-height:1em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[10]  and the score by Jerry Goldsmith was nominated for AFI's 100 Years of Film Scores.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-11" style="line-height:1em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[11]  The film was ranked #16 on Bravo's 100 Scariest Movie Moments''.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-12" style="line-height:1em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[12]  Similarly, the Chicago Film Critics' Association named it the 31st scariest film ever made.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-13" style="line-height:1em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[13] ===Awards and nominations<span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;padding-right:0.25em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[edit] === <p style="line-height:19.1875px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;">The film received numerous accolades for its acting, writing, music and technical achievements. Jerry Goldsmith won the Academy Award for Best Original Score and received an additional nomination for Best Original Song for "Ave Satani". Goldsmith's score was also nominated for a Grammy award for Best Album of Original Score Written for a Motion Picture. Billie Whitelaw was nominated for a BAFTA film award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance. She was also awarded the Evening Standard British Film Award for Best Actress. The film also received recognition by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. Harvey Stephens was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Acting Debut – Male. David Seltzer's original screenplay was nominated by the Writers Guild of America for Best Drama Written Directly for the Screen and for the Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Motion Picture. The film was nominated for theSaturn Award for Best Horror Film and Gregory Peck received the Saturn Award for Best Actor in a Horror Film. Gilbert Taylor won the Best Cinematography Award from the British Society of Cinematographers.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-14" style="line-height:1em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[14] ===Parodies<span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;padding-right:0.25em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[edit] === <p style="line-height:19.1875px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;">The film was spoofed in Mad Magazine as "The Ominous" and on Saturday Night Live as "The Ointment". In 1998, Damien appeared in an episode of South Park, confronting Jesus Christ, but he makes friends with the gang, except Eric Cartman. In its tenth season, South Park also used an excerpt from Goldsmith's score at the end of the episode "Tsst".<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-15" style="line-height:1em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[15]  The novel Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett satirizes the apocalypse and several events of the film, including the baby swap. ===International versions<span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;padding-right:0.25em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[edit] === <p style="line-height:19.1875px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;">Outside the United States, The Omen was titled into their languages. The Spanish-speaking countries used the title La profecía. Italian versions title it Il presagio, while the DVD title adds to such a title (in the form of Omen - Il presagio.) The German version of the film is titled Das Omen. The title Pretkazanje was used in the Croatian-speaking countries. De vervloeking is the Flemish version, shown in Belgium. Tegnet is in the Danish language and was used for the Denmark release. The titles Ennustus (Finnish) and Spådom (Swedish) are versions that circulated in Finland. La malédiction was used as the French title in France, Luxembourg and the Canadian country of Quebec. Sweden, Japan and Poland simply showed it under Omen. It was released in Turkey as Kehanet and Ómen in Hungary. Zenklas was the title used in Lithuania. The Portuguese-speaking countries (Brazil in South America and Portugal in Europe) title the film O Génio do Mal.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-16" style="line-height:1em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[16] ==Novels<span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;padding-right:0.25em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[edit] == <p style="line-height:19.1875px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;">Both The Omen and its novelization were written by David Seltzer (the book preceded the movie by two weeks as a marketing gimmick). For the book, Seltzer augmented some plot points and character backgrounds, and changed minor details (such as character names — Holly becomes Chessa Whyte, Keith Jennings becomes Huber Jennings, Father Brennan becomes Father Edgardo Emilio Tassone, et cetera). The second and third novels were more direct adaptations of those films' screenplays. Gordon McGill retroactively changed the time period of The Omen to the 1950s, in order to make The Final Conflict (featuring an adult Damien) take place explicitly in the 1980s. Although neither the first Omen movie nor its novelisation mention what year the story takes place, it can be assumed<sup class="noprint Inline-Template" style="line-height:1em;white-space:nowrap;">[weasel words]  that its setting was intended to be<sup class="noprint Inline-Template" style="line-height:1em;white-space:nowrap;">[weasel words]  the year the movie was released (i.e. 1976).<sup class="noprint Inline-Template" style="line-height:1em;white-space:nowrap;">[original research?]
 * David Seltzer, The Omen. (Futura, 1976).
 * Joseph Howard, Damien: Omen II. (Futura, 1978).
 * Gordon McGill, Omen III: The Final Conflict. (Futura, 1980).
 * Gordon McGill, Omen IV: Armageddon 2000. (Futura, 1983).
 * Gordon McGill, Omen V: The Abomination. (Futura, 1985).

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19.1875px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;">The fourth novel, Omen IV: Armageddon 2000, was entirely unrelated to the fourth movie, but continued the story of Omen III following the one-night stand between Damien Thorn and Kate Reynolds in that film. This affair included an act of sodomy and thence Kate gave rectal "birth" to another diabolical entity called "the Abomination" in the Omen IV novel. This novel attempted to address the apparent contradiction of whether the Antichrist could be slain by just one of the "Seven Sacred Daggers of Megiddo" as premised in Omen III, or only by all of them as stated in the first book and film. According to Omen IV, one dagger could kill Damien's body but not his soul, which complies loosely with the explanation given in the original film. Damien's acolyte Paul Buher (played by Robert Foxworth in the second movie) is a major character in the fourth book and achieves redemption in its climax.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19.1875px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;">Omen V: The Abomination begins with a "memorial" listing all of the characters who had been killed throughout the saga up to that point, and cements Damien's life in the period of 1950–1982. The novel closes with the chronicle of Damien's life about to be written by the character Jack Mason. Its last few lines are identical to the beginning of David Seltzer's novel, thus bringing the story full circle.