Re: What Did You Watch? 2024-04-05 (Friday)

In article <uus8jp$2914c$1@dont-email.me>,
 Arthur Lipscomb <arthur@alum.calberkeley.org> wrote:

The First Omen (theatrical) New horror movie that is a direct prequel to
the 1976 "The Omen." It is set in Rome in 1971 and tells the backstory
behind where "Damien" came from. While it seems a bit of a retcon I
guess it can be said the movie is clarifying details that were only
guessed or assumed before. But it does at least make it clear why/how
priests and nuns had Damien in the first place at the start of the 1976
movie and they knew *exactly* what they had and what they were doing.

I didn't like the explanation.

SPOILERS:

In the original OMEN, the turncoat clergy were portrayed as true
believers, actual Satanists who worshipped Lucifer and were rejoicing at
the birth of their 'savior'.

Here we find out they were just corrupt clergy, upset that young people
were turning away from the church and thereby costing the church its
power in society, so they 'created' the anti-Christ in some sort of
weird quasi science experiment so he would wreak havoc on the earth and
drive people back to the church again.

No, sir. I don't think I like it.

I did think the movie was well done and did a great job of creating an
atmosphere of foreboding and evil lurking just around the next corner.

The lead actress was appealing and did a good job and I had the nagging
impression I'd seen her somewhere before but her IMDb doesn't show her
in anything I've ever seen. (And her name-- Nell Tiger Free-- just
screams "Thanks mom and dad for being hippies when you had me. Wonderful
name you picked there.")

I knew the roommate was a baddie from the moment she walked on screen
and it didn't take much longer than that before I'd guessed that the
troubled girl in the orphanage was just a red herring. (I did
momentarily doubt myself when the 666 was revealed in her mouth, but it
turns out I was right anyway.)

Loved how the moment it was revealed that the baby was a boy-- and
therefore the anti-Christ they'd been waiting for-- Goldsmith's "Ave
Satani" boldly took over the score.

All in all, it was a good movie except for the retcon about the church
and, I suppose, the way it contradicted Damien's origins from the
original movie, which clearly indicated his mother was a jackal, not a
pretty novitiate.