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

In article <uvbube$2ggcq$1@dont-email.me>,
 Arthur Lipscomb <arthur@alum.calberkeley.org> wrote:
 

On 4/11/2024 12:08 PM, BTR1701 wrote:

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.
 

Since it's a prequel I watched it first then the
originals. I had forgotten the church had anything to do
with 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

 
She wasn't really trying to hide it was she?  LOL
 

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.

 
 
Yeah, the jackal retcon became much more obvious when I
watched the originals.

 
The girlfriend actually went with me to see it, even
though she absolutely hates any horror movie about
possession or the devil.
 
I was getting ready to leave and she was like, hang on, I
want to go. I was dubious. I said she would hate it and
that this sort of thing freaks her out and she said she'd
deal with it, she just didn't feel like staying in alone
all night. So she went. And of course she was as freaked
out as I knew she'd be, Digging her nails into my arm
every five minutes, and just generally being miserable.
 
After it was over and we were back in the car, I found out
that her misery and any subsequent nightmare she would
have were was all my fault. Apparently I should have more
forcefully insisted she stay at home and since I didn't,
I'm to blame for everything.
 
<sigh>