The Omen

 

The Omen 1976

• Director: Richard Donner
• Seen by this director: Lethal Weapon, TV series episodes
• Based on the novel: no
• Cast: Gregory Peck, Lee Remick, Harvey Stephens, Billie Whitelaw, David Warner, Patrick Troughton
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Gregory Peck – To Kill a Mockingbird, The Guns of Navarone, On the Beach, Moby Dick, David and Bathsheba, Spellbound
• Lee Remick – Jennie, Experiment in Terror
• Billie Whitelaw – Hot Fuzz, An Unsuitable Job for a Woman
• David Warner – Wallander, Before I Sleep, Doctor Who, Ladies in Lavender, Titanic, Star Trek the Undiscovered Country, Twin Peaks, Love’s Labour’s Lost, Holocaust, Tom Jones
• Patrick Troughton – A Family at War, Richard III, Hamlet
• Why? A classic. Gregory Peck.
• Seen: 21 August 2021.      

       Robert (Peck) knows his wife Kathy (Remick) will go mad with grief over the death of their new-born son, so he adopts a baby born on the same day in the same monastery. The secret is kept and five years pass. Robert is appointed US ambassador to Great Britain, and they move to London.

       The nanny hangs herself, a new nanny (Whitelaw) shows up out of the blue, a mad priest (Troughton) hounds Robert and the little boy Damien gets hysterical at the sight of a church.

       Goodness gracious me. Damien is the son of Satan and he’s definitely up to no good.

       Maybe it was sensational in the 70s but it seems silly to me. A load of religious claptrap. It’s nowhere near as scary as it’s reported to be despite the violent ending.

       Not even Gregory Peck, Billie Whitelaw or the second Doctor Who (Troughton) in Blu-Ray can lift this classical clunker. 

2* of 5 (Hal liked it and give it 4 ½ *).