The First Omen

20th Century Studios

One of the major issues of studio filmmaking in the 2010s that bled into the 2020s is the odd reverence towards franchises of old. Back in the ‘70s and ‘80s, working on a studio picture based on a popular series – especially in the horror genre – was a great opportunity for young filmmakers to cut their teeth in Hollywood, working with a sizable budget and enough creative liberties to then delve into more personal projects.

While recent examples like The Exorcist: Believer or Hellraiser reboot wasted the potential of accomplished filmmakers and recognizable stars, they ultimately fell prey to trying to both recreate the success of the original films in their respective series and appeal to contemporary horror audiences with more conventional scares. Surprisingly, it is The First Omen, which seemingly came out of nowhere with little to no fanfare from 20th Century Studios, that managed to be a throwback to classic horror in all the best ways.

The success of The First Omen rests on its nature as a prequel: genre aficionados are well acquainted with 1976’s The Omen by the late Richard Donner, a film about an American diplomat who discovers that his adopted child is the literal antichrist. Making a prequel for this film, following the conception of the devilish Damien, carries with it a nearly apocalyptic sense of dread and inevitability: regardless of the struggles of novitiate Margaret (Nell Tiger Free) and Father Brennan (an unrecognizable Ralph Ineson who transforms into the late Patrick Troughton), audiences know that Damien will be born.

This is where director Arkasha Stevenson takes full advantage of audience expectations to create a successful investigative thriller like the original Omen with more modern cinematic techniques. Shooting on location in and around Rome paid off in recreating the troubled times of 1970s Italy, a period of civil unrest and great fear when the Catholic Church started losing its hold on the masses. Through the eyes of Margaret, the audience is made privy to some of the very antiquated practices of the Church and life as a nun: a sequence showcasing the ceremony in which a novitiate takes the habit is particularly eerie, highlighting the patriarchal process of a woman literally becoming God’s wife, losing her identity and becoming another faceless woman dressed in black and white.

Stevenson’s critical approach to the Church pairs well with her feminist take on women-centered horror. By alluding to and directly referencing films like Rosemary’s Baby and Andrzej Żuławski’s Possession, the filmmaker creates a truly effective pro-choice, feminist horror film that puts female agency at the forefront. Nell Tiger Free delivers a spellbinding star-making performance in her first cinematic lead role, bearing her heart and soul in her portrait of a trauma survivor who has been manipulated into giving away her life and freedom to a supposedly higher calling. The camerawork by Aaron Morton (who shot the equally as stunning Evil Dead remake and alien invasion No One Will Save You) follows her journey of self-discovery with zooms, split diopter shots, and dollies, techniques that have become rarer in genre films of this caliber. The camera is voyeuristic, as if viewers were experiencing everything from the Devil’s eye, further emphasized by terribly upsetting drone shots that erratically glide through establishing shots of Rome before forcefully entering Margaret’s bedroom, denying her any sense of privacy.

Outside of its technical accomplishments in capturing the look and feel of its setting on a cinematic and historic level (aided by Mark Korven’s haunting score and repurposed tracks by Ennio Morricone), the rest of the cast adds tremendous gravitas to The First Omen. The young Ishtar Currie Wilson, Nicole Sorace, and María Caballero are backed up by the likes of Sônia Braga, Bill Nighy, and Charles Dance, who all treat this with the same seriousness that helps ground the narrative. Instead of adopting cheap narrative tricks, Stevenson directs the film with immense patience and restraint, a boiling pot that slowly gets hotter and hotter until everything explodes in the final 20 minutes, a nightmare becoming reality and all hope seemingly vanishing, where a woman’s choice and free will are negated by the powers that be.

The only thing that keeps The First Omen from being a truly excellent studio horror film is its connection to the original film. Margaret’s story could well stand on its own, but likely studio-mandated notes add overt references and throwbacks to Donner’s classic, from updating some iconic kills to treating the last 5 minutes as a to-be-continued, Avengers-esque sequel bait. It is an unfortunate necessity that, however, can easily be looked over: such is the nature of studio pictures. To have a feature debut be as confident and bold as The First Omen – which features demonic births, a homage to Isabelle Adjani’s freakout, and direct attacks to the Catholic Church – is a cinematic miracle, so its ties to the greater franchise as a whole are a necessary evil that do not undo the tremendous work of Stevenson and her crew. If a sequel were to be made, it could lead to a potentially interesting retcon of the original, but as it stands, The First Omen is well worthy of the time of every genre fan.