The Omen
1976 · Directed by Richard Donner
Original language: English
- horror
- thriller
The story
Immediately after their miscarriage, the US diplomat Robert Thorn adopts the newborn Damien without the knowledge of his wife. Yet what he doesn’t know is that their new son is the son of the devil.
What it’s like
Cold, composed dread in polished 1970s widescreen: long static compositions of stately English estates and grey European cathedrals, lit by overcast daylight and dim interior lamps, with the frame often split by architecture or an ominous figure placed at the edge. Zaharias Rhodes-style staging is not needed here; the camera simply waits, letting tension build through stillness, while Jerry Goldsmith's choral score, with its Latin chants and sharp string stabs, lands like a warning bell. Violence is sudden and graphic in a few brief set pieces, including a decapitation and a fatal fall, but most of the menace stays in suggestion, in rain-slick streets and bared-teeth animals. The mood is austere, paranoid and slowly cumulative, with a fatherly man's doubt curdling into horror. It suits a late, lamp-lit evening when you want a chilly, carefully made thriller rather than jump-scare noise. Best for viewers who enjoy classic supernatural suspense, tight unease and gothic atmosphere, and who can tolerate a few shocking deaths.
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