Review of The Omen
Score: 15
Sub-Section: Horror
Company: Fox
Date: Jul 3, 2006
Who would have thought the end of the world could be so boring? That wacky son of the devil Damian is back in yet another remake of a movie that didn’t need to be updated (Gus Van Zant’s Psycho). I haven’t had the change to witness the wonders of the original and I am praying to God or Lucifer or whoever that it was at least moderately better than the garbage known as The Omen (2006).
The one advantage The Omen had to keep it in the limelight was phenomenal marketing and considerable fortuity that they were able to play off the date 6/6/06. I won’t get into the actuality that the “mark of the beast” isn’t 662006 or even 6606, whatever they need to do to earn a little more green…and they need to do a lot.
The Omen begins on a sour note by insinuating that Hurrincane Katrina and the WTC attacks are prophesized in the bible as the coming of the Antichrist. This brazen exploitation comes off as awkward and while leaving it out wouldn’t make the movie better…ah, what the hell, just leave it in.
I don’t know about the original Damian, but I speculate that since the movie is acknowledged as a classic horror film, Damian was at least a little creepy. The story line completely relies on the creepiness of Damian and this new actor (Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick) looks more bored than menacing. I can’t even place some of the expressions he displays but some of them nearly made me laugh, never making me quake in my boots.
The rest of the acting ranges from acceptable to horrid; the top being Mia Farrow (Rosemary’s Baby) as Damian’s nanny, the bottom being the ridiculously miscast Julia Stiles (Save the Last Dance) as Damian’s mother. Live Schreiber appears to be continuing his Manchurian Candidate character…either that or he just can’t act. David Thewlis (Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban) does suitable as a photographer who can “see” which people are lined up to bite the bullet next.
This isn’t a bad movie per se, it’s just not entertaining. At least completely horrible movies have some kind of camp value. There are less scares than I can count on one hand, the movie is completely predictable even without viewing the first one, and the characters are so uninteresting I couldn’t give a damn whether they live or die. The climax was especially telling…at a part where I should have been gripping my seat, I was thinking “Whatever, get this movie over with.”
Other related links:
The Omen Trailer at Apple.com
The Omen at IMDB.com
To visit the official website at TheOmenMovie.com.