The First Omen Review

Bringing to mind the strengths of some of The Conjuring franchise's weaker entries, The First Omen gives us a pretty decently directed movie with occasionally noteworthy visual direction revolving its period piece setting and detailed sense of atmosphere. It's a supernatural horror movie that doesn't simply throw away its money on recognizable faces within its casting alongside overly played out CGI ghost gags but instead includes an attention to beautiful cinematography through its choice of color and lighting sensibilities. Speaking of casting, the performances are pretty solid across the board (with a spotlight on the great Ralph Ineson who plays an excommunicated priest warning our protagonist of a sinister conspiracy surrounding her new journey as a sister in the faith).

I think the film also earns some admiration points towards its overall premise which is something that I normally never really get to celebrate with horror cinema. The general concept here is an interesting one as it takes the historical rise of secularism in the world as a spark that ignites a secretive faction of the Catholic Church to desperately respond by creating its own “Devil” (a controlled anti-Christ) to keep the new generation religiously in check. I suppose you can say that it’s the extreme version of the phrase “putting the fear of God” into the people. Really thinking about the wider implications involved, it's a pretty thought provoking idea that I think is worth giving credit for conceptually speaking.

This is in addition to the cult-driven possession horror story taking place around our lead, Margaret, played by Nell Tiger Free (who puts in a pretty solid performance as our eyes and ears into this twisted tale of religious conspiracy). Instead of your run of the mill, generic haunted house/possession flick, we have something a bit more deeper and wider scope that takes real-world concerns within the religious and political space and blends it with a supernatural horror narrative. It's crazy enough to work within the confines of what could potentially be a legitimately scary film riddled with traumatizing imagery and historically relevant enough to be the subject of a far-reaching but intriguing documentary. Honestly, just looking at it as foundation for a narrative, The First Omen theoretically could make for a phenomenal horror novel (whether it's meant to tie into the original movie or not).

Now, this is a horror movie after all, so we do have to address the big question being whether or not this movie is actually scary. Well, to be fair towards 2020s modern horror in general, I do try to be extra careful with how I navigate this question since it's becoming increasingly difficult for films to scare me nowadays. I feel like we've finally reached that point in cinema where, although there's always something new on the horizon, we've already had decades of repeated tropes to get used to (if you're a particularly nerdy horror fan like myself). So I've stopped looking for actual genuine scares in horror movies now and instead just look for other memorable components like strong atmosphere, clever use of visuals and sounds, and other things of that nature. 

To this, I'll say The First Omen does have a couple of scenes that actually caught my attention to some extent but the rest is pretty much straight forward and leans into the camp of "nothing you haven't seen before if you've seen enough movies of this type". You essentially have a charcuterie board of familiar elements from other standout horror films. Notes of Rosemary’s Baby, Hereditary, and The Sentinel are gradually apparent with Margaret entering into this mysterious landscape of questionably trusted characters and more glaringly dangerous ones as things begin to escalate. You have a performance-wise risky scene that comes across as a clear reference to the iconic subway scene from 1981’s Possession and a few squeamish surgical scenes that brings to mind Prometheus (another example of a horror classic having a modern attempt at doing a prequel).

There's a bit where our lead hangs up an article of clothing on the wall which is then framed to invoke the idea of a creepy silhouette paralleling the imagery of 2014’s The Babadook. And even in this one scene alone, the whole thing leads to a scare that seems to have jumped right out of the Conjuring franchise (with a creepy nun popping out of the shadows). In a sense, you can kinda argue that The First Omen plays out like an assortment of nods to other horror franchises with its scares making it feel less unique and more highly referential to hardcore fans (in addition to calling back to its own series). Most of these elements and sequences, though not particularly refreshing, are done well enough to get a pass even if they're not able to stand amongst the same films that they directly or indirectly pay homage to.

One of the few moments that did positively grab my attention, aside from the skin crawling baby delivering segments, was the aforementioned creepy nun popping out of the shadows which got me pretty good due to a specific sound effect used and facial design. There's also a moment that takes place during a riot that I thought was handled effectively where Margaret gets caught up in a chaotic mess caused by of a rebellious street mob while trying to help children safely to a bus. After getting separated from the group, we're shown these flash cuts of people's hands grabbing onto her shoulders leading to a shot of an inhuman hand touching her and a tongue going across her face. The next shot of her freaking out amidst the riot is such a well captured display of someone undergoing something internally traumatizing and isolating despite being in a crowded and noisy environment. This scene for me is specifically where The First Omen gets to truly stand out from its pairs.

There really aren't too many scenes that necessarily took me out of the experience aside from two particularly jarring bits. These two can be found during the beginning and within the big final act. Earlier on in the movie, we have this weird visual nod to the original 1978 movie's infamous death scenes (the scenes with the priest being impaled and the decapitation glass scene). The scene here however just felt a bit over the top where a priest almost dies in two separate ways, seems to survive it, then smiles in a really goofy fashion after a grotesque body damage reveal. I honestly wasn't sure how to take the scene, but it came off as more silly than scary. The 2nd scene towards the end presents the monstrosity behind everything appearing in fire. The visual FX on the creature are shoddy at best and the whole thing felt completely unnecessary especially when you had excellent visual direction teasing the entity via paintings in the room.

The more I think about this film, the more I'm leaning towards the opinion that they really should've adopted a "less is more" approach towards that final act. It's an issue that I've been addressing for over 10 years now primarily in the modern era of supernatural horror. The problem of not knowing how far to take a particular moment cinematically speaking. Instead of focusing more on exceptional atmosphere and tension building within the situation itself keeping everyone at the edge of their seat, it seems as though Hollywood just can't resist the temptation to throw in some big, over the top spectacle at the end. I always imagine in my head some desperate studio executive waving shiny, colorful keys in front of a theater audience to get them excited whenever I see scenes like these. The CGI monster and generic looking ghost showing up in the end with these types of films has become a dried out trope that should've died back in the early 2010s.

Thankfully, it's not an extensively long reveal, but considering how explosive things get during this entire segment where Margaret is placed into a dread inducing turn of events (literal fire covering around her), things just seemed to have escalated slightly higher than it needed to. What you could've done to effectively hit the necessary points is place all of the focus on the surgery scene with some unsettling cult imagery, unnerving music, and have it all build up towards the big dramatic reveal that ties into the original. There really isn't any need for the big fiery spectacle and monster reveal that we have and honestly makes the whole thing feel just tad bit too on the nose for me. This, in addition to a few cheap false jump scares, a semi-cringey ending interaction, and questionable use of the original movie's iconic score is why I initially felt mixed once the movie had ended.

With everything said and done, I can still comfortably say that this is certainly not a bad movie by any stretch of the imagination despite some of its creative choices that I disagree with. There's just enough here to admire and be engaged by to be considered a passable at best experience. The notable cinematography from time to time, an all around decent cast, a very intriguing premise at its core worthy of exploring, a few direction-wise solid horror scenes, and the fact that this is a prequel to a horror classic that doesn't completely trash on its IP makes it worth applauding at the very least for its efforts. It's also one of those rare unique moments for me where I find myself watching a movie at just the right place and time in my life to have an interesting life-reflecting viewing experience.

Watching The First Omen from the perspective of a film fan, a horror nerd, and a Christian simultaneously, I find the overall concept to be profound and fascinating. It’s actually pretty ironic that I just so happen to be currently learning about church history surrounding Catholicism for my own research, so this is quite the interesting bit of timing here to watch this. You can kinda see now why I find the idea of using the Catholic Church and a real-world conflict within our culture being secularism so fascinating for this type of flick. If anything, I wish they would've dove into the topic a bit more deeply with some compelling dialogue exchanges between characters about the dangers that the church is facing while becoming a dangerous force of nature on its own with its sinister secrets. 

Still, I'd say this is worth watching on streaming only if you've already owned a subscription to whatever platform is housing the movie. In other words, I wouldn't say that it's worth paying full price for, but it's also not a necessarily a bad watch either. On a dark rainy night, alone at home, this might actually make for a pretty decent double or triple feature with other strategically chosen horror entries. 

Rating: 7/10