Review by
Eric Hillis
Directed by: Arkasha Stevenson
Starring: Nell Tiger Free, Bill Nighy, Tawfeek Barhom, Sonia Braga, Ralph Ineson
With Creed, the excellent reignition of the Rocky franchise, director
Ryan Coogler and composer Ludwig Goransson made the wise choice to withhold
Bill Conti's iconic Rocky theme until a pivotal moment in the
climactic fight. For fans of the series it was an emotional moment that had
them up off their seats, pumping their fists in the air. For their
Omen prequel, The First Omen, director Arkasha Stevenson and composer
Mark Korben similarly hold back on dropping Jerry Goldsmith's
blood-curdling 'Ave Satani" until the climax. In this case however your
reaction will probably be "Oh yeah, I forgot this was an
Omen movie."
At some point in the last few years somebody pitched an
Omen movie without Damien and rather than being laughed out of
a Hollywood exec's office, they had a cheque for $30 million written. Prior
to The First Omen, the worst entry in the series was the made for TV
Omen IV: The Awakening, which didn't have Damien but did at least have an evil child substitute.
Making an Omen movie without an evil nipper is like making an
Exorcist movie without a possession. The 1976 movie was as
much inspired by The Bad Seed as The Exorcist, something this prequel doesn't seem to understand. The crux of its appeal
was seeing the Antichrist represented as a toddler. It's why the subsequent
two sequels, while decent horror movies in their own right, just didn't have
the same impact: a teenage and twentysomething Antichrist just aren't as
creepy as a demonic rugrat.
We don't get a Damien of any age here, as the movie takes place in 1971 and
leads up to the birth of the Antichrist. Much like how JJ Abrams admitted he
didn't want to make a Star Trek movie and so did his best to
make a Star Wars movie in that franchise, it seems a lot like
Stevenson wants to make several different horror movies here, none of which
is an Omen movie. Without the presence of Damien, it's
indistinguishable from the slew of recent Catholic horror movies, and might
as well take place in the universe of
The Pope's Exorcist,
Deliver Us
or
Immaculate.
It shares more than a few elements with that recent Sydney Sweeney vehicle
(I'm not accusing anyone of peeping over someone else's shoulder, although
Immaculate's script has been knocking around Hollywood for over a decade!). Both
movies have essentially the same setup: a young American novitiate nun is
invited to take her vows at an Italian convent dedicated to caring for the
sick, where she uncovers a conspiracy involving the birth of a child that
will change the world. As with Immaculate, The First Omen features its own riff on Isabel Adjani's
infamous miscarriage scene in Zulawski's Possession.
Here the naive nun is Margaret (a gamey Nell Tiger Free), who is
called to Rome at the behest of Cardinal Lawrence (Bill Nighy), who
once ran the orphanage in which she grew up. She finds a rather relaxed
convent where the nuns puff away on cigarettes and openly talk about their
pre-vows desires for men. The children in their care seem a happy lot, all
except for teenager Carlita (Nicole Sorace), who likes to draw creepy sketches and is often
sent to "the bad room" for misbehaving. Margaret befriends Carlita, along
with her roommate Luz (Maria Caballero), who is essentially the same rebellious nun
played by Benedetta Porcaroli in Immaculate. Margaret is convinced by Luz to accompany her on a night of clubbing,
during which they somehow dance to songs that wouldn't be released until
at least half a decade after the film's 1971 setting. A drunken Margaret
hooks up with a local lad and wakes up with a raging hangover and no
recollection of what occurred the night before.
Margaret doesn't so much uncover a conspiracy as have it dropped in her
lap. The movie is structured as a mystery concerning which young woman has
been chosen to carry the Antichrist to term. There are three candidates
but the twist is given away in the opening scene for anyone paying
attention, so it has zero impact when it's eventually revealed (even if it
wasn't revealed so early, it couldn't be more obvious). Margaret's
"investigation" largely consists of her being told the plot by supporting
characters. Ralph Ineson plays a priest with a dodgy Irish accent
(I think his name is Father O'Men) who approaches Margaret at one point
and tells her "I'll be explaining the plot to the audience tonight; come
along if you want to keep up." The 1976 film drew heavily on the biblical
Book of Revelations; this one is more indebted to the Book of
Exposition.
Whoever was responsible for the excellent backwards playing teaser
trailer deserves a special award as they made this film look like some
lost 1970s Italian horror, whereas the movie itself has all the bland
competence of a modern American TV show. I wasn't expecting much from this
if I'm honest, but that trailer made me hopeful that at best it might be
deliriously bonkers in the manner of John Boorman's
Exorcist II, the most Italian horror movie not made by an Italian.
Despite its setting, The First Omen shares nothing in
common with 1970s Italian horror, unless you count some improbably sexy
nuns. It takes most of its cues from
Final Destination, but that wildly entertaining series is famously in on the joke whereas
this is played with a very straight face. Ironically, my screening erupted
in unintentional laughter at one hilariously misjudged gory set-piece that
nods at David Warner's memorable demise in the 1976 film. Had the movie
given us more ineptitude of this nature it would have been a lot more
enjoyable than the plot-heavy slog we're left to endure for two hours. In
the pantheon of pointless prequels, The First Omen might be
the most redundant of them all.
The First Omen is in UK/ROI
cinemas from April 5th.
