Rating: 
Summary: One of the Best Horror Films Ever
Review: I consider "The Omem" the third of the "Great 3 Horror Films" of all time. The other two being "Rosemary's Baby" and "The Exorcist." Like the other two films, "The Omen" is a religiously based horror film. It's based on the coming of the anti-Christ.THe story-line revolves around a US ambassador to Great Britain whose wife gives birth to a supposed stillborn baby, so out of desperation, he secretly adopts another newborn. The baby is normal until his fifth birthday when his nanny hangs herself at his birthday party *in a very disturbing scene.* Another nanny takes her place who happens to be the nanny from Hell *literally!* Death ensues in some of the goriest death scenes of the time period. The film closes with one of the most downer endings of any other film. Highly recommended horror film. The cast, story, and haunting musical score work together to create a truly creepy and disturbing film.
Rating:
Summary: ONE OF THE BEST
Review: Even though "The Omen" spawned countless copycats and its own less than perfect sequels, it is one of the eeriest and most suspenseful films of this genre. Director Richard Donner uses extremely moody and malevolent atmospherics to form the backdrop for this tale of the birth of the Anti-Christ. One of the scariest and most disturbing is the death of Patrick Troughton, who plays the errant priest who tries to warn Robert Thorne of his disastrous son. The wind howling in the park, the intensity of Troughton's manic performance and the final impaling is outstandingly filmed. Other classic moments: the look on Lee Remick's face when she realizes what her nanny has done; the terror in Damien's fear of going to church; the attack of the baboons in the drive through park; the awful moment when Remick tumbles off the second story of her house, and even more in her fall from the hospital window; Billie Whitelaw's animalistic attack on Peck to preserve the Antichrist; and of course, the awful fate awaiting David Warner via a plate glass. And the scene in the graveyard with its music and ferocious barking Rotweiler's---wow, this is suspense at its finest.
Jerry Goldsmith's Oscar winning score is perfect, and the cast is superb. Gregory Peck and Lee Remick bring a professional dignity to their performances; never overacting, never underacting; their class is evident and it's a shame we've lost these two brilliant performers.
The Omen is a thriller I have high on my list of favorite "horror" movies.
Rating: 
Summary: Bad Seed.
Review: The whole plot of THE OMEN revolves around the idea of the anti-Christ growing up and living amongst us, unknown to anyone until it's too late. The premise of the film is somewhat interesting, and was a farely new concept when the movie was released, but has become common place nowadays. The "scariness" of THE OMEN isn't in blood and guts, but in the shock value: we barely see a nanny hang herself outdoors from a window, but it is shocking; we've been told that Damien's mother was a jackal so when his adopted father searches the grave, we shouldn't be shocked, but we are; the newspaper photographer already showed us how he would die, but when it happens it is a bit shocking. The film really is dated now, but it contains a couple of gems, mainly the soundtrack and Gregory Peck. The movie probably isn't as spooky as it was originally, but it's still an interesting film to watch.
Rating: 
Summary: The Omen: A Creaky Period Piece Whose Age Shows
Review: Those who first saw THE OMEN back in 1976 were swept away more by the theme of the anti-Christ reborn than by any high quality production values. Only a few years ealier, THE EXORCIST had made its huge splash with its own devilish content, and comparisons with THE OMEN were inevitable. A comparison between THE EXORCIST's Regan and THE OMEN's Damien are helpful in fixing why the former rings true even today while the latter is seen mostly as a period piece whose shock value has diminished over the last quarter century. Regan generated empathy and sympathy as a young girl whose demonic possession made the audience feel the angst that both she and her mother endured during the transformation scenes. With Damien, there were no such transformation scenes. He is born of the devil, lives as the devil, and rules as the devil. This is a straight line development that does not allow the viewer to build up any feeling for him. Either he will rule as the anti-Christ or he will be stopped. Since the audience does not care much one way or the other, the dramatic focus is on sound effects and creepy background shots. In nearly every other scene, director Richard Donner has one actor or another intone in the most solemn of notes a never ending series of biblical quotes, the purpose of which is to justify the ascension of the devil-child. Allied to this is Donner's use of what an earlier generation used to call the heavenly chorus. In family oriented films like MRS.MINIVER, a church chorus resounded a spiritually uplifting paen to hope and morality. In THE OMEN, this chorus has morphed into its demonic variant that resoundingly pervades nearly each scene that indicates some new piece of the infernal puzzle. Consider the major scenes of interest: the suicide of Damien's babysitter, the near entrance of Damien into a church, the decapitation of a photographer, and the ubiquitous presence of Damien's devil dog bodyguard. Each of these scenes is accompanied by an ear-numbing chorus that reminds the viewer that something infernal is afoot. What all these biblical allusions and sound effects add up to is a failure on the part of cast and crew to establish the legitimacy of the devil-child to stand up on his own, unpropped by such obvious and heavy-handed immoral shortcuts. Gregory Peck is Ambassador Thorn, who here, thinks that the best way to show an increasing concern that his baby son is not what he seems to be is to show an ossified face that allows only for the uplifting of an eyebrow to register emotion. Lee Remick as Damien's surrogate mother is only marginally more convincing. Billie Whitelaw as Damien's nanny is as flat a character as I have ever seen. Her only purpose is to protect Damien, and in that she is indistinguishable from their protective Doberman. The shock value of THE OMEN is, of course, the primary reason for its financial success. Coming so soon after the impact of THE EXORCIST, THE OMEN merely rechanneled another avenue of demonic celluloid possession for movie goers to travel. THE OMEN is covered with a suffocating blanket of predestined biblical apocalypse that renders it devoid of any leavening sense of joy or even escape from the certainty that when the devil really does take over, the world will be little more than a loud, morally crushing universe in which the anti-Christ continues to spout passages from the bible in waves that exceed our normal Sunday pulpits. When I see any film, I like to exit the theater feeling either uplifted or educated. With THE OMEN, I felt neither.
Rating: 
Summary: A 1970's classic!
Review: Ok so please ignore the fact that The American Ambassador's son's birthday party would NOT be headline news in the UK and the question of why Armed British Police officers were called as Gregory Peck was only speeding and enjoy this slice of horror that started the deluge of other movies of the same ilk. Great acting from Peck, Remick, Patrick 'Dr Who' Troughton, David 'always in these sort of movies' Warner, Billie Whitelaw and others. The one great Omen movie.
Rating:
Summary: Classic movie with an absolutely Classic Score!
Review: When I first saw this movie I just could not believe how well it had been put together by director Richard Donnor. Harvey Stephens was the perfect choice to play Damien "cute but evil". The Scene where he looks at the dog and waves is just a classic!, and then there is the score...Jerry Goldsmith won a well deserved oscar for this movie in which he created two excellent themes "Ave Satani" and "Piper Dreams" which carry this movie along with brilliance. I was only slighty disappointed by this DVD. Even though the picture looked better then it had ever looked before it was still not up to scratch with traces of dust still visable on the print etc. I thought the New Stereo mix was a vast improvement over the boring original mono track, adding more depth to Goldsmith's score but it was still not good enough (It deserved a full 5.1 Remix) The features on this DVD are interesting and add story to how The Omen came about and you also get the theatrical trailer and a rather good commentary track by Richard Donnor. People always try to compare this film to "The Exorcist" why???..The Exorcist is a classic all on it's own, So what it came out first (big deal!) The Omen has one thing The Exorcist does not "a classic score" The Exorcist used Tubular Bells "That was not written for The Exorcist" (It became famous because of it). This movie is a horror classic and will remain a classic for many years to come.
Rating:
Summary: A thrilling masterpiece in gothic horror
Review: When The Exorcist was released in 1973 the world stood in awe at the horror and gore than was presented before their very eyes. Rip-offs came thick and fast and then came the masterpiece The Omen. This 1976 horror film scored a hit with both critics and cinema-goers alike who had embraced a deep interest in gothic horror and its history. It has a first-rate cast, superb acting, brilliant shock tactics and a soundtrack to send shivers down your spine whatever your state of mind! It's no wonder Jerry Goldsmith won an Academy Award as the composer of the theme! I first saw this film last night when it was shown on UK TV. My mum recommended it to me, as it was a favourite of hers as a teenager and I absolutely loved it. In The Omen, Katherine (Lee Remick) and Robert Thorn (Gregory Peck) are a rich married couple who move to England from America. Katherine is pregnant and gives birth to an ostensibly baby boy while in Italy. This news is kept from her. Her husband knows how much his wife has wanted a baby and the problems she had conceiving, so he agrees to have the dead new-born supplanted by another new-born, whose mother died at child birth. Katherine thinks that the child is her own, but Robert knows it's not and keeps this a secret from her. They name the baby Damien (Harvey Stephens). Five years pass and we see the family growing up joyfully in their big mansion. They're happy and content with their lives and love their son more than anything. Everything is going well for the Thorn family until Damien turns five. A series of very creepy and unexplainable events happen around the time of his fifth birthday, which all seem to stem from Damien. The family employ a creepy and weird nanny (Billie Whitelaw) and things begin to spiral out of control. Robert and Katherine really start to think that there is something seriously wrong with their child so, with the help of a funny photographer (David Warner), Robert sets out to try and discover the truth about the mysterious events. A stubborn priest tries to warn him when these events happen, but Robert doesn't listen. It soon becomes too late when the man is murdered rather spectacularly. The horror of this film is based more on the shock tactics more so than the suspense factor, which doesn't make it a very scary film in terms of blood and guts, but more so in the way that it disturbs you deep down and shocks your body. The first big shock of the film comes on Damien's fifth birthday party when his nanny jumps from the top of the mansion roof screaming, "It's all for you Damien!" before hanging herself. Another shock comes when Damien goes hysterical as he nears a church in a car with is mother and father. He later drives his tricycle into his mother's stool as she is doing housework on a balcony. She falls and loses her second baby. Her long stint in hospital tears Robert apart, and her death after she is pushed out of a hospital window tips him over the edge. The death of the priest by a Church-spear is not only shocking, but rather humorous. The scenes in Italy with dogs and spikes and broken arms are spectacular, but the most famous scene comes when the photographer is decapitated by a sheet of glass that slides off the back of a truck which rolls down the hill towards him. A scene that has gone down in history! OVERALL GRADE: 10/10 The Omen can be a tad boring in between the shocking scenes and good parts of the storyline, but the ending is ten minutes of pure cinema brilliance. The scenes of Robert trying to cope with the world crumbling around him are also pure cinema gold, and shows a wonderfully emotional side to Peck's acting. Caught in a tornado of events of which he cannot control, he sweeps the audience along with him. David Seltzer wrote an awesome script, while Richard Donner works finely and precisely on directing this masterpiece. Essential viewing for all those who love gothic horror and truly great thrillers.
Rating:
Summary: The Omen
Review: This entertaining and scary horror film is about a happily married couple whose child may be the devil's son...or even the devil himself returned to Earth.
Gregory Peck and Lee Remick deliver in this bone-chilling tale of suspense. Jerry Goldsmith's music score is excellent and fits this movie perfectly. An atomspheric adventure into the world of what's known and what isn't.
Rating:
Summary: Great Potential Gone To Waste
Review: Lacking the subtle creepy atmosphere and strong writing of both "Rosemary's Baby" and "The Exorcist", "The Omen" is a horror film with great potential that unfortunately, when played out, is nothing more than a mediocre horror tale with weak writing, unexplained plot elements, and shock moments that do little to actually shock the audience. The story is well known, therefore I will not go into detail in describing it but rather indicating what I found to be wrong with it. After viewing "The Omen", some questions immediately rose to mind: if Damien cannot stand to be on the grounds of a church (as demonstrated by the scene showing his panic while being driven to a Sunday mass), then why was he able to remain completely calm and undisturbed while temporarily being taken care of by nuns in a church as an infant (see the film's beginning)? Another question was how did the priest who set out to warn Gregory Peck's character about Damien's demonic roots know that the ambassador's wife was pregnant? How did he know she would be killed? Who exactly was the photographer following Gregory Peck? A friend of the family? And are animals scared of Damien (the baboons and giraffes at the zoo) or do they obey his command (the black dog)? Aside from these questions, another major flaw of the story was that the characters involved were quite unlikeable and two-dimensional, with no visible depth at all. I found myself quite indifferent to anything that happened to them, and this didn't help to get me involved with the already flatly-executed story. Overall, "The Omen" was a mediocre horror film that didn't come close being at all creepy or disturbing, and had too many glaring flaws to really be fully enjoyed. I'd recommend "Rosemary's Baby" or "The Exorcist", two film's dealing with similar demonic themes, strongly over "The Omen". For those of you who are horror fans interested in seeing it, don't expect much; in my opinion it doesn't come close to being a classic of the genre. As for the DVD features, the commentary on the disc comes off as just obnoxious and it seems that the director and editor spend more time trying to remember what occured when making the film in 1976 then actually commenting on it. The featurettes on the DVD are decent, and the theatrical trailer is extremely unflattering but interesting to see for its old-fashioned style.
Rating:
Summary: Very Scary!
Review: Comparisons to Rosemary's Baby and The Exorcist were destined to this film simply because say "oh it's got the devil in it." Well I won't compare the two, but I will say that The Omen is scarier than Rosemary's Baby, but it can't touch The Exorcist. After The Exorcist sparked a lengthy trend of supernatural thrillers, this 1976 horror film scored a hit with critics and audiences for mixing gothic horror and mystery into its plot about a young boy suspected of being the personification of the anti-Christ. Directed by Richard Donner The Omen gained a lot of credibility from the casting of Gregory Peck and Lee Remick. The plot is a distinguished American couple living in England, whose young son Damien bears "the mark of the beast." Mysterious deaths and unexplained incidents draw the attention of a photographer, whose investigation leads to the young boy and also to the photographer's shocking decapitation At a time when graphic gore had yet to dominate the horror genre, this film used its violence discreetly and to great effect, and the mood of dread and potential death is masterfully maintained. Many viewers try to compare it to The Exorcist and Rosemary's Baby, but don't. Most people find The Exorcist much scarier than The Omen, and many find Rosemary's Baby scarier than the omen, so in the future don't do that. You get there hopes up, and sadly they won't be met. If someone say that the scariest movie ever is [insert movie] and someone else says, "no [insert movie] is the scariest," then you have just made that person biased to the film that you deemed the scariest and they'll not find it any good. People try to sound smart by saying "oh the exorcist just tries to shock you, and educated people prefer no blood guts or shocks." Sorry The Exorcist also had alot of subtle horror and psychological horror and to fill in the gaps and give the film that little extra something, they provided shocks to offend and scare people. But in this day and age everyone's a critic and if a movie doesn't move a lightning speed and is filled will gross effects and computer imagery it can't be deemed scary. The worse thing about classics like these is that people watch them with the mind set of "oh it's and older flick so this can't be scary." People are teased about being scared in older horror films and that's not a good thing. Another thing is, if you have kids who are asking questions about horror films, don't say "the scariest movie ever is [insert movie]," cuz due to the rebellious nature of youth they will take the opposite of everything you say and do. So if you don't fall into those catagory's and have the guts to take the criticism and watch it alone in the dark, then you have earned my respect. But I will say this, your kids won't find this any good at all, simply cuz it's an older one and they simply don't know or get how to view films like these. But what do you expect with movies like Scream and I Know what You did Last Summer out there. And of course the latest trend of "being stupid is funny and cool." So this classic will die away and stupid un-scary films like Scream, and Silence of the Lambs are taking over. Oh well hollywood sux and so does pop culture. Watch this flick alone in the dark.
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