Two Cents is an original column akin to a book club for films. The Cinapse team will program films and contribute our best, most insightful, or most creative thoughts on each film using a maximum of 200 words each. Guest writers and fan comments are encouraged, as are suggestions for future entries to the column. Join us as we share our two cents on films we love, films we are curious about, and films we believe merit some discussion.
Trick Or Treat!
It’s Halloween, y’all! Well, October anyway. It’s our favorite time of the year here at Two Cents, because this is when we get to curate a list of seasonal delights to assault your eyeballs. Last year’s Trick Or Treat event resulted in some of the most fun discussions we’ve ever had on the column and we hope this year will yield more of the same! Here’s this year’s Trick Or Treat lineup! (Click the image to expand)
– Austin
The Pick
LOOK AT ME, DAMIEN! This Two Cents is ALL FOR YOU!!!
Our trick’r’treating Two Cents ride has included madmen with chainsaws, zombies, monsters under the bed, and Australian people, so why not pay tribute to the oldest monster of them all? The father of lies, the desolate one, the beast! Sure, he’s represented in The Omen as a chubby little British kid in an adorable suit but that still counts!
The Antichrist is so thoroughly ingrained a pop culture notion that it’s strange to think that much (all?) of our modern conceptions of such a character stem from a relatively recent film. The Omen debuted in 1976 to massive box office success, permanently cementing things like “Damien” and “666” as cornerstones of demonic lore. Even people who have no idea what The Omen is have a cursory knowledge of the film’s mythology and story.
But just because the film is a pop culture institution, doesn’t mean it actually holds up.
This week, the team and our guest are taking a good hard look at The Omen and seeing what sort of fate we have in store. Might we have an enjoyable evening with a classic horror? Or is The Omen just meaningless images on film?
Did you get a chance to watch along with us this week? Want to recommend a great (or not so great) film for the whole gang to cover? Comment below or post on our Facebook or hit us up on Twitter!
Next Week’s Pick:
Wes Craven may have left us, but his legacy of terror will be setting audiences to screaming for decades to come. We’re closing out our special Halloween series with a trip to one of Craven’s more under-appreciated nightmares: The Hills Have Eyes!
Available to stream on Amazon and on wonderful horror service Shudder, The Hills Have Eyes transplants the folkloric murders of Sawney Bean and his incestuous clan to the nuclear-riddled wastelands of the American desert, and throws a RV full of unassuming Middle Americans into a wood chipper of terror and madness.
Would you like to be a guest in next week’s Two Cents column? Simply watch and send your under-200-word review to twocents(at)cinapse.co!
Our Guest
Trey Lawson:
I was excited to revisit The Omen for the first time in years. I have fond memories of it (and, less frequently, its sequels) as a part of various October horror marathons. Unfortunately, I can’t say the film has aged well. The cast is fantastic — Gregory Peck’s sympathetic performance anchors the movie; surrounding him are very good supporting turns by David Warner, Patrick Troughton, and the incomparable Billie Whitelaw. The main problem, I think, is that the structure of the film is that of a mystery, but the film tips its hand so many times that it never seems quite as suspenseful as it should. There are several fine scare gags throughout (some of which are deservedly iconic), but the film as a whole left me underwhelmed this time. While impressive from a technical standpoint, The Omen lacks the intensity and conviction of The Exorcist, the grittiness of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, or even the dark humor of Rosemary’s Baby. I appreciate the film for its influence on the genre (and pop culture more broadly), but unlike the other films just listed the scope of The Omen‘s relevance has certainly diminished. Verdict: Trick (@T_Lawson)
The Team
James:
I was always a bit perplexed at the success of The Omen and the sequels/remake it spawned. In its own overblown way, it’s trying to put a credible spin on biblical prophecies and the upcoming apocalypse with its real-world, modern-day setting and eclectic cast. Who better to be the morally upstanding counterpoints to the Anti-Christ’s diabolical antics than Atticus Finch himself Gregory Peck, and Lee Remick? Add in Richard Donner’s assured direction and a histrionic Jerry Goldsmith score and you’re all set for a disturbingly plausible odyssey into Satanic conspiracies involving a vacant eyed kid being a right pain in the hole.
Unfortunately, its attempts to scare you into taking it seriously are scuppered by some ludicrous (if entertaining) set-pieces, including Patrick Troughton getting skewered by a church weather-vane and, most famously, David Warner’s decapitation thanks to a demonically possessed, glass pane carrying truck.
Despite the pleasingly bleak ending, Harvey Stephen’s born-of-the-jackal Damien is about as menacing as Peppa Pig, and no amount of Latin, choral chanting and impending doom can stop The Omen plunging into a high-camp pit of its own making.
Then again, maybe I’m reading it wrong and that might’ve been its intention all along. Verdict: Trick (@jconthagrid)
Frank:
The presence of the evil child in movies has long been a staple of the horror genre, but no film ever highlighted the little devils (I’ll let you decide if that pun was intended or not) better than The Omen. So many great set pieces populate this film. There’s the family’s intense drive to church, the disturbingly devoted nanny and Lee Remick’s intense fall off the railing. For me, however, it’s the scene in the cemetery with those dogs which hasn’t left me since the first time I viewed the frightening, yet well-made scene.
That’s the one thing many people tend to forget about The Omen when placing it in the content of its many sequels, (decent) remake and other “evil child” film entries. This is a GOOD movie. It’s got flawless direction, effective camera moves, a great screenplay and pedigree actors like Remick and Gregory Peck who do indeed give it all they’ve got. Above all though, the film’s notion that the most horrific of creatures ever feared could take the form of one of the most innocent ever put on earth, was one of pure shock, which remains stirring to this day with every viewing of The Omen. Verdict: Treat (@frankfilmgeek)
Justin:
Religious content. Creepy kids. These are the top two things that fuck up my Christmas, as it were. Religiously based horror with cults and demons truly get under my skin. Add children to the mix and the terror increases exponentially.
The Omen surely hits both of these horrifying components, but that isn’t to say it’s on par with films like The Exorcist or Children of the Corn. Standout performances from Peck and company sell many of the scares, but there is oft a silliness or campiness that disallows the film from being as truly terrifying as the premise would lead me, based on my aforementioned fears, to believe it would be.
That silliness, however, does help make this film go down easier, a “spoonful of sugar” like the Mary Poppins tune suggests. It also makes for a truly fun time and makes me wish I’d watched with a group of friends. Verdict: Treat (@thepaintedman)
Ed:
There are moments of discomfort and tension in The Omen so well realized that they’ve stuck with me over decades. While in between watches some of the various plot intricacies may fade from memory, Li’l Damien’s nanny straight up hanging herself at a birthday party is iconically unsettling. As religious horror goes, The Omen isn’t even in the same ball park of quality that The Exorcist resides in, but that doesn’t mean there’s not a classiness and prestige to it. With Gregory Peck in the lead and Richard Donner at the helm, there’s a regal air to the whole thing. It succeeds more in the first half, suffering from a certain inevitability that creeps into the second half which doesn’t compare favorably to the opening half of the film, but still keeps your attention.
The Omen is an effective film with elements of horror and mystery and fear of children sprinkled generously throughout, bolstered by a genuinely creepy kid and an even creepier Nanny. And hey, something’s got to be great about a movie in order to convince Gregory Peck to play a character who wants to kill a small child! Verdict: Treat (@Ed_Travis)
Brendan:
The Omen often gets lumped in with, if not placed as the leading example of, the Evil Kid subgenre of horror. So it’s always surprising to go back and see just how little Damien actually does in The Omen. For the most part, Damien exists at the sidelines of the story, a (we’re told) malevolent presence quietly warping things to a darker reality. Richard Donner’s workmanlike approach is a real detriment in that regard, as nothing in the film captures the almost fever-dream logic needed to make these various leaps actually work (whereas similar films like Don’t Look Now or Rosemary’s Baby got away with far crazier material through style and sheer verve).
The Omen is at its best in the early goings, when Donner’s orderly world, spearheaded by none-more-square Gregory Peck and Lee Remick keeps getting invaded by insane occurrences and overacting British character actors. Once The Omen digs into magic knives and sacred prophecies, the air goes out of the film.
But the violence (while sporadic) is executed with gleeful abandon, and Donner absolutely nails the punchline. With Billie Whitelaw’s terrifyingly chipper Mrs. Baylock captaining the supporting players, The Omen is still well-worth the occasional revisit. Verdict: Treat (@TheTrueBrendanF)
Austin:
This was my first time with The Omen so I just sat back and enjoyed the ride. It’s kind of astounding to me that Richard Donner and Gregory Peck have worked on a film together — a horror film, no less. The film is often eerie, finding terror in anticipation and the unknown rather than with specific “acts” of horror (although that hanging scene is pretty gut-wrenching). In certain scenes I also found the score, with its Latin chanting, particularly chilling. I also enjoyed David Warner as the photographer who gets involved in the ordeal. He’s one of the lesser known great character actors who popped up in a ton of genre films over the years.
One of the more fascinating aspects of the film is Robert Thorn’s culpability. He is both a protagonist and victim, but he wouldn’t be in this mess, had he not allowed the evil to take hold. Misled by a malevolent priest (the False Prophet?), his choice to deceive his wife would prove to be a most tragic mistake.
The film ends, well, in the only way it ever could. There’s no averting Biblical prophecy. Verdict: Treat (@VforVashaw)
The Verdict
Trick: 2 | Treat: 5
Verdict: Treat
Did you all get a chance to watch along with us? Share your thoughts with us here in the comments or on Twitter or Facebook!