Emerging amid the vogue for theological shockers after The Exorcist (1973), The Omen arguably threatened to beat it at its own game.
Sired by a jackal and destined to plunge the world into chaos and darkness when Satan decrees it, Damien (Harvey Stephens) is the Antichrist.
Secretly adopted by the American Ambassador to the Court of St James, Robert Thorn (Gregory Peck) and his wife, Katherine (Lee Remick) – whose own child was stillborn at the moment of Damien’s birth – Damien spends the duration of the film killing his surrogate family and everyone else who steps in the way.
The gore and shocks come fast, but it’s the growing sense of menace played against the seeming innocence of the young boy that really makes this one disturbing.
To embody the pivotal devil child Damien, thousands of adolescent boys were tested, until four-year-old Harvey Stephens won the part after having the audacity to punch a goading Richard Donner in the testicles during his audition.
With his blonde hair dyed dark with shoe polish and contact lenses to change the colour of his eyes, Stephens would certainly look the demonic part too.
The sequels were a great example of diminishing returns, but The Omen is a brilliantly constructed and truly terrifying movie.
Seeing lots of British character actors bite the dust in a dizzyingly bizarre fashion is worth the price alone.
These include former Doctor Who Patrick Troughton as angst-ridden Father Brennan, who attempts to forewarn the Thorns; the ever-versatile David Warner as agnostic photographer Keith Jennings (who meets a memorable beheading), and an uncredited Leo McKern as Jerusalem-based Antichrist archaeologist Carl Bugenhagen.
However, Billie Whitelaw steals the show as the literal nanny from hell, Mrs Baylock, who chillingly declares to young Damien: “Have no fear, little one – I am here to protect thee.”
A stuntman on the set suffered terrible injuries after falling from a building. He later claimed to have been pushed by an “invisible force”.
Numerous other sinister incidents befell the cast and crew – Gregory Peck’s TWA flight from Los Angeles was struck by lightning, several principal members of the crew survived a head-on car crash, and the day after filming wrapped at the Windsor Safari Park (now the Legoland Windsor Resort), a park game warden, Sidney Bamford, was mauled and killed by a tiger named “Yellow Tag”.
The box office certainly wasn’t jinxed, however, and The Omen became a massive commercial hit that revived the previously floundering Fox Studios. The success helped secure funds for George Lucas to finish the first instalment of a certain intergalactic space opera.
Robert Thorn
Gregory Peck Katherine Thorn
Lee Remick Keith Jennings
David Warner MrsBaylock
Billie Whitelaw Damien
Harvey Stephens Father Brennan
Patrick Troughton Father Spiletto
Martin Benson Dr Becker
Anthony Nicholl Mrs Horton
Sheila Raynor Monk
Robert Rietty Priest
Tommy Duggan Psychiatrist
John Stride Nanny
Holly Palance
Director
Richard Donner
Video
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Secretly adopted by the American Ambassador to the Court of St James, Robert Thorn (Gregory Peck) and his wife, Katherine (Lee Remick) – whose own child was stillborn at the moment of Damien’s birth – Damien spends the duration of the film killing his surrogate family and everyone else who steps in the way.
The sequels were a great example of diminishing returns, but The Omen is a brilliantly constructed and truly terrifying movie.
A stuntman on the set suffered terrible injuries after falling from a building. He later claimed to have been pushed by an “invisible force”.
