The First Omen (2024)

April 14, 2024 10:00 AM

[TRAILER] When a young American woman is sent to Rome to begin a life of service to the church, she encounters a darkness that causes her to question her own faith and uncovers a terrifying conspiracy that hopes to bring about the birth of evil incarnate.

Starring Nell Tiger Free, Tawfeek Barhom, Sônia Braga, Ralph Ineson, Bill Nighy.

Directed by Arkasha Stevenson. Screenplay by Tim Smith, Arkasha Stevenson, Keith Thomas. Story by Ben Jacoby. Based on characters by David Seltzer. Produced by David S. Goyer, Keith Levine for Phantom Four/20th Century. Cinematography by Aaron Morton. Edited by Bob Murawski, Amy E. Duddleston. Music by Mark Korven.

81% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.

Now playing in theaters. JustWatch listing.

posted by DirtyOldTown (8 comments total)

this one is definitely on my watch list!!! it looks fun, hopefully it won't suck.
posted by supermedusa at 10:16 AM on April 14

Some good scares, and a neat little twist as to motive. One doesn’t need to have seen any of the prior OMEN films to be able to enjoy this.

Kinda weird how this is so thematically similar to another horror film currently at the box office: IMMACULATE. Hey Hollywood, we’re all stocked up on surreptitiously pregnant American nuns in Italy horror movies now.

Unfortunately for both of the aforementioned films, there’s an even better horror movie in theaters right now that ya’ll should go see: LATE NIGHT WITH THE DEVIL. It’s excellent.
posted by edithkeeler at 12:51 PM on April 14

This is probably my favorite of the Omen films. Terrific period details, a plot that has enough wrinkles from the evil things inside the church! framework to feel fresh, and more than a few things echoing the original Suspiria. Little bit of David Lynch and Ken Russell in there, too.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 1:51 PM on April 14 [2 favorites]

Yes, and even a bit of M. Night Shyamalan’s SIGNS in there, too: the lovers’ final conversation during a gruesome car accident pinning death.
posted by edithkeeler at 4:18 PM on April 14

Me, during the first 30 minutes: Hey, this lives up to the hype! Very solid.

Me, during the next 30 minutes: This might even be pretty good. Nicely done!

Me, from minutes 60-90: Wow, this is actually the very best Omen film!

Me, during the last 30 minutes: search "Arkasha Stevenson fan club."
posted by DirtyOldTown at 5:54 PM on April 14

Huh, I guess I’m the outlier, but I found this one so aggressively predictable. I wanted it to work on me, but just never really felt creeped out at all. Sure there were some gross scenes, but very little in the way of tension sadly.
posted by Cogito at 11:47 PM on April 14

This and Immaculate both seem spun by the same writing prompts, but take them in unique directions and are an interesting pairing to watch together (assuming you can deal with the body horror, much of it pregnancy-related).

I saw both in the span of a week and would be hard pressed to say which I thought was better. Late Night With The Devil was also a delight though, so I'd second that recommendation too.
posted by Pryde at 8:11 AM on April 15 [1 favorite]

I really liked Nell Tiger Free's laid-back performance (in a good way) in the very goofy series called "Servant" so I'll probably check this out.
posted by SoberHighland at 5:24 AM on April 16