Review: THE FIRST OMEN

The First Omen should have been: Don’t make this movie. Am I right? Hello, is this thing on? Delving again into prequels no one asked for, comes The First Omen, about how Damien ended up with Gregory Peck.

I watched Immaculate the other day but didn’t bother doing a review, as it didn’t seem it needed one. The First Omen kind of does, as it’s an Omen movie, but basically, it’s exactly the same as Immaculate.

The official story for The First Omen is:

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

The story for Immaculate is:

Cecilia, a woman of devout faith, is warmly welcomed to the picture-perfect Italian countryside where she is offered a new role at an illustrious convent. But it becomes clear to Cecilia that her new home harbors dark and horrifying secrets.

Mild spoilers, both of them give birth to the Anti-Christ. I’ve seen a few shill-reviews on the IMDb saying they are similar, but not the same. Sorry, but that’s talking testicles, they are exactly the same. This one has Omen written on it though.

There really is very little difference between the two.

An American woman in an Italian nunnery
Dark conspiracy
Mild hints at lesbi-nuns
Slowly unfolding story
Finding files that explain everything
Another nun jumping to their death (I can’t remember, but pretty sure that happened in Immaculate)
“Oh no, I’m pregnant”
Evil baby

There, I’ve summed up both movies in 8 bullet points. I can’t think of them off the top of my head, but you have other movies where the same thing happens, Rosemary’s Baby is the obvious choice.

The First Omen vs. Immaculate

This is a tough call, as both are as dull as each other. Both are creepy and fairly well-directed. Both have the occasional jump scare. Both have nuns in them.

I guess the bigger question is, who do you rate more, Sydney Sweeny or Nell Tiger Free? In both movies, there is very little nudity, so that’s no help. I honestly don’t rate either of them as great actors, they get the job done, but that’s about it. Maybe go really shallow and ask who’s got the bigger rack? If that’s the case, Sweeny would win.

The two movies have very different endings and, for me, Immaculate takes it at the end. The ending there is very dark and “graphic” leaving it up to your own twisted imagination. In The First Omen, it’s much more “here is the ending”, which was OK, but at the same time, a little disappointing. If you do see both, you’ll see what I mean about Immaculate.

The opening of The First Omen has a setup for recreating the famous death scene from the original. I laughed at how badly it was done. There’s a mild fake out, then when you see what has happened, you will either laugh or roll your eyes.

Overall

Immaculate The First Omen loses points, as it is a complete prequel to one of the best horror films ever made. Even down to mentioning Gregory Peck’s character and showing a photo of him. But here in lies the problem.

I’ve always loved the mystery of where Damian came from. Robert and Katherine Thorn (from the original movie) adopted a child, who turns out to be the Anti-Christ. I didn’t need a movie about how they made him, who had sex with what, or anything like that. I like the mystery.

It’s the same with so many prequels, the mystery of Darth Vader, Willy Wonka, Cruella, and even Furiosa to be honest. The list just goes on and on. You can bet your bottom dollar there’s a script somewhere called Doc & Marty: The Early Years. You know how most prequels will end, as you know which characters will survive.

The First Omen is a well-made movie, but just not needed. It will kill two hours if you have them spare. Watch it at the same time as Immaculate and see if they hit the same beats.

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