The Red Circle

The films, however, could not be more vastly different in their approaches and subject matter once you get into watching them. It is a belief of mine that this is the horror genre’s closest example of the Elvis or Beatles debate. You can love both, but at the end of the day your either an Exorcist fan or an Omen fan.

Since I’m the one writing this piece, you can guess where I stand. It should also be mentioned that I am a big Richard Donner fan (Superman, The Toy, Lethal Weapon, Scrooged, etc.). Donner broke out of television with this adaption of David O. Seltzer’s (who also wrote the script and spent the rest of his career writing Omen rip-offs) book in ‘76. And thus on the SIXTH day of the SIXTH month of Nineteen-Seventy-SIX, to be exact, The Omen hit unsuspecting theaters.

Donner, with the more than capable help of Gregory Peck (as Robert Thorn), created the portrait of a wealthy American diplomat living abroad with his family. So unsuspectingly normal in its execution that you get sucked into the characters plight as they find their lives dripping away and slowly circling the drain that is Damien Thorn.

You meet Damien amidst his fifth birthday as his unspoken power compels his nanny to give herself eternally in a very public suicidal present. This also serves to bring the truly great David Warner as photographer Keith Jennings into the Thorn’s life as his photos begin to telegraph the omens of things to come. The event gets explained away as unfortunate and the Thorn’s refuse any further inquiry into the details. This becomes a paramount feature of Robert Thorn’s unwillingness to accept where this road is leading.

As much as The Omen unfolds to being the origins of Damien Thorn, it is really a story about Robert Thorn and his good intentions. Robert’s discretionary lie (his sin) to switch babies at birth once informed that his own fell to still birth was done for his wife’s (Lee Remick) benefit and sanity. This action would also serve to resign her to a painful end. If the end of all things is quite literally Damien then it is Robert’s good intentions that paved the way. The Omen worked on showing how easily evil could merge into our world at just the right on ramp and gain total power by using our own vanity and aim to please against us.

Donner painted the screen with the great camera work (nature park sequence, cemetery discovery sequence, etc.) of a hungry freshmen film maker working on all cylinders. The supporting cast filled their roles and made them resonate. The subtle horror of Damien’s new nanny Mrs. Baylock and her guard-dog keep the horror mounting. The realization of utter hopelessness in the ability to stop coming events is conveyed by David Warner’s performance as Jennings. The horror of realization on Lee Remick’s face as she falls to her death is matched only by Gregory Peck’s when he finally realizes just what must be done.

It is the very real reactions to unstoppable events and the horror of knowing just how and when the end comes that resonates for me. Richard Donner represents the supernatural in the ways that M. Night Shyamalan handled superheroes through the lens of our reality. It never once takes you out of the moment with a cheap scare or computer generated effects (see THE OMEN 2006). The horror for me is summed up in the final shot as Damien looks back at the audience, hand-in-hand with the President of the United States as his parents are given an honorable burial. It is his look of confidence that everything you just witnessed was exactly to plan and as his eyes look past you, you realize your own insignificance against the kind of evil that plays upon our biggest weakness…each other.

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