With popular scary movie franchises including Halloween, Scream, The Conjuring, Saw, and The Exorcist all getting follow-ups in recent years, it was almost no surprise to see another instalment in The Omen series, but this one was a prequel. Basically, in Italy, the shaken Father Harris (Charles Dance) is in a confession box with Father Brennan (Ralph Ineson) talking about an occult conspiracy. Harris seeks forgiveness and gives Brennan a photograph of a baby with the name "Scianna" written on it. After leaving the church, a lightning bolt suddenly strikes the spire above, falling and smashing a stained-glass window. It looks as though Harris avoids it, but turning his head, the falling pipe has split his head open, and he smiles before dying. In Rome, in 1971, during left-wing protests, American novice Margaret Daino (Nell Tiger Free) arrives at the Vizzardeli Orphanage. She meets with Cardinal Lawrence (Bill Nighy), Father Gabriel (Tawfeek Barhom), Abess Sister Silvia (Sônia Braga), her roommate and fellow novice Luz (Maria Caballero), and nun Sister Anjelica (Ishtar Currie Wilson). Luz invites Margaret to a disco, where she dances with a man named Paolo (Andrea Arcangeli) before blacking out. When she wakes up the following day, she has no memory of what happened. Margaret bonds with the mistreated orphan Carlita (Nicole Sorace), who has been having bad visions. Father Brennan warns her about Carlita, saying "evil things" have happened around her. Margaret sees Carlita showing Anjelica a drawing of a pregnant woman being restrained. Moments later, Anjelica is seen committing suicide, first setting herself alight and then hanging herself. Brennan explains that fundamentalists within the church, desperate to regain power against the rise of political ideology, seek to bring about the Antichrist to create fear and drive people back to the church, with Carlita intended to be the mother. During a field trip, a riot breaks out and Margaret experiences demonic hallucinations. Sister Silvia postpones Margaret's vows and orders her to distance herself from Carlita. She is horrified to encounter Paolo again. He tells her to "look for the mark" before he is fatally impaled by an oncoming truck. Margaret sneaks into Sister Silvia's office. She uncovers a hidden, underground chamber and a series of subject files, all labeled "Scianna". Each file contains a photo of a disfigured baby with a birthmark in the shape of three sixes, and Carlita is seemingly the only survivor. Margaret is intercepted and locates the birthmark on the roof of Carlita's mouth before she is caught and imprisoned. Father Gabriel frees Margaret, and they examine the files further; they discover that another baby had survived. Margaret is frightened to discover a birthmark on her own scalp. She suddenly remembers that she was forcefully impregnated the night of the disco during a satanic ritual whilst she was blacked out. Margaret realises The Devil will need to mate with his own spawn for the Antichrist to be conceived; Margaret was brought to Rome as Carlita is too young. The group drives off to have the pregnancy aborted, but another car crashes into theirs on the way and Margaret's womb suddenly fills. She wakes up strapped to a hospital bed and is greeted by Cardinal Lawrence, the head of the conspiracy. She gives birth to two children, a girl and a boy; the boy is hailed as the Antichrist. She stabs Lawrence but cannot bring herself to kill her newborn son. Luz stabs Margaret as the conspirators escape with the boy and set fire to the chamber to cover their tracks. Carlita saves Margaret and her daughter and Margaret sees her assaulter, a demonic jackal in the flames. The baby boy is handed to American diplomat Robert Thorn to secretly replace his wife Katherine's child who supposedly died in childbirth (but was actually murdered). Years later, Margaret is in seclusion in the mountains with Carlita and her daughter, and they have become a happy family. Brennan appears and warns that the conspirators will be hunting her, and that her son has been named Damien. Also starring Guido Quaglione as Alfonzo, Dora Romano as Sister Romano, Anton Alexander as Father Spiletto, Mario Opinato as Doctor, and Rachel Hurd-Wood as Katherine Thorn. Free is pretty solid in the lead role, Ineson (as the Patrick Troughton character) as the troubled priest does fine, Nighy is always reliable, but Dance only onscreen for less than five minutes is almost pointless. The biggest problem is that it ignores key facts about the original, specifically the jackal in the grave and the lead character becomes the biological mother, it doesn't fully make sense, and with two children born it only adds to the confusion for me, and God forbid there will be a follow-up. I don't know why the critics gave this film average reviews, as a slow burner it was too slow, the religious stuff is okay, it is atmospheric but the scary moments only work at times, I just found it rather dull, a fairly rubbish supernatural horror. Adequate, in my opinion!
Review of The First Omen
