3525. The Omen (1976)

Starring: Gregory Peck, Lee Remick, David Warner

Director: Richard Donner

Running Time: 111 mins

The Omen is an American film about a man who, after secretly replacing his wife’s unborn son with an adopted child, begins to experience a strange series of events that lead him and his wife to believe that their child holds within him a dark power.

A classic horror for good reason, The Omen is a deeply unsettling watch from start to finish, with striking performances and an unsettling atmosphere that blends disturbing themes on religion and family.

While the film doesn’t hit the spine-tinglingly frightening heights of The Exorcist, one of the most psychologically distressing films of all time, The Omen is a captivating watch that uses bubbling tension to build its disturbing premise in enthralling style.

Following a wealthy political family headed by Gregory Peck, the film is a strikingly intimate watch, with only a handful of main characters throughout.

The slim cast is a major part of what makes the film’s mesmerising themes of family and religion so impactful. In short time, you form a strong connection with each of the main characters, understanding the familial bond that’s threatened to be ripped apart.

Bolstered by the always-unsettling use of the corruption of children, The Omen evolves from a tense mystery into an emotionally distressing affair, as it builds towards an almost unthinkable finale.

Gregory Peck’s transition from uneasy to purely dishevelled as events take a darker turn makes the film all the more exhilarating, while the ominous presence of complex and opaque religious themes and ideas only adds to the unpredictability.

While it doesn’t move all too quickly at first, The Omen is a film that really ramps up both in terms of stakes and in pace, ultimately delivering a thrilling, unsettling and possibly even upsetting watch that you certainly won’t forget in a hurry. So, that’s why I’m giving The Omen a 7.7 overall.