The Omen
I missed out on the original Omen/Exorcist craze in the 70s. By the time I caught up with things, it was 1984 and The Exorcist III had just come out. I went to see it at the old UA Cinemas in downtown Seattle, and was one of only four or five people at a late-night midweek screening. The experience creeped me out to such an extent that to this day I shudder at the thought: William Peter Blatty took this stuff dead seriously.
To a certain extent, such seriousness is a prerequisite for the subgenre to which The Omen belongs—which is not horror, precisely, but Demon Possession Flicks. “Many believe the prophecy from the Book of Revelation provides a map to a terrifying future,” says publicity material for The Omen, or that it “presents fragments of history that have come to life in our time.” Either way, the basic premise of The Omen hinges on taking biblical prophecy seriously.
Or semi-seriously, at any rate.
Last year’s Constantine played many of the same mindgames—utilizing just enough of the trappings of Roman Catholicism to get us to buy into the religious milieu of the Demon Possession genre. But just as Constantine quoted non-existent verses to bolster its plot (and pointedly avoided quoting any actual Scripture), The Omen mixes actual snippets of Scripture with pure fabrications in order to set its plot in motion. What’s perhaps more perplexing is the idea that a conclave of Roman Catholic cardinals would buy into an end-times scenario promoted by Left Behind and The Omega Code. Catholics, by and large, just don’t subscribe to such readings of Revelation.
So as director John Moore’s remade story of demon-child Damien plays itself out on the silver screen, we may find ourselves wondering: Just how seriously does Moore take this stuff? For me, the film doesn’t work particularly well. When bodies start getting skewered and decapitated, and croquet mallets start flying, the movie almost feels as if the material is being played for laughs.
It was refreshing, however, to spend some time with Moore the day after the press screening and discover that he finds the idea of angels and demons both laughable and unnerving. On one level, he sees stories such as The Omen as purely metaphorical of the human condition; but on another level, the human capacity for evil leads Moore to very concrete metaphysical speculations. If The Omen reflects a certain ambivalence toward demonic forces, that’s because Moore himself is ambivalent. Fair enough.
It was even more refreshing, though, to talk with an agnostic BBC producer that same day. In the real world, she doesn’t take issues of religious faith seriously at all; but The Omen’s premise—that all this demonic mumbo jumbo might actually be true, as she put it—was for her perfectly gripping.
The more I thought about my own reaction to The Omen, the more I realized why it didn’t work for me. It wasn’t that John Moore doesn’t take the supernatural seriously enough.
The problem is that, in the twenty-plus years since seeing The Exorcist III, I have come to take spirituality so seriously that it’s impossible for me to be entertained by popcorn-chomping presentations of it. And that’s my own problem.
The bottom line? My guess is that The Omen will work quite nicely for those who find issues of spirituality stimulating—and entertaining—food for thought. John Moore (and most fans of the genre) should be pleased, even if I was not.
To a certain extent, such seriousness is a prerequisite for the subgenre to which The Omen belongs—which is not horror, precisely, but Demon Possession Flicks. “Many believe the prophecy from the Book of Revelation provides a map to a terrifying future,” says publicity material for The Omen, or that it “presents fragments of history that have come to life in our time.” Either way, the basic premise of The Omen hinges on taking biblical prophecy seriously.
Or semi-seriously, at any rate.
Last year’s Constantine played many of the same mindgames—utilizing just enough of the trappings of Roman Catholicism to get us to buy into the religious milieu of the Demon Possession genre. But just as Constantine quoted non-existent verses to bolster its plot (and pointedly avoided quoting any actual Scripture), The Omen mixes actual snippets of Scripture with pure fabrications in order to set its plot in motion. What’s perhaps more perplexing is the idea that a conclave of Roman Catholic cardinals would buy into an end-times scenario promoted by Left Behind and The Omega Code. Catholics, by and large, just don’t subscribe to such readings of Revelation.
So as director John Moore’s remade story of demon-child Damien plays itself out on the silver screen, we may find ourselves wondering: Just how seriously does Moore take this stuff? For me, the film doesn’t work particularly well. When bodies start getting skewered and decapitated, and croquet mallets start flying, the movie almost feels as if the material is being played for laughs.
It was refreshing, however, to spend some time with Moore the day after the press screening and discover that he finds the idea of angels and demons both laughable and unnerving. On one level, he sees stories such as The Omen as purely metaphorical of the human condition; but on another level, the human capacity for evil leads Moore to very concrete metaphysical speculations. If The Omen reflects a certain ambivalence toward demonic forces, that’s because Moore himself is ambivalent. Fair enough.
It was even more refreshing, though, to talk with an agnostic BBC producer that same day. In the real world, she doesn’t take issues of religious faith seriously at all; but The Omen’s premise—that all this demonic mumbo jumbo might actually be true, as she put it—was for her perfectly gripping.
The more I thought about my own reaction to The Omen, the more I realized why it didn’t work for me. It wasn’t that John Moore doesn’t take the supernatural seriously enough.
The problem is that, in the twenty-plus years since seeing The Exorcist III, I have come to take spirituality so seriously that it’s impossible for me to be entertained by popcorn-chomping presentations of it. And that’s my own problem.
The bottom line? My guess is that The Omen will work quite nicely for those who find issues of spirituality stimulating—and entertaining—food for thought. John Moore (and most fans of the genre) should be pleased, even if I was not.
posted by Greg Wright at 5:01 AM
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