The Omen (2006)

June 12, 2006

Rated: R Runtime: 105 min Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

When doing a remake of a movie there’s a line you shouldn’t cross, a point where you are just copying the movie instead of doing an actual remake. The Omen crosses that line and does a piss poor job of it in the process.

The Omen (2006) If you’ve never seen the original, then you need to stop reading this review as I’m going to refer to plot points and don’t want to ruin it for anyone. Consider this a spoiler warning.

One of the interesting things about the original version of The Omen is that it’s more of a drama than a horror movie. There’s very little in the way of special effects, and the “horror” really comes from your imagination, and that will be based on the degree in which you believe in the material the story gets it’s ideas from (the Book of Revelation.) There’s not one single “gotcha!” moment in the original movie, you’ll never be startled or wonder if something is sitting behind your couch. Apparently the director of this remake doesn’t think that highly of today’s movie goers and has thrown in several “gotchas!” to remind you that you’re supposed to be watching something scary. He mostly does this in quick flashes of memory, or in a dream sequence, but at least once changed the original story just a tad so that you get a startle.

At least that change made some sense, most of the time it seems a change was made just for the sake of making a change. In the original Robert Thorn is promoted to the Ambassador to England, in this one his boss is promoted to that spot and he’s made the Assistant to the Ambassador. Doesn’t last long though as his boss meets a fiery end at 6:06:06 one evening in traffic. Yep, they changed the story just so they could work in another death and the numbers again. Another more subtle change is when they come back from trying to take Damien to church. In the original it’s Robert who suggests that perhaps something isn’t quite right about Damien, this time it’s the mom that makes that suggestion. Considering good old dad gets stuck with trying to clean up at the end of the movie it makes much more sense to have him start doubting early on, especially considering he’s the only one that knows Damien is adopted.

Even with all the little changes in the story, it feels like they had a TV cart and DVD player on the set each day and the director would have everyone watch the original scene before doing the shoot and would just say, “do that.” This remake is completely uninspired and it’s obvious that everyone was just phoning it in. I liked Liev Schreiber as Robert Thorn, but everyone else kinda sucked.

One last thing is Damien himself. In the original he was oblivious to what was going on around him, people died and monkeys got pissed, but while he was a bit cold he never seemed to be “in” on what was going on. Not so this time around, he’s most definitely involved in what’s happening. The prime example is his mothers fall from the upstairs hallway. In the first movie he’s riding a tricycle around his room, head down just having a good time. His nanny opens the door to the hallway and he just rides out still having a good time. He’s not watching where he’s going and bumps his mom, causing her fall. This time around Damien is standing on his Razor scooter staring at his nanny.. after a bit of eye contact, he scoots his way out of his room, down the hall and aims directly for his mother. There’s no doubt at all that he did it on purpose.

This is a major change from the original and completely ruins the ending of the movie when he turns to look at the camera and gives just the slightest smile. The first time around you suddenly get hit with the idea that this little 5-year old kid *knows* what’s going on and really is evil! With the remake it’s just a “duh!” moment and that’s it. No chills, no creepy feeling, just annoyance at some really bad directorial decisions.

I didn’t like this version at all. It’s not unwatchable so I’ll refrain from giving it a 1-star rating, but I highly suggest that you skip it and rent the 1976 version. You’ll be much happier.

Posted by John | Filed Under 2 Stars, David Thewlis, Drama, Horror, Julia Stiles, Liev Schreiber, Mia Farrow, R, Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick, Theatrical