Classic Movie

'He must DIE, Mr Thorn!'

THE OMEN (1976)

The plot:

A high-ranking political sort (Gregory Peck) and his MILF-to-be missus (Lee Remick) are so desperate for a little sprog, that the former accepts a newborn boy from a priest, whose real mother, he's coyly informed, died giving birth. Naming the child 'Damien' and raising him as their own, said kiddo turns out to have been sown from Satan's seed in the belly of a jackal, and is intent on conducting pa's heinous work on earth. This of course, involves lots of violent 'accidents' and a ROLLING HEAD...

So what happens:

Damien's babysitter hangs herself at his birthday party squealing "it's all for you, Damien!", a priest who knows the TRUTH swallows a church spire through his neck, and the photographer investigating Damien's identity has his head lopped off by a runaway sheet of glass. Eventually, our ambassador 'hero' Mr Thorn accepts Damien isn't the sweetie he'd hoped for, and seeks the advice of the Vatican as he bids to repel the DARK SIDE in a chilling race-against-time struggle.

Why's it a classic?

One of the greatest and seemingly most UNDERRATED horror films of all time, this was astonishingly listed in a book of the 'Worst 50 Films' by someone clearly possessing the foresight of a tin of American hard gums spat out for being too 'hard'. Not only is it superbly paced, expertly storylined and convincingly acted (Damien's new babysitter could put goosepimples on a tortoise shell), it's very fucking haunting, and we like that in a horror film.

The tension involved in the build-up to the death sequences - the graveyard excavation of Damien's mum, the priest in the park - is bordering on the UNRELENTING, and their climaxes would come as relief if they weren't so shocking, despite an obvious under-reliance on gore.

Dark, mysterious and poetically chilling, The Omen stands alongside The Exorcist as arguably the finest biblical pants-filler ever made, and the remake isn't actually that bad either, if only because it copies the original scene for scene, which means it's just totally pointless. (Like the football team I support).