‘The Omen’

This 1976 film tracks Ambassador Robert Thorn (Gregory Peck) and his wife Katherine (Lee Remick) at a hospital where Katherine unconsciously gives birth to a stillborn son. A Priest offers them ‘A gift from God’, an orphaned boy who desperately needed a loving home. Robert decides he should accept the ‘gift’ and we later see montages of the couple raising the boy suitably named ‘Damien’. After a series of bizarre and deadly mishaps a priest warns the Thorns that their young son isn’t just an innocent little boy, he’s the son of the antichrist. Robert ignores the priest but a local photographer sheds more light on the mystery behind their adopted son. Will the Thorns keep ignoring the warnings until its too late?

‘Damien : The Omen 2′

After the tragic events in the original film, 13-year-old Damien Thorn is living with his Uncle while attending military academy with his cousin Mark. The Uncle’s co-worker tries to warn the family of the evil that lives within their home, but just like in the first film…the warning isn’t heeded and one by one they are picked off. This time by crows, trains, trucks and more! Damien learns of his destiny in this 1978 sequel, there’s also a shocking finish to this film, which most will never expect!

‘The Omen III: The Final Conflict’

Taking place years after the initial sequel, this film follows Damien (Sam Neill) as a grown man now the US Ambassador for the United Kingdom. His adversaries in this film mainly consist of a group of seven who each possess a dagger specifically to kill him, he goes through most of them fairly quickly. He and his disciples then discover of an astrological event that Jesus Christ was reborn on a specific date, as Damien and his minions methodically kill the young babies a female report who has the hots for Damien discovers his true identity!

‘Omen IV: The Awakening’

The bastard child of ‘The Omen’ series is pretty much a re-imagining of the original but this time with a girl named Delia who just like Damien was adopted as a baby and raised in a wealthy family. Fatal incidents occur around the home and school that alert Delia’s mother Karen (played by an horrendous over actor in Faye Grant) that there may be something sinister inside her. Soon thereafter she hires a private investigator named Earl to dig into Delia’s adoption records and find out about her biological parents mysterious history. What Earl burrows into both he and Karen (as well as the audience) would never imagine! Co-directed by Dominique Othenin-Gerard (of the monstrosity known as Halloween 5) its no wonder this movie is so craptastic!

‘The Omen’ (2006)

This remake of the original, is pretty much scene for scene the same as Dick Donner’s 1976 film. The only key difference is the lack of the wonderful Jerry Goldsmith score. This time we have Liev Schreiber and Julia Stiles as Mr. & Mrs. Thorn. This is surprisingly one of the better remakes / re-imaginings of the last few years.

Some Thoughts..

Now while some of these films are better than others I’m pleased to see that they are ALL included in this excellent collection released from Fox Home Entertainment. The first film is a genre classic and the first two sequels all tell a solid, flowing narrative. As much as I dislike Sam Neill’s acting…he was nothing short of outstanding as ‘Damien’ in The Final Conflict. Where the series took a repulsive plunge was with the 1991 TV film ‘Omen IV: The Awakening’. Like it or not, it still belonged in the set as it was a chapter in ‘The Omen’ franchise.

There are a plethora of extras in this collection as well. The original film’s dvd is actually the 2 disc collectors edition that Fox is so well known for. It features: Commentary by director Richard Donner, and editor Stuard Baird , an introduction by Donner, Commentary with Donner & Brian Helgeland , Curse Or Concidence featurette, Jerry Goldsmith discusses ‘The Omen’ score , Still Photo Gallery, Deleted Scene with commentary, some awesome full length documentaries including ‘666: The Omen Revealed’ and ‘The Omen Legacy’ (which is 100 minutes long and kicks F’N ass) as well as a screenwriter’s notebook and Wes Craven on ‘The Omen’ and this is just from the FIRST movie.

The sequels ‘Damien’ and ‘The Final Conflict’ include commentaries with respective directors Harvey Bernhard and Graham Baker while ‘The Awakening’ is suitably barebones. ‘The Omen’ remake however has a heap of that extra horror goodness that we all fancy. Included in this Unrated disc is a commentary by director John Moore, Producer Glenn Williamson and Editor Dan Zimmerman, an Omenisms Documentary, a behind the scenes featurette and Abbey Road Recording Sessions Featurette.

I loved viewing these films again, this set is a MUST OWN for all horror fans. At a price of around $40 , You really can’t go wrong with this. We have 4 solid , beautiful movies and one turd that everybody should see at least once. The documentaries in the set are really like separate movies themselves too.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!