The First Omen (2024)

When I first heard about them making a prequel to The Omen I was as sceptical as most people. While I love the original trio of main films, and the first is the absolute highlight, there have been unsuccessful attempts to move beyond that, with the TV movie that was the fourth film in the series and a competent, but comparatively weak, remake. Sometimes it is best to just let things be. 

But then I started to hear some good things about it. Horror fans seemed to be pleased, and even fans of The Omen claimed that this was a surprisingly decent prequel that put all of the pieces in place to lead nicely into the events of that landmark 1976 horror. I strongly disagree with those people.

Nell Tiger Free is Margaret, a young American who ends up in Rome to serve alongside other nuns helping to support young mothers, and expectant mothers. There’s something afoot though, something that starts to affect the mental state of Margaret. Her suspicions about things are confirmed when she is approached by Father Brennan (Ralph Ineson), a man on a quest to get proof of grave misdeeds committed in the name of the church.

The feature debut of director Arkasha Stevenson, who also worked on the screenplay with Tim Smith and Keith Thomas, this is a film that does itself no favours by calling to mind a number of much better features. It obviously cannot avoid the fact that viewers will think of The Omen, but inserting a sequence that references an iconic moment from Possession is a sign of hugely misplaced confidence, at best. Fair play to the lead actress for giving it a go, but few people could deliver anything that compares favourably to that amazing turn from Isabelle Adjani.

While Stevenson doesn’t do that bad a job in the director’s chair, especially with the lighting levels and the overall look and feel of 1970s Rome shown onscreen, she is sorely let down by the screenplay. The best moments are the ones that try to put a twist on classic deaths from the series, but the rest of the film is just a tiresome and overcooked descent into paranoia and potential madness, with a couple of key scenes that should have horror movie fans thinking “wait a minute, why are they sometimes trying to link to the original movie while changing or removing others details that connect to iconic moments?” 

Free is decent in the lead role, although she fails to add any real depth or warmth to a character who is there to be nervous and frail for most of the runtime. Ineson is great, albeit undermined by a crucial change to his character that is never addressed, and therefore never integrated well into the messy “pick ‘n’ mix” continuity. Bill Nighy has fun in a main supporting role, Sônia Braga likewise, and there is solid work from Maria Caballero, playing the only other character I was actually interested in.

I kept forgetting to write this full review, having seen the film some time ago, but was reminded to get it done when I mentioned my dislike for this film during my review of Tarot. That film is a tame teen horror that won’t please many genre fans, but actually plays out well enough, for the most part, in the way it is intended. The First Omen doesn’t actually work how it should, with the exception of moments that remind you of the superior source material. It is decent, on a technical level, but it is never truly effective, never feels worthy of the IP it is warping, and sorely lacks any real imagination and creativity. So I stand by my negative opinion of it, although I suspect it will work much better for those who haven’t watched The Omen as many times as I have. 

Oh, and Immaculate is a much better wander through similar territory.

4/10

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