Richard Donner's horror classic "The Omen" is not nearly the most terrifying, but it certainly is the best film of this genre I have ever watched. And I watched a lot. The creators adhered to the golden rule that there must be nothing in it that can not happen in reality, which, on the one hand, limits the possibilities of leaving the imagination at will and make the film visually shocking, but on the other hand, it makes it more realistic and believable, and therefore more essentially dreadful. If we ignore the basic premise that Damien is literally the son of the Devil, story development, characterization and the way in which gradually builds up the atmosphere, make this film more eerie drama than a real horror. On the technical side, there's hardly any flaws, and among the actors in particular stand out performances of five-year-old Harvey Stephens in the role of Antichrist and Billie Whitelaw as a hellish nanny. And as icing on the cake, the greatest asset of this film is original music by Jerry Goldsmith, for me one of the greatest masterpieces of film music, for which he deservedly won an Oscar.
10/10
The quantity of jinx that followed the film was too big to be just a coincidence, so many believe that the movie touched in things that are better be left alone and thus earned the "curse of The Omen". Star Gregory Peck and screenwriter David Seltzer took separate planes to the UK, yet both planes were struck by lightning, and in Rome, lightning just missed the producer Harvey Bernhard. The plane that Peck was supposed to fly to Israel, from which he gave up at the last minute, crashed and there were no survivors. Rottweilers hired for the film attacked their trainers. A hotel at which director Richard Donner was staying got bombed by the IRA and he was also struck by a car. Several other members of the crew survived a frontal collision on the first day of shooting, and during post-production, John Richardson, in charge of special effects, suffered an accident in which he was injured and his girlfriend was beheaded. It only remains for us to hope that the "curse" refers only to creators, not to the audience.
10/10
The quantity of jinx that followed the film was too big to be just a coincidence, so many believe that the movie touched in things that are better be left alone and thus earned the "curse of The Omen". Star Gregory Peck and screenwriter David Seltzer took separate planes to the UK, yet both planes were struck by lightning, and in Rome, lightning just missed the producer Harvey Bernhard. The plane that Peck was supposed to fly to Israel, from which he gave up at the last minute, crashed and there were no survivors. Rottweilers hired for the film attacked their trainers. A hotel at which director Richard Donner was staying got bombed by the IRA and he was also struck by a car. Several other members of the crew survived a frontal collision on the first day of shooting, and during post-production, John Richardson, in charge of special effects, suffered an accident in which he was injured and his girlfriend was beheaded. It only remains for us to hope that the "curse" refers only to creators, not to the audience.