Rating: R | Runtime: 119 minutes
Release Date: April 5th, 2024 (USA)
Studio: 20th Century Studios
Director(s): Arkasha Stevenson
Writer(s): Tim Smith & Arkasha Stevenson and Keith Thomas / Ben Jacoby (story) / David Seltzer (characters)

How do you control people who no longer believe? You create something to fear.

Should we care about who Damien’s mother was in The Omen? Not really. Yes, the mystery intrigues once Robert Thorn opens her grave to find the skeletal remains of a dog, but the absence of a body is more in-line with the conspiratorial nature of a secret cabal of priests and nuns trying to manufacture the Antichrist than a legitimate backstory anyway. Let the Church be the child’s “mother.” Let the death and destruction in that birth’s wake seal the past away since Damien’s existence is ultimately about the future. Unless … there’s a way to start over.

I’ve never seen any of the sequels to Richard Donner and David Seltzer’s original film, so I cannot say whether Arkasha Stevenson’s foray into the origins of its story erases them or not. The ending here would have me believe The First Omen does open an alternate branch from its conclusion (since the connection to Gregory Peck is made crystal clear), but that’s not to say the filmmakers couldn’t find a way to run parallel a la the Saw franchise’s penchant for retroactive revisionism. All we need to know now is that there’s merit in going back—if only to better flesh out the mythology behind Damien’s creation against the backdrop of an atheist-tinged rebellion against authority.

Margaret (Nell Tiger Free), a young novitiate, is unwittingly thrown into the middle of this conspiracy by way of a reunion with the priest who befriended her many years prior when she was an orphan. Now a cardinal residing in Rome (Bill Nighy’s Lawrence), he’s sent for Margaret to join him and take the veil in a new world far removed from the troubles of her upbringing. It should come as no surprise then that she takes a shine to the black sheep of the new orphanage she’s sent to work in. Seeing Carlita (Nicole Sorace) is like looking into a mirror and Margaret hopes she can steer her onto the correct path like Lawrence did her.

Enter Father Brennan (Ralph Ineson), an excommunicated priest desperate to get his hands on Carlita’s records to see if the rumors of her unholy creation are true. Sister Silva (Sonia Braga) is accused of being part of the plan and, being the leading source of punishment for the girl, seems to fit the bill. But why would Margaret believe this man and his lunacy? Why would she risk throwing away her life to prevent something that’s impossible? Maybe a gruesome death here will give her pause as another over there sways her to the side of skepticism. The question is whether she’ll be strong enough to do something if the horror comes true.

Stevenson, Tim Smith, and Keith Thomas (from a story by Ben Jacoby) do well to work backwards from the start of The Omen and concoct a thriller worthy of its lasting success. Because we know it must end in Damien’s birth, their job becomes less about getting us there and more about distracting us with false starts and potential diversions. They deal in duality as a result: reality and imagination, secularism and religion, predecessors and successors. The twists and turns are hardly shocking (everything is drawn up quite intentionally with zero room for ambiguity since the mirroring is cemented so early), but the film doesn’t ever pretend they should be. They’re less for our benefit than that of the characters.

Free is very good in the lead role. I hope she isn’t being typecast as a result of “Servant”, but there are obviously a lot of parallels that make it seem her performance there definitely helped. There’s a moment later on that’s trying to harness some of the energy Isabelle Adjani gave to Possession too, but Stevenson and company do well to keep things more subdued to match the Donner film despite a desire to perhaps increase the gore factor fifty years later. Ineson, Braga, and Nighy ground things further with their stern yet calm tone steering Margaret towards the darkness and the light, letting her choose which path to follow once the facts are made clear.

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Nell Tiger Free in THE FIRST OMEN; courtesy of 20th Century Studios.