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Film: The First Omen
Year: 2024
Director: Arkasha Stevenson
Writers: Tim Smith, Arkasha Stevenson and Keith Thomas
Starring: Nell Tiger Free, Ralph Ineson and Sonia Braga
Review:
This was a movie that when I saw was coming out, I was intrigued. I’m not the biggest fan of prequels, because they have a definite ending that they must do or it doesn’t work. Ahead of seeing this, I saw people were loving it. I did sit on this before writing my review to make sure that I was being fair.
Synopsis: a young American woman is sent to Rome to begin her life of service to the church but meets a darkness that causes her to question her faith and uncovers a terrifying conspiracy that hopes to bring about the evil incarnate.
We start this with Father Harris (Charles Dance) meeting Father Brennan (Ralph Ineson). There is an ominous way of filming the opening that harkens back to the original. It appears that these two have uncovered a plot that involves a young woman named Scianna. Their information is limited though. We also see that there are dark forces trying to stop them.
That is when we shift over to meeting the woman from the synopsis, Margaret (Nell Tiger Free). She has come to Rome to become a nun at an orphanage. She is met by Father Gabriel (Tawfeek Barhom) who then takes her to Cardinal Lawrence (Bill Nighy). These two met when she was a child. He is the reason that she has come to Rome to take her vows. She looks at him as a father figure.
She arrives at the orphanage and is given a lay of the land by Sister Silva (Sonia Braga). It is during this tour that we see that this place also has a wing to help expecting mothers. During this tour that she meets an odd nun, Sister Anjelica (Ishtar Currie-Wilson). She also meets a young woman who is isolated, Carlita Scianna (Nicole Sorace). Margaret is staying in an apartment with Luz (Maria Caballero), before they both take their vows. It is off the orphanage grounds.
Something I should include here is that this takes place in the early 1970s. There is unrest in Rome as the younger generation is turning their backs on religion. They are also rioting. What is interesting is that this is based in fact. This makes Margaret uneasy. She also doesn’t like the way that Carlita is treated by the sisters. Then to complicate her time further, Luz takes her out. She gets drunk, blacks out and doesn’t remember what happened. Father Brennan also approaches her, wanting her to help him uncover the truth of the orphanage she is working at.
That is where I’ll leave my recap and introduction to the characters. Where I want to start is that I’m a big fan of the original movie in the series. It is up there as one of the best religious based horror films in my opinion. The second one is a good follow up and I thought the third did interesting things. I don’t even hate the fourth movie even though it was made for TV. It is just the remake that I feel doesn’t hold up. This is information that I felt important before diving into this one.
Where I’ll start then is continuity. I’m glad that this one doesn’t do anything to violate what the original or the sequels did. It synced up well, which is what I’m looking for. In a group chat that I’m in, it might even tie into part four, but it’s been a while since my last viewing of that one and I don’t remember a lot. This shouldn’t come as a spoiler, but I thought that this one did well to show how Damien was conceived and then ended up in the care of the Thorns.
I’ll even credit this one as being creepy at times. I’m a sucker for religious based horror, especially when we’re looking at the corruption of the church. That is what we’re getting here. It is wild that this came out the same year as Immaculate as we’re following similar stories. They just end up in different places. I’m not fully sure that the plan of our villain makes sense here. It could do what they want, but it also could spell the end of the world. I see the logic being that as they’re so convinced that no matter what, good will triumph. Just seems a dangerous move to play. It also lessens what the movies that follow and their story concept. I will still say that this does give a solid atmosphere. Messing with Margert, who has a history of mental illness. We can see that logically; she could be misinterpreting things. I like playing with this idea.
Now I’ve seen people rating this high and heaping praise. I can’t do that though. My biggest issue is that this borrows from other movies that do it better. This directly takes the shocking moments from The Omen and uses them here. I can’t credit this movie for that. I get the idea that this is banking on younger audiences not having seen that. There is also a big plot point that is from Rosemary’s Baby which is one of my favorite movies of all time. It also takes its most shocking moment from Possession.
Since I went hard there, let me go over to filmmaking. I still think is well-made. The cinematography was good. I like how they frame things, even if they’re nodding to the original. Setting up this where we have Margaret who is a fish out of water is good. She doesn’t speak the language so that’s scary. On top of that, she has the history of mental illness. I like how we don’t know if we can trust her. I think that the effects for the most part are good. It looked like they went practically where they could. There was CGI used which was fine as well. Other than that, I was bummed that we didn’t use more of the chanting or choir style music from the original. It does at a pivotal point that worked though. The sound design was good though.
All that is left is acting. I thought that Free was good as our lead. She can balance that maybe she isn’t crazy, but we have history and facts that contradict that. I also thought she showed good fear. It doesn’t help that she is taking on the higher ups at this orphanage, when she is new which is stressful too. Ineson is solid as our priest who is out to prove what is happening. His performance matches up with that character from the original from what I remember. Braga is good as our head nun. We should trust her, but we don’t know if we can. I like Barhom and Caballero in their roles. What I like there is that as things go on, we don’t know who we can trust. I’d also say that Dance, Nighy, Sorace, Currie-Wilson, Andrea Arcangeli and the rest of the cast worked for what was needed.
In conclusion, I thought this was a solid prequel. My issue with movies like this is more that they tend to feel predictable to me. What they do here story wise is good. It fills in what we know from the original. It also incorporates elements from the sequels. The acting was good across the board. This was made well enough. The biggest issue that I have is that it borrows major scenes from other movies that I personally think did it better, including the first movie in this franchise. Another gripe is that this runs too long. Getting it down to at least one hour and forty-minute minutes, but preferably 90 minutes would help. I’d still recommend giving it a viewing, especially if you like the series.
My Rating: 7 out of 10