Movie Review Of The Omen (1976). Review on The Omen -1976 Hollywood Movie

Psst - This section contains some inside trivia about the film

Quotes - Good One Liners from the movie

Oops - Goofs from the movie

I decided to write the review of this movie, only because I saw the remake yesterday and out of the blues decided to write movie reviews on both of them. Although many people may write the review of the new movie on this section, I have urged mouthshut to have a separate listing of the Latest Movie under the title of The Omen(2006) so that the members don’t get confused.

Director – Richard Donner

Screenplay – David Seltzer

On 6th of June at 6 AM, When Robert Thorn(Gregory Peck) finds out that his wife Katherine(Lee Remick) has delivered a dead child and may never get pregnant again, he is devastated. That’s when a priest, Father Spiletto(Martin Benson) asks him to adopt another child who is born on the same day in the same hospital but his mother has died and there is no one in his family. Things go fine for Robert’s small family until his child Damien’s(Harvey Stephen) fifth birthday party. On that day, his nanny(Holly Palance) commits suicide in front of all the guests. Things are never the same when all sort of accidents happen and a young Damien gets absolutely frantic when he goes to the Church for the first time. While his new Nanny, Mrs Baylock(Billie Whitelaw) gets mysteriously obsessed with protecting Damien, Robert Learns from a priest, Father Brennan(Patrick Troughton) something about Damien which will change his life forever. A cult classic with Spine Chilling score from Jerry Goldsmith. There are no Ghosts. There are no gory scenes. But the movie still scares the Sh** out of anyone watching it for the first time. Probably the most scariest movie ever made. Fantastic performance by Gregory Pack and superb direction by Richard Donner.

Psst -

1) Charlton Heston and Roy Scheider turned down the role of Robert Thorn. This was Gregory Peck’s first movie release in 2 years and the first movie he signed in nearly 5 years.

2) The movie title was changed from The Antichrist to The Birthmark to The Omen. The movie was also Said to be cursed when Gregory Peck and Writer David Seltzer took two separate planes to fly to UK for the shooting and both the planes were struck by Lightning. The Producer, Harvey Bernard, was also nearly struck by Lightning while filming in Rome. The Trainers of the dogs were attacked by them during shooting. The Hotel in UK in which Richard Donner was staying was bombed by the IRA. Gregory Pack cancelled a flight to Israel and that flight crashed with everyone dying on board. On the first day of the shoot, several crew members survived a car crash.

3) As a part of the promotion, the movie was released on 6th June, 1976 with the promos reading, “Today is the SIXTH day of the SIXTH month of Nineteen-Seventy-SIX”

4) The Movie was made on a budget of $2.8 Million. It grossed $60 million that year (nearly 20 times the budget) and till date it has earned approximately $22.8 million ind DVD Rentals.

5) Richard Donner credited the phenomenon success of the movie, like countless other movie buffs, to the composer Jerry Goldsmith, whose music made this, in to the most scariest movie ever made.

6) Gregory Peck’s salary was just $250,000 but was guaranteed ,10% of the film’s gross. This made Peck’s highest paid performance till date. Nealy $6 million was spend on the publicity of the film.

7) The Movie was the first English Movie to have a 25 week non stop run in India. It ran for that much time, in Bombay’s Sterling Theatre. Till date, except for The Titanic, no other English Movie has run that long in India.

8) The Theme, Ave Satani, Performed by Jerry Goldsmith literally translates, Hail Satan.

Quotes

1) “The child is dead. He breathed for a moment. Then he breathed no more. The child is dead. Dead. The child is dead.”

2) “He must die, Mr Thorn. ?”

3) “Look at me Damien. Its all for you.”

4) “When the Jews return to Zion. And a comet rips the sky. And the Holy Roman Empire rises, Then You and I must die. From the eternal sea he rises, creating armies on either shore, turning man against his brother, Till man exists no more.”

5) “You will see me in Hell, Mr Thorn.”

Oops-

1) The town of Megiddo is actually North Of Jerusalem and its not derived from the word Armageddon. In fact the word Armageddon is derived from that town’s name. According to The Bible, Megiddo will be the place where the last battle on Earth would take place.