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‘The First Omen’ Review: A Decently Executed Prequel Pales Next to Superior ‘Immaculate’
Akasha Stevenson concocts a twisted-nun backstory to 'The Omen' that's less scary than the 1976 horror classic suggested, but infinitely more profane.
Since horror fans know where things are headed, director Akasha Stevenson and co-writers Tim Smith and Keith Thomas can slyly embed references that achieve full ominousness by association with what’s to come — like the nun who steps off a high ledge after pledging, “It’s all for you,” or the close-call opening scene, which foreshadows how the surviving priest dies in the original film. That said, Stevenson’s consistently unsettling and gleefully sacrilegious offering packs its share of legitimate shocks en route to one glaringly obvious “surprise.” Like “Rosemary’s Baby” — the film, along with “The Exorcist,” that paved the way for this Satan-centric saga — “The First Omen” focuses on the female perspective and deals in the darkest sort of pregnancy anxieties. While it’s fun to see this blathering loon alive again, the true protagonist is a virginal American novice named Margaret ( Nell Tiger Free), who arrives wide-eyed and openhearted at Vizzardeli Orphanage in Rome, incapable of imagining the scope of the conspiracy practiced within.
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