Omen, The DVD Review

"The Omen" reviews

DVD

The Omen

Author

anonymous

Date reviewed

2006-10-20 15:00:58

Provider

MRIB

DVD Review

Remaking The Omen is a job that requires a thick skin. Despite the varying quality of the sequels, the original was pretty well flawless and has translated well to new generations of horror fans - far better, in fact, than a film like The Exorcist which may have seemed scarier at the time, but which grows sillier with age. John Moore has already had one warm-up with his well-received remake of Flight Of The Phoenix, but The Omen 666 will be hoping for a much wider audience.

Liev Schrieber, who has remake experience himself in The Manchurian Candidate but is probably best known as Naomi Watts' fella, takes the Gregory Peck role as stiff-backed American diplomat Robert Thorn. Thorn knows his 'son' Damien isn't his own flesh and blood, though he believes his real child died at birth, when the truth is, of course, that he was murdered and swapped by diabolical forces. Innocently, he keeps his wife Kathy (Julia Stiles) in the dark until several years later, by when they are living in England, enjoying the life of an ambassadorial couple. Young Damien (Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick) is six and already scowling at the world like the incarnation of Beelzebub himself. Which, of course, is pretty much what he is, though this would be better communicated with a twinkle in the eye rather than Davey-Fitzpatrick's face like thunder.

But if the casting of the youngster might have been better, there's not much else gone wrong with The Omen 666. British thesps David Thewlis and Peter Postlethwaite crop up as the photojournalist and priest who encourage thorn in his bid to destroy the demon child, Mia Farrow is delightful as the evil nanny (an interesting inversion of her name-making role in Rosemary's Baby) and Moore handles the atmospherics extremely well. If we can be allowed just one complaint it's this. No one wanted a note-for-note remake of The Omen, but they might have kept the music!

Special features include audio commentary by John Moore, Glen Williamson and Dan Zimmerman, Omenisms - The Making of 666, Revelations 666 featurette, extended scenes and alternative ending.

Copyright © MRIB 2006.