The next film in our “About Looking” season is The Omen, (1976) directed by Richard Donner.
The film stars Gregory Peck as Robert Thorn, who is the US Ambassador to Great Britain. He is happily married to Katherine (Lee Remick), who has just given birth to their first child in the opening scenes of the film.
However, unbeknown to Katherine, her child has been stillborn. Robert is approached by a priest, who offers him another baby, born at the same time, whose mother has died in childbirth.
Robert and the priest agree that Katherine will never know the child is not hers, and so he accepts the baby and takes him to Katherine.
At first everything seems to be normal and the family is very happy. The baby boy, named Damien, grows into a chubby cheeked young child.
However, Damien is not like a normal little boy in some respects. His father, Robert, notices that he never seems to get ill, or suffer from all the normal childhood ailments, or even a cold.
Animals are afraid of him. When his mother takes him to the wildlife park, the giraffes run from him and the baboons, in their fear, attack the car as Katherine drives through the enclosure.
Damien shows irrational fear when his parents take him with them on an outing to a church wedding. The sight of the church building sends the child into a frenzy.
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A photographer takes photographs at the child’s fifth birthday party. Minutes later, Damien’s nanny puts a rope around her neck and throws herself off the roof of the mansion, killing herself. When the photographer develops his pictures, he notices a strange dark mark, like thin smudge, near the image of the nanny, almost like the shadow of a rope.
A priest approaches Robert, and tries to warn him that his son is evil. Robert sends him away. He approaches him again, and is again rebuffed. Finally, Robert meets with him, but is not convinced. Shortly after, the priest is killed when the church spire falls down and impales him when it is struck by a bolt of lightning.
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Again the photographer notices in two separate photographs that he has taken of the priest, the dark mark, this time like a shadow of something that is slanting down towards the man. He is convinced that something supernatural is taking place. This feeling is exacerbated when he photographs himself in the mirror and sees the mark again, this time across himself.
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He is now convinced that something terrible will happen and he will die. He then joins forces with Robert, who by now is also convinced, as the priest’s predictions of doom have come true and his wife is now dead.
Much of the plot of the film centres around the predictions of the Book of the Revelation in the Christian Bible. Damien is portrayed as the “Beast” of the Revelation, and Robert discovers the mark of the Beast, 666, in his hair. Ultimately, Robert realises, he must kill Damien.
As is to be expected, Damien ultimately survives, leaving us all, as the audience, wondering if he walks among us and where he will strike next.
INTERESTING ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ABOUT THE OMEN
The film had its own music score that was composed specially for it. The music was added on after the film was made, therefore the music was NON-DIEGETIC.
The film was said to have been cursed as it was beset with problems during the making. The tutor informed us that the following events took place during the filming:
1. Gregory Peck and the screenwriter, David Seltzer, were in separate planes on their way to locations, and both planes were struck by lightning.
2. Lightning just missed striking the producer on another occasion.
3. The dogs used in the film attacked their trainers.
4. The director was struck by a car and his hotel was bombed.
5. Gregory Peck cancelled one of his flights, luckily for him. It crashed and all on board were killed.
6. On the first day of filming, several members of the crew were involved in a car crash, but survived.
7. Later, after the film had been made, the special effects artist and his girlfriend were involved in an accident. He was injured and she was beheaded. (Eerily, one of the characters in the film, the photographer, is beheaded).
FILM TERMINOLOGY: GENRE
GENRE means “any category of literature or other forms of art or entertainment, whether written or spoken, audial or visual, based on some set of stylistic criteria”. (Grimmer, N. 2015)
Simply put, “genre” describes a kind or style of film, for example, a “horror”, “romance”, “drama” or “romcom”.
MORE TERMINOLOGY
SETTING: This word is used to describe the environment where the action of the film takes place.
THEME or TOPIC: This describes the concepts and ideas that control the action of the film.
MOOD: This is the “emotional tone” of the film. (Grimmer, N)
FORMAT: The format describes the way in which the film was made and the way it is presented.
REFERENCES
Grimmer, N. 18 February 2015. University of Bedfordshire
Gina van der Linde/Art and Design 