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The Omen

Synopsis:

It is the 6th of June and a young diplomat named Robert Thorn (Liev Schreiber) rushes to a hospital in Rome to attend the birth of his son. When he arrives, a priest greets him with tragic news - the child is dead, and his wife Katherine (Julia Stiles) will not conceive again. Realising a third miscarriage will devastate Katherine, Robert agrees to secretly adopt another child - a boy - born and orphaned that very day. At first little Damien (Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick) and his parents seem to live a charmed life. But when strange and terrible things begin to happen in Damien's presence his mother is first afraid for him, and then afraid of him. Hounded first by a fanatical priest (Pete Postlethwaite) and, later, a nosy press photographer (David Thewlis), Robert eventually comes to realise the awful truth about his adopted son's real father.

Review:

As remakes go, we have seen far worse offences in the last few years than this competent and unexpectedly effective horror film. Its potency is thanks to a cannily reworked screenplay, solid technical execution and, above all, a superb cast. And while it loses points for lack of originality, it still manages to be more creepy and disturbing than such familiar material ought to be.

What should have been the film's greatest weakness - the mundane familiarity of the whole "devil boy" scenario - is turned into one of its strengths. Updating his own 1976 screenplay, veteran screenwriter David Seltzer has resisted the temptation to "sex up" the original story with extra gore or post-modern trickery. Instead he has carefully massaged the material, making clever use of current affairs and changes in society, to produce a screenplay that has the feel of a classic '70s horror, but the attitude of a more modern film.

The film is also well executed by journeyman director John Moore and his crew. Many of the artisans, including Moore and cinematographer Jonathan Sele, are veterans of advertising and music video production. This proves to be a mixed blessing. Many of the critical scenes are very well handled and visually striking - showing a well trained knack for compressing meaning into 30 second or two minute bites - but overall the film suffers from a lack of visual consistency. The smaller connecting scenes, in particular, are often overdressed and overzealously lit, which distracts from the film's delicately balanced atmousphere.

Still, Moore deserves credit for his sure-handed direction of the cast, however much of a pleasure they must have been to work with. Both Schreiber and Stiles excel at their roles, bringing the kind of depth and restraint rarely seen in genre films. The supporting cast are equally good. Whether gloriously hamming it up like Pete Postlethwaite, or bringing understated intensity to their roles like David Thewlis, there's not one truly bad performance in the film. Mia Farrow, in particular, is wickedly delightful as the evil nanny and single-handedly adds a whole other dimension of creepiness to the proceedings. The same can be said of the well-chosen little boy, though he doesn't act so much as exist.

But, at heart, this is still a copy of a pulpy '70s horror, and it will never have the same resonance as it did 30 years ago when The Exorcist was still fresh in audiences' minds. It also has a healthy share of cheap scares and unintentionally hilarious hokum - not exactly hallmarks of a classic. Perhaps its greatest trick will be in surviving the dopey over-marketing (release date 06/06/06? give us a break!). To sell The Omen 666 as the next great horror classic is to set people up for disappointment. The world is hungry enough for a half-decent horror film to enjoy this modest treat - there's no need to punt it as Gone With the Wind 2.

- Alistair Fairweather

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