Skylar Savarin

“The First Omen,” the prequel to Richard Donner’s 1976 classic “The Omen,” is a horror film from director and co-writer Arkasha Stevenson in her feature film debut. The film follows Margaret, a young American woman who travels to Rome to take her vows and devote herself to the church. While there, she uncovers a conspiracy to birth the Antichrist — the child known as Damien Thorn. The cast includes Nell Tiger Free (“Servant”), Ralph Ineson (“The Green Knight”), Bill Nighy (“Love Actually”), Sônia Braga (“Bacurau”) and Charles Dance (“Game of Thrones”).
I’ve been anticipating the release of “The First Omen” since the atmospheric teaser released back in January, and thankfully the actual film was pretty damn good. While I have my fair share of issues with it, this is a really solid horror movie, serving as a possible relaunch of “The Omen” franchise as well as a promising future for Arkasha Stevenson.
One of the film’s greatest strengths is its cast, with standouts Nell Tiger Free and Ralph Ineson. Ineson is one of my favorite actors working today, mainly due to his distinct deep, booming voice. While he wasn’t as present as I wanted him to be, he still delivered a great supporting performance. Free’s lead performance is also pretty great, especially because of how it evolves throughout the film. When we first meet Margaret, she’s a bit timid and awkward, but her performance gets more intense, emotionally and physically, as the film goes on. Without spoiling anything, there’s a scene pretty late into the film where her performance paid homage to the infamous subway scene from Andrzej Żuławski’s “Possession,” which is one of my favorite horror films. Not only was this intentional homage well executed, but Free’s refusal to hold anything back makes the scene even better.
“The First Omen” also refuses to hold back, taking complete advantage of its R-rating. Like with other entries of the franchise, this film contains some shocking moments of graphic (and seemingly practical) violence. The film also deals with disturbing subject matter, including corruption and sexual abuse within the church and a lack of female bodily autonomy, all of which are taken to some extreme places. This includes some intense scenes of childbirth, one of which was initially graphic enough to earn “The First Omen” an NC-17 rating, forcing Stevenson to edit it down to get an R-rating.
“The First Omen” also benefits from a solid narrative with some great twists. While I was able to predict the main revelation, there were specific nuances to it that were genuinely surprising. Not only that, but this film manages to feel like an “Omen” film in terms of tone while also (mostly) working as a standalone film.
While I do have a lot of praise for this film, I do have some issues that bring my rating down a bit. First off, while I was never particularly bored during the film, I do feel like “The First Omen” could’ve been about 15 minutes shorter. It is admittedly difficult to think about what to cut, but I feel like the film’s two-hour runtime was a bit unjustified. The film also presents a few continuity errors when comparing it directly to the original, which isn’t that big of a deal, but it was a bit distracting.
Finally, the biggest issue I had with the film was its ending and its unintentionally comical attempt at fan service. The second-to-last scene serves to connect the events of “The First Omen” directly to the beginning of “The Omen.” Not only is this an understandable decision, but I personally think that it’s pretty effective. Same thing goes for the very last scene, until the fan service in the final line derailed the film’s ending entirely. I don’t want to spoil the movie for anyone, so all I’ll say is that I was genuinely struggling to hold back laughter when the credits started.
All in all, “The First Omen” was a genuinely refreshing horror franchise reboot that feels more like a loving revisit of the original film’s universe rather than a desperate cash grab — all thanks to its dedicated and talented cast and crew. Despite its flaws, I highly recommend it and can’t wait to see what Stevenson does next.
RATING: 7/10