By the early 1970s, the counterculture of the previous decade had begun to disperse. Some, weary of what they saw as ineffective nonviolent revolution, became militant. Others withdrew from society altogether into communal life. Still others, having waded through the many spiritual and philosophical options of the 60s, found religion. The so-called Jesus Movement appealed to many hippies because it rejected old-fashioned institutional religion and focused on modeling itself on its image of the early church as led by Jesus and his followers in the first century CE. Along with this fascination with Christ and the early days of Christianity came an interest in the devil, demons, possession, the Antichrist, and the end of days. Around the same time, Hollywood was undergoing a revolution of its own and “religious horror” became a popular subgenre of the period due to this fascination. The un-holy trinity of these, the films that continue to stand above the rest in influence and notoriety are Rosemary’s Baby (1968), The Exorcist (1973), and The Omen (1976).
After seeing The Exorcist, producer Harvey Bernhard approached screenwriter David Seltzer with an idea. Bernhard told Seltzer that he felt the time was ripe for another horror story that dealt with religion and the devil. Though not particularly a fan of the genre, Seltzer needed a job and began researching the project by reading the Bible, something he had never really done before. He became fascinated with the text, particularly the final book of Revelation, of which he read approximately twelve different translations along with several interpretive texts. As he studied, the story elements of what became The Omen began to emerge. He coupled this with the idea of the story having an innocent villain, a child that was not aware that he was the son of Satan and ignorant of his powers. Seltzer sought to depict the devil from a psychological rather than literal perspective by infusing enough doubt into the script to imply that Damien may in fact not be the Antichrist.
The interpretation of Revelation most employed in The Omen is dispensationalism, an eschatology (study of the end times) that came to prominence during the Second Great Awakening of the nineteenth century and popularized in the modern era by Hal Lindsey among other prophecy pundits. Beginning with his books The Late, Great Planet Earth (1970) and Satan is Alive and Well on Planet Earth (1972), Lindsey was a veritable cottage industry of end times prophecy long before the phenomenon of the Left Behind series popularized the teachings yet again in the early 2000s. Even the fact that Lindsey predicted the end of the world in 1988 did not hamper his popularity when the ball dropped in Times Square to ring in 1989. Despite constantly moving targets for the apocalypse like this, dispensationalism remains the most popular interpretation of Revelation in evangelical Christianity. Put simply, it is a brand of Biblical interpretation that posits a seven-year tribulation before the physical return of Christ, presided over by a powerful antichrist that is literally the son of Satan. Natural fodder for a scary movie.
After the script was finished, it was shopped around to several studios before landing on the desk of Alan Ladd, Jr. of 20th Century Fox. He was intrigued by the script and contacted his friend Richard Donner about directing it. Up until then, Donner had been a very successful television director, helming memorable episodes of The Twilight Zone, Get Smart, and Kojak among many others, but his film career had failed to launch. He was also taken with the ideas of the script, then called Antichrist and later Birthmark, but sought to shape it into something more grounded. Donner worked with Seltzer to remove some of the more fantastical elements, such as a Satanic coven that watched over the child and cloven hooved creatures in the graveyard scene, to make the story more believable and appealing to an increasingly skeptical population of filmgoers. Donner latched onto the psychological themes of the film and focused on the suspense and mystery of the project when bringing it to the screen. As he would do with Superman in 1978, he brought a great deal of verisimilitude to a story that many would otherwise find completely outlandish.
Donner’s insistence on these changes brought about one of the most powerful elements of the film in that it can be interpreted in multiple ways. In one reading, Damien really is the Antichrist and the efforts of Robert Thorne (Gregory Peck) and Keith Jennings (David Warner) are completely justified. Father Brennan (Patrick Troughton) is a hero who gives his life to save the world and Mrs. Baylock (Billie Whitelaw) is a minion of Satan, sworn to protect Damien from all who would seek to harm him. This is the literal interpretation and there is plenty of evidence to confirm it, from the strange flaws in the photographs, to animals acting strangely around the boy, to the 666 birthmark.
In another, more psychological interpretation, Damien is not the son of the devil, and the strange happenings can be chalked up to coincidence. The problems with the photos could be flaws in the film or related to the moment that Thorne bumps into Jennings and he drops his camera. Sometimes animals just don’t react well to certain people. Mrs. Baylock, a faithful adherent of a cult of the Antichrist, could be planting suggestions in Damien’s mind leading to his agitation and attack of his mother during the car ride to the church. Even the deaths could be simply strange occurrences. After all, people die in bizarre freak accidents all the time. Perhaps Thorne and Jennings are looking for patterns and and see them where there are none due to ideas planted in their minds by the unhinged religious zealot, Father Brennan.
If Damien is the Antichrist, he survives to devastate the world. In the process, he has destroyed those who would oppose him along the way, even if he is unaware of his powers. If he is not, Robert Thorne has gone insane from grief and paranoia, and a child is nearly murdered by his own father. He has chosen to believe a lie and allowed his rage and fear to blind him to reality. In either instance, the film is a tragedy.
Beyond the devil and the end of days, The Omen is about something far more universal: the fears of parenthood. Parents often fear that, despite their best efforts, their child could grow up to perform horrible acts. Worse, they could be the cause of their child doing or even becoming evil because of their words or actions. The simple question of “will this stupid thing I said screw up my kid?” are not rare among parents, especially those who truly care about the well-being of their children. Then there is the question directly asked by the film: what if the child I believe is mine is not really my child?
After Damien’s nanny hangs herself at his birthday party, Kathy Thorne (Lee Remick) begins to suspect that he is somehow “alien” and “evil.” She has a deep feeling, a motherly instinct perhaps, that he is not really hers. As the audience learns at the beginning of the film, she is right to feel this way as her own child died just after birth and Damien was substituted for him without her knowledge. Robert Thorne, who does know this has happened, struggles with this deceit throughout the film. Eventually, he comes to the point where he begins to deceive himself. In a scene with Father Brennan, he vehemently denies that Damien’s mother is anyone other than his wife.
In a less esoteric sense, Kathy is simply annoyed by Damien. She is easily frustrated, and her nerves quickly frayed by his acting out and the constant noise of his playing. It is a feeling that every parent of young children knows well. A moment of quiet, of peace, of adult conversation, anything, is so needed, but the guilt quickly sets in over such thoughts. After Kathy discovers she is pregnant, Damien’s rambunctiousness leads to Kathy being severely injured in a fall and losing the baby. Again, it could be an accident, it could be Mrs. Baylock orchestrating Damien being raised as an only child, or Damien could be the devil. It all depends on how you look at it.
Soon after, Kathy is killed in another bizarre accident and Robert is stricken with grief. Thorne’s decision to kill Damien after Kathy’s death is a chilling moment. Whether he truly believes that Damien is evil is not entirely clear in this scene. It comes across as a man seeking revenge for the death of his wife. Damien is not even there when Kathy dies, and Mrs. Baylock may or may not have pushed her out the window of her hospital room. He appears to be justifying the killing of this child by reminding himself that Damien is not really his. In the final moments as Thorne is about to drive a dagger into Damien’s chest, he forcefully silences the child’s cries of “please, Daddy, no” and “no, Daddy, no!” by pushing his face away, unable to look into his eyes. These are dark and chilling scenes that take on further darkness depending on one’s interpretation of the film.
Gregory Peck came out of a six-year retirement to make what Seltzer called “a devil movie,” and his casting brought immediate credibility to the film. It is a remarkable performance, imbued with as much conviction, pathos, and nuance as his iconic turn as Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird (1962). As soon as he was attached as Robert Thorne, other great actors quickly came aboard. Lee Remick, David Warner, Patrick Troughton, and Billie Whitelaw were all highly regarded actors at the time and bring a great deal of gravitas to the picture. For the small but pivotal role of Damien’s nanny, who hangs herself at the boy’s fifth birthday party, Donner cast Holly Palance, daughter of screen legend Jack Palance. The most difficult role to fill was that of Damien himself, but it eventually went to Harvey Stephens and Donner coaxed a remarkable and chilling performance from the five-year-old, cumulating in one of the greatest final shots in film history.
For some, the lore surrounding the film is more frightening than the film itself. Accidents, strange occurrences, and even deaths connected to the film have led some to believe The Omen is cursed. Of course, these kinds of incidents have also been connected to films like The Exorcist and Poltergeist and can be interpreted as related to the film or not. Because The Omen deals with strange occurrences and things that may or may not be coincidence, these kinds of events gain particular attention. Many of those connected with the film, however, including Richard Donner, producer Mace Neufeld, and David Seltzer feel quite the opposite about the film—that it was in many ways blessed and not at all cursed.
No conversation of The Omen is complete without discussing the remarkable and memorable score by Jerry Goldsmith. It is incredibly innovative and truly postmodern in the sense that it employs music of all kinds and from many eras to achieve its effect. From pseudo-Gregorian chant, to neo-romanticism, to the avant-garde, as well as direct inspiration from Mozart’s Requiem and Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana, the score’s throbbing darkness and religious overtones are palpable. The music gives yet another layer of realism, credibility, and power to the film. To the surprise of some, Goldsmith beat out the legendary Bernard Herrmann and his scores for Obsession and Taxi Driver to win The Omen’s only Academy Award.
The Omen opened with a sneak preview on June 6, 1976 (6/6/76) before opening wide on the 25th of the same month. This was, of course, part of the film’s marketing buzz that included a bestselling novelization written by David Seltzer, the unforgettable 666 logo, and the tagline “You Have Been Warned.” The film was a massive hit taking in nearly $61 million on its relatively small budget of $2.8 million. Considering the expansive nature of the story, the top-line actors involved, and how great the film looks and sounds, it is almost incomprehensible that it was made as such a low budget feature.
Even excluding its sequels and remake, The Omen remains one of the most important and influential horror films of all time. Beyond the more obvious endurance of religious horror films, the mark of the film can be seen on movies like the Final Destination series (2000-2011), with its creative, Rube-Goldberg style death sequences, or even The Shining (1980) with its a-list casting and big studio backing.
Part of what makes The Omen so effective is that it takes its subject matter seriously but is subtle enough to be open to multiple interpretations. Its influence can be seen and felt to this day as the subgenre of religious and satanic horror has only seemed to ramp up in recent years. Films like The Exorcism of Emily Rose (2005), The Conjuring films (2013-present), The Taking of Deborah Logan (2014), and the recent sensation Saint Maud (2019) all dabble in the same kind of verisimilitude. Like The Omen, many of these recent holy terrors can be interpreted through either a lens of faith, or one of skepticism.
The legacy of the film is much like its final shot of Damien standing between the President and First Lady. He stares at us and smiles but does not tip his hand or tell us what he does or doesn’t know. No matter what we may personally believe, that smile sticks in our minds and continues to haunt us all.
