The Omen is a 1976 supernatural horror film directed by Richard Donner and written by David Seltzer. An international co-production of the United Kingdom and the United States, it stars Gregory Peck, Lee Remick, David Warner, Harvey Spencer Stephens (in his film debut), Billie Whitelaw, Patrick Troughton, Martin Benson, and Leo McKern. The film's plot follows Damien Thorn, a young child replaced at birth by his father, unbeknownst to his wife, after their biological child dies shortly after birth. While a series of mysterious events and violent deaths occur around the family and Damien enters childhood, they come to understand he is in fact the prophesied Antichrist.
Released theatrically by 20th Century-Fox in June 1976, The Omen initially received mixed reviews from critics but was a commercial success, grossing over $78.7 million at worldwide box office and becoming one of the highest-grossing films of 1976. The film earned two Oscar nominations, including a win for Jerry Goldsmith's musical score, and retrospective reviews have been more favorable. The film spawned the Omen franchise, with Damien – Omen II released two years later, followed by The Final Conflict (1981) and Omen IV: The Awakening (1991), as well as a 2006 remake and 2024 prequel. It also spawned a 2016 television series that ran for one season on A&E.
Plot American diplomat Robert Thorn and his wife Katherine are living in Rome, where Katherine gives birth to a boy. Father Spiletto, the hospital chaplain, tells Robert his baby died after one breath and persuades him to secretly adopt another baby whose mother also died in childbirth that night. Robert does not tell Katherine that the child is not their own and they name him Damien.
Five years later, Robert is Ambassador to the United Kingdom in London when a series of mysterious events plague the Thorns: a menacing Rottweiler appears at their home, Damien's nanny publicly hangs herself during his fifth birthday party, a replacement nanny named Mrs. Baylock arrives unexpectedly, Damien violently resists entering a church, and animals at a safari park are terrified by his presence. Robert receives visits from catholic priest Father Brennan who warns him about Damien's origins, stating he is not human and insisting Robert take Holy Communion. He later tells Robert that Damien is the son of Satan, that Katherine is pregnant, and that Damien will kill his unborn sibling and parents. After Robert dismisses it all and leaves, a storm breaks out. Father Brennan attempts to find shelter in a nearby church and is killed when its lightning rod is struck by lightning and impales him. Katherine tells Robert she wants an abortion, which he opposes. Damien knocks Katherine over a railing to the floor below, hospitalizing her and causing her to miscarry.
Photographer Keith Jennings notices shadows in photographs of the nanny and Father Brennan that presage their deaths then sees a similar mark across himself in a later photo. Keith shows Robert the photos along with news clippings and Biblical passages from Father Brennan suggesting the coming of the Antichrist. He accompanies Robert to Rome to investigate Damien's birth. They find out that a fire destroyed the hospital, including Katherine's maternity records, and killed the staff on duty. They find Father Spiletto in a monastery, severely burned, mute, blind in one eye, and partially paralyzed. He directs them to the cemetery where Damien's biological mother is buried. In the grave of Damien's mother, Robert and Keith find a jackal carcass and, in the next plot, a child's skeleton with a shattered skull. Robert realizes that the child is his own son, murdered so that Damien could take his place. A pack of Rottweilers drives Robert and Keith away from the cemetery.
Robert calls Katherine in the hospital to tell her that she must leave London. Before she can do so, Mrs. Baylock throws Katherine to her death from the window of her room. Robert and Keith travel to meet with Antichrist exorcism expert Carl Bugenhagen in Jerusalem, who says that if Damien is the true Antichrist, he will bear a birthmark in the shape of three sixes. Carl gives Robert seven daggers with which to kill Damien on hallowed ground. Robert refuses to do so, but Keith remains convinced of its necessity. Shortly afterwards, Keith is decapitated by a sliding pane of sheet glass from a truck. Horrified, Robert reluctantly accepts his task.
Robert finds the birthmark on the sleeping Damien's scalp and is then attacked by Mrs. Baylock, whom he fatally stabs. Armed with the daggers, Robert drives Damien to a local cathedral. His erratic driving draws the attention of the police. Robert drags a screaming Damien onto the altar to kill him and begs God to forgive him, but the police arrive on the scene and shoot him dead as he brandishes the first dagger.
A double funeral ceremony is attended by the U.S. President and the First Lady. It is shown to be the funeral of Robert and Katherine. Damien, standing with the first couple, turns and breaks the fourth wall to smile at the film audience.
Cast
Production
Development According to producer Harvey Bernhard, the idea of a motion picture about the Antichrist came after a discussion about the Bible with Bob Munger, a friend of Bernhard's. When Munger told him about the idea in 1973, the producer immediately contacted screenwriter David Seltzer and hired him to write a screenplay. It took a year for Seltzer to write the script.The Omen Interviews with Gregory Peck 1976 at YouTube
The film was considered by Warner Bros. Pictures, but the project did not move forward until optioned by Alan Ladd Jr. of 20th Century-Fox. Seltzer and Donner differed over the film's message. Donner favored an ambiguous reading of the script under which it would be left for the audience to decide whether Damien was the Antichrist or whether the series of violent deaths in the film were all just a string of unfortunate accidents. Seltzer rejected the ambiguity favored by Donner and pressed for an interpretation of his script that left no doubt for the audience that Damien Thorn was the Antichrist and that all of the deaths in the film were caused by the malevolent power of Satan, the interpretation that Bernhard chose to go with.
Casting Bernhard claims Gregory Peck had been the choice to portray Ambassador Thorn from the beginning. Peck got involved with the project through his agent, who was friends with producer Bernhard. After reading the script, Peck reportedly liked the idea that it was more of a psychological thriller rather than a horror film and agreed to star in it. He was at first displeased with the props and effects designed for the death scenes but was relieved to find how restrained and non-exploitative they were in the final film.Getting Gregory Peck in The Omen – Richard Donner on YouTube
Despite Bernhard's claim, there were other actors considered for the role because studios were reluctant to cast Peck as a child killer. Warner Bros. Pictures thought the role would be ideal for Oliver Reed. William Holden had also been approached for the role, but turned it down, claiming he did not want to star in a film about the devil. Holden would later portray Thorn's brother, Richard, in the sequel, Damien – Omen II (1978). A firm offer was made to Charlton Heston on July 19, 1975. He turned down the part on July 27, not wanting to spend an entire winter alone in Europe and also concerned that the film might have an exploitative feel if not handled carefully.Heston, Charlton, The Actor's Life, E.P. Dutton, 1978, p453 Roy Scheider, Dick Van Dyke, and Charles Bronson were also considered for the role of Robert Thorn. Van Dyke turned down the role because of the violence and gore; he would later call the decision "stupid".
According to separate interviews with Donner and Harvey Stephens, over 500 boys had auditioned for the role of Damien. The then four-year-old Stephens won the role after Donner encouraged the boys to attack him during a group audition, following which Stephens reportedly clawed at Donner's face and kicked him in the groin. Because Stephens had curly blonde hair, Donner had Stephens' hair straightened and dyed black, and gave him colored contacts to make him look scarier.
Filming Principal photography of The Omen began on October6, 1975, and lasted eleven weeks, wrapping on January9, 1976. Scenes were shot on location in Bishops Park in Fulham, London and Guildford Cathedral in Surrey. The Thorns' country manor was filmed at Pyrford Court in Surrey. The church featured in the Bishop's Park neighbourhood is All Saints' Church, Fulham, on the western side of Putney Bridge Road. The church used in the final climactic scene is St Peter's in Staines-upon-Thames. Additional photography took place at Shepperton Studios outside London, as well as on location in Jerusalem and Rome.
For the scene where Katherine's car is attacked by baboons, production initially tried to have the baboons attack by placing food around the car (after having the zoo staff members deliberately not feed the baboons the night before filming), whilst also placing a baby baboon in the back seat of the car with a zoo official. After it failed to earn the desired effect, the official swapped out the baby baboon for the alpha baboon, which got the baboons to attack the car. According to Richard Donner, Lee Remick's terror during the scene was authentic.
Analysis
American scholar Brad Duren argued that The Omen was part of a trend of films featuring cosmic horror that started with Rosemary's Baby in 1968, but the film was unusual at the time because it concerned the "end times" predicted in The Book of Revelation and focused on a form of premillennialism favored by American dispensationalists. Duren further maintained that the box office success of The Omen, which concerned the first stages of the Apocalypse as the Antichrist is born, reflected the zeitgeist of 1970s America.
In 1973, an advertising executive and evangelical Christian, Robert Munger, who had read Hal Lindsey's book The Late Great Planet Earth, speculated to film producer Harvey Bernard about the possibility that the Antichrist might be walking the earth in the form of a child, unknown to the vast majority of humanity. This conversation inspired Bernard with the idea for the film that became The Omen. Bernard commissioned scriptwriter David Seltzer to write a script for the film. Seltzer in turn borrowed many ideas from dispensationalism, especially The Late Great Planet Earth, while also inventing his own. For an example, a supposed quote from the Book of Revelation featured in The Omen ("When the Jews return to Zion and a comet rips the sky and the Holy Roman Empire rises, then you and I must die; from the eternal sea he rises, creating armies on either shore, turning man against his brother, 'til man exists no more") is not in fact in that book. Likewise, the sinister figure who will rule the world for seven years predicted in Revelation, commonly known as the Antichrist, is not described in the Bible as the son of Satan, whereas Satan is the father of the Antichrist in The Omen.
Jim Knipfel in The Omen: The Pedigree of a Horror Classic on Den of Geek, opines of The Omen: