After the truly awful ‘The Exorcist: Believer’ last year, it’s safe to say that legacy sequels rarely ever hit their chosen mark. And now we have ‘The First Omen’, daring to piggyback off the superb 1976 original movie ‘The Omen’ to deliver a by-the-numbers tale of terror that rarely raises the pulse, but has a great visual look to it whilst benefitting from a superb leading performance from Nell Tiger Free.
Margaret (Nell Tiger Free) is a young American woman who is shipped off to Rome to begin a life dedicated to the Church. Once there she questions her surroundings as she uncovers a terrifying conspiracy that wants to bring about the birth of true evil. Having suffered from visions in her past, it becomes clear that something is very wrong in the orphanage she works at with the other nuns… and why has a disturbed young girl in her care been separated from the other children?
Nell Tiger Free is far and away the best thing in ‘The First Omen’. She delivers a wonderfully textured performance that holds your attention throughout. She elevates the material and really sells the premise, which is a welcome sight for a horror film. Bill Nighy is his usual, reliable self but with added sinister tendencies, and Charles Dance is excellent in his blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo for a very memorable opening sequence – one that pays homage to the original ‘Omen’ film well.
The ensemble are all ok, with Sonia Braga doing a good job as the sinister Sister Silva, Tawfeek Barhom fights the system (albeit a bit too late) as Father Gabriel whilst Maria Caballero is bewitching as Luz, a character who has a legacy in this franchise that’s played out very well. Ishtar Currie-Wilson is good as the creepy Sister Anjelica. Finchy from ‘The Office’ (aka Ralph Ineson) plays Father Brennan, an Irish priest who looks like he’s wandered straight off the set of Father Ted, so that’s entertaining in its own right. I’d like to think this is also an inadvertent origin story to Bishop Brennan from that series too.
‘The First Omen’ practically shares the same premise as ‘Immaculate’ starring Sidney Sweeney which came out recently. ‘Immaculate’ had its own problems but did it in 90mins. At 2 hours, ‘The First Omen’ should have developed story threads far more convincingly. And it has to be said – the film isn’t particularly scary, with just a few obvious jump scares and a few frights that you’ll see coming a mile off. But what it does have going for it is that ‘The First Omen’ is shot very well – marrying the time-period aesthetics of the first film very effectively. Director Arkasha Stevenson has delivered on that front, and the scares, whilst predictable and not plentiful enough, do have an artistic flourish to them.
The tagline of ‘The most terrifying movie of the year’ is more than a tad optimistic for this formulaic frightener. Why have the big Hollywood studios forgotten how to make genuinely good and original horror movies? ‘The First Omen’ is fine for younger audiences who have only really known ‘Blumhouse’ as their horror staple. For those of us who remember the golden age of the 70s and 80s though, it’s just another attempted tie-in to a much better, bygone era of horror. It’s a shame that ‘The First Omen’ didn’t take more chances, but ultimately there wasn’t much of an origin story to even tell that wasn’t already sufficiently detailed in the original film. An entertaining, if forgettable, distraction, but given its potential it should have strived for much more.
Cast: Nell Tiger Free, Ralph Ineson, Sonia Braga, Tawfeek Barhom, Maria Caballero, Charles Dance, Bill Nighy, Ishtar Currie-Wilson Director: Arkasha Stevenson Writer: Tim Smith, Arkasha Stevenson, Keith Thomas, Ben Jacoby Certificate: 15 Duration: 120 mins Released by: Disney Release date: 5th April 2024
