The Omen (1976): 50 Years Old and Still Relevant

In the summer of 1976, the Bicentennial Year, I was determined to see the upcoming new horror film, The Omen. I was sixteen, and it was rated R—no one under 17 admitted without an adult chaperone. Fortunately, I was able to convince my older sister to accompany me and my parents, reluctantly, allowed me to go. 

The Omen had been heavily promoted on television and other media earlier that year. I remember very well the trailer featuring Leo McKern ominously warning in his unidentifiable accent, “This is not a human child.” Chills!

I also recall Good Morning America’sresident Hollywood gossip columnist, Rhona Barrett, doing a spooky segment about the unusual, freaky events occurring on the film’s shoot. (Writer David Seltzer’s and star Gregory Peck’s planes respectively got hit by lightning, to name just two.) To emphasize what would eventually come to be called “The Omen Curse,” Barrett wore a black cowl on camera and surrounded herself with numerous drippy candles. 

I was even more determined to watch The Omen after that. 

In the darkened theater, I sank into my seat, feeling terribly grown-up. There was a singular maturity and seriousness about The Omen that I didn’t remember from the other horror movies I’d seen on the big screen or on the Saturday Afternoon Movie. Looking back, I realize that The Omen was clearly from a new breed of horror movie, which was just gaining traction at the time—something I’ve come to call the A-List Horror Film, to distinguish it from the Hammer or AIP films that most moviegoers at the time associated with the term “horror movie.”

Like the other legendary members of the Satanic Big Three, Rosemary’s Baby (1968) and The Exorcist (1973), The Omen starred A-List leading actors and employed top talent in all the right places. It was a coup to land its two leading stars, the Oscar-winner Peck and the beautiful Golden Globe awardee Lee Remick. In addition to the big American acting names, The Omen also featured an impressive tranche of distinguished British character actors, such as Patrick Troughtman (Doctor Who); Leo McKern (Rumpole of the Bailey), David Warner (Titanic), and Billie Whitelaw (Frenzy). 

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They were directed by Richard Donner, a talented veteran who had yet to make it into the top tier of the era’s filmmakers (two years later, he would ascend into the industry’s stratosphere with 1978’s Superman, a monster international hit and a landmark in the superhero film genre). Meanwhile, The Omen’s soundtrack was in the sure hands of Jerry Goldsmith, much admired at the time for his brilliant score for Roman Polanski’s Chinatown (1973). Goldsmith would go on to garner his only Oscar for his creepy, Latin-chanting Omen score. In addition, on the camera was Gilbert Tayor, one of the priciest cinematographers in London, who had previously shot films for Alfred Hitchcock and Roman Polanski.

The Omen did not disappoint this horror-loving sixteen-year-old. In addition to enjoying the solemn gravity of the tone, I was scared. Imagine seeing the decapitation scene for the first time on a big screen, or the jackal chase in the Italian graveyard, or the crazed suicide of Holly Palance doing it “all for you, Damien.” All accompanied by that memorably demonic Jerry Goldsmith score. 

It was a film that looked and sounded tremendously good; featured ground-breaking practical effects that were extremely sophisticated for the era; and was expertly edited into a tight, suspenseful, atmospheric drama. I paid rapt attention for the nearly two-hour run time. 

Audiences far and wide showed their appreciation also. Made for less than three million dollars, The Omen hauled in almost fifty million dollars in worldwide rentals (the equivalent of $276 million today). Richard Donner was bumped up to the A-List; Gregory Peck’s long career got a new lease on life; David Warner got busier, and Gil Taylor was tapped to shoot a modest little space opera called Star Wars. Stuart Baird, the film’s chief editor and the man who made the complicated red tricycle and decapitation scenes look seamless, would go on to be Oscar-nominated for editing Donner’s Superman.

Agatha Christie Versus Satan

When I rewatched The Omen many years later as an adult, one thing that struck me is that the plot is as much a murder mystery as it is a horror film. It’s a major reason why the story is so compelling. From England to Italy to Israel, we’re right there with Robert Thorn and Keith Jennings as they piece together the conspiracy that took the life of Thorn’s actual son and replaced him with one very evil changeling. Along the way, the bodies pile up like those of the hapless characters in Agatha Christie’s classic novel, And Then There Were None.

The paranoia and conspiratorial atmosphere portrayed in The Omen far outstrips those of the more static Christie classic, however, allowing the audience to “solve” the mystery with Thorn and Jennings, while vicariously experiencing the ever-ratcheting-up of the suspense. The genius of Donner is that throughout the film, almost everybody encountered by Thorn seems like they could be conspirators. The camera lingers on the face of a creepy clown at Damien’s ill-fated birthday party, who is watching Holly Palance’s suicide with an expression of complete non-surprise. Is the clown involved somehow? The question remains frustratingly open. 

These little moments of paranoia occur regularly throughout the film, as bit-part actors and extras eye up Thorn and Jennings with expressions that often read, “I’m totally calling in their coordinates to Central Evil the minute they pass out of view.”  We see it, but Thorn and Jennings don’t.

It’s crucial to the film’s success that all of the main actors work incredibly hard to sell the story, which was initially dismissed by some critics as “hokum.” There are no campy moments when an actor winks at the audience and telegraphs, “Yeah, I’m doing this for a fat paycheck.”  Peck’s normally somewhat wooden demeanor breaks down into anguish when he sees the tiny remains of his real son and the giant hole that was bashed into its skull by the conspirators, and it’s a revelation. The hipster demeanor of Jennings becomes tragic as he reveals the evidence showing he’s next on the kill list. Billie Whitelaw turns in a highlight reel as the sinister Mrs. Baylock, the nanny who is literally from hell. 

The character of Bugenhagen (an uncredited Leo McKern), the mysterious archaeologist who knows all about the Damien conspiracy, could have been a chokepoint. After all, he’s been sitting on the Seven Daggers of Megiddo for some time, following Thorn’s career closely and keeping tabs on Brennan, but never thinks to warn anyone until Damien is five? That seems a bit far-fetched. McKern, however, is so good at selling the character that the audience just nods along: He must have had his reasons for waiting.

Is The Omen still relevant today?

Obviously, yes. For one thing, it popularized the 666 prophecy from the Book of Revelation, which has since become a horror staple, waxing and waning at times, but never disappearing from the genre.  

The Omen is also an excellent primer on how to make a hybrid horror-mystery film. It is well-paced, revealing its clues in a steady, Gothic rhythm, building a solid case. As Thorn collects his clues, the suspense becomes almost unbearable as he finds the final one: the 666 birthmark under little Damien’s fluffy pageboy hairline. In the end, Thorn transitions from detective to judge and then to would-be executioner at a thrilling pace, with only Mrs. Baylock providing her exposed neck as a speedbump.

You can also see a lot of The Omen in the popular Final Destination franchise. While Mrs. Christie is generally credited with the concept of bizarre interconnected murders occurring one by one, The Omen introduced a strong element of inevitability to the victims’ fate.  After all, it was Beelzebub himself manipulating the deadly events, not some crazed serial killer who would or could be eventually caught. This is very similar to the Final Destination movies, where it’s another supernatural entity—Death—come to collect his relentless, vengeful due. 

Ironically, the success of the steady, inevitable death scenes in The Omen was a major factor in dooming it as a franchise property. The sequels, by and large, focused more on forging creative deaths and forgot the mystery element that was so compelling in the parent film. Additionally, both Damien – The Omen II and The Omen III: The Final Conflict continue the story from the point of view of Damien, whom we already know is the Antichrist. Where’s the mystery in that? The death scenes became repetitive and boring. Even Jerry Goldsmith’s demonic Latin chanting wore out its welcome. 

In addition, the Fox studio heads, who had benefitted from a lucrative monster hit with the first film, inexplicably went downmarket with the sequels, making do with journeyman directors and lower-tier actors, with William Holden the lone exception as Thorn’s brother in Omen II. There have been sporadic attempts to revive the franchise in more recent times, but none have been particularly successful. An early ’90s TV movie aired under the title of The Omen IV: The Awakening and was roundly thrashed by critics. The 2006 remake of the first film was pointless and dumb. A 2016 cable series entitled Damien was cancelled in the middle of the first season. 

In 2024, the prequel entitled The First Omen was a modest hit, earning $54 million on a $20 million budget. Significantly, The First Omen revived the mystery element of the original film, focusing on a naive novitiate nun stumbling onto a secret Catholic plot that is totally different from the secret Catholic plot in the original film. It also left the door open for more sequels, introducing the novel concept that the cunning little devil, Damien,has siblings.  

Unfortunately, although The First Omen features some enviably creepy set-pieces, it is pretty far from canon in some places, leaving myself and many other fans of the original film unenthusiastic about a sequel. It’s also fairly low-budget, with production values that do not come close to matching those of the 1976 film. 

In my humble opinion, what’s needed to revive the franchise is a sequel that continues the mystery-horror hybrid approach, and which is not told from Damien’s point of view, but from a new Thorn-like detective piecing things together against tremendous odds. This film would also employ a top-tier director and established stars, and incorporate impeccable production values, just like the original; also, the tone would be serious, extirpating any hint of camp (unlike the uneven tone of the sequels). 

David Seltzer, who wrote the screenplay for the original, passed on penning any more Omens. Yet reportedly, he had an idea for how a second film would play out. It would take place directly after Damien arrives in Washington, DC at the end of the first film, with the President appointed his guardian in Thorn’s will. The Antichrist would be growing up at the White House…imagine the possibilities. Sadly, I don’t think that this approach is in the cards anytime soon. It’s fun to speculate, however, especially for someone with fond memories of the Summer of ’76. 

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Article by Jane Nightshade

Jane Nightshade is a former corporate communications manager turned horror, sci-fi, and crime fiction writer. Her non-fiction writing about horror and crime film and television has appeared online at Horrornews.net, Horrified Magazine, What Sleeps Beneath, and Ghouls Magazine.

Her fiction has appeared or will appear in 40+ anthologies, magazines and podcasts, including FlameTree for print and NoSleep for podcasts. She is the author of A Scream Full of Ghosts, a single-author story collection from Dark Ink Books, and The Drowning Game: A Novella of the Supernatural, available in digital form on Amazon. She is also editor of and contributor to the anthology Jane Nightshade’s Serial Encounters, from HellBound Books. Her second collection of single-author short stories, Ghosts Never Leave, was published in May 2025. HellBound Highway, an anthology of travel horror with Jane as co-editor and contributor, was published in December 2025.

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