The Omen

Fueled by advances in special effects, the birth of the midnight movie, and a cultural fascination with mysticism, the horror genre achieved a status in the 1970s not seen since its glory days of the 1930s. Of all the occult horror films that surfaced in the wake of 1968's Rosemary's Baby, Richard Donner's phenomenally successful The Omen (1976) was the slickest and least subversive. Derivative but effective, the film was Gregory Peck's box-office comeback, and it offered a convincing turn from Lee Remick as well. The Omen never achieved the cult status of other specimens of the genre, but it paved the way for such 1980s big-budget mystical horror films as The Howling (1981) and Poltergeist (1982). The film's success also ensured more big-screen projects for Donner, including the Lethal Weapon series. ~ Brendon Hanley, All Movie Guide

Eschewing the less-is-more approach of Rosemary's Baby (1968), in The Omen, director Richard Donner matched the ancient conflict between Good and Satan with spectacularly "medieval" deaths by hanging, impalement, and decapitation. As in such other '70s Satanism horror as The Exorcist (1973), The Omen locates the ultimate evil in an "innocent" minor, creating a parent's worst nightmare: a child who will inevitably annihilate the world. With its familial and global anxieties, stylish production values, and major stars, The Omen became one of the most popular movies of 1976 (and the first horror film to win an Oscar for Best Score). While considered by some an exercise in Hollywood slickness, The Omen refuses to be comforting -- as may be expected from the first part of a trilogy that concluded with The Final Conflict (1981). ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide