A Bad Omen (The Omen [2006] (DVD))

Name: plipplop

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Product:	The Omen [2006] (DVD)
Date:	19/06/06 (130 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: The story is still a good one

Disadvantages: It's the same as it was thirty years ago

When US ambassador Robert Thorn’s wife goes into labour, the couple’s delight turns to tragedy when the baby subsequently dies. Whilst struggling to cope with his grief, Thorn is approached by the hospital priest, who advises him that there has been another tragedy in the hospital. A young baby has been orphaned, his mother having died in child birth with nobody left to look after him. The priest persuades Thorn that God will forgive a small deception and that Thorn should adopt the baby as his own, telling his wife nothing of their real child’s death. Unable to tell his wife about their loss, he agrees to the priest’s proposal and the couple raise the child as their own.

When a new post becomes available in London, Thorn, his wife Katherine and their young son Damien move into a luxurious residence. After the tragic death of the young boy’s nanny, they begin to despair that they will be able to find a replacement. To their mutual delight, an experienced Nanny called Mrs Baylock arrives at the house, offering her services. Although not entirely sure whether it is the right decision, Mrs Baylock’s references are excellent and with nobody else left to see, the Thorns recruit her and move her into the house to look after Damien.

But unknown to the American couple, they are unwittingly playing their part in a far bigger, apocalyptic game. Damien Thorn is no ordinary human but by the time they realise exactly who it is that they are raising it may well be too late. For all of us…….

Whilst certainly not worthy of the reverence lavished upon it, the 1976 film original of The Omen was a pretty good yarn. At the time of its release, the world had gone mad for these conspiracy tales of Satanism and demonic possession and everyone was convinced that the world was going to end in fire and brimstone any day soon. Thirty years later, the world is a slightly different place but religious / biblical conspiracy theories are as popular as ever, and a new version of The Omen has graced our screens.

As far as remakes go, from an audience perspective, this struck me as the most pointless that I’ve ever seen. Whilst many film goers are totally opposed to remakes, I don’t particularly mind if there’s some benefit from it. Older films can successfully be brought up to date because of the advances in special effects (Poseidon, for example) or because they tell the story in a new generation (The Italian Job). But in remaking The Omen, director John Moore simply brings nothing new to the party. Indeed it’s pretty obvious that this was nothing more than a cash cow for the studio. From the lucratively well-chosen release data (the sixth of the sixth of the sixth) to the suggestion that the world has shown some of the signs hinted in the Bible (the Indian tsunami, the Twin Towers) this was always an exercise in hooking a twenty-first century audience’s needs.

The film plays out frame by frame, scene by scene in an almost identical fashion to the original version of the film. The characters may be played by different actors, but they are otherwise all the same, even down to the names. The twists and turns fail to shock in any way whatsoever, simply because anyone who has seen the original knows exactly what happens next and is only through the introduction of a few new sneaky little dream sequences that Moore sets the film apart from its counterpart in any way. I became tired, and bored with the film as I literally knew exactly what would happen next at virtually every single turn.

Sadly, where the original film had a certain gothic charm to it, the new version just doesn’t have any charm at all. Feeling at times like Final Destination 4 (the ingenuity and build up to some of the screen deaths seeming to steal from that franchise) the new Omen seems to fail to decide what it wants to be. The horror moments are there for the horror fans (David Thewlis’s dispatch is particularly gruesome) and the suspense is there for the suspense fans but it’s unconvincingly told. When Damien’s first nanny kills herself in the original film, for example, it fits into the slow, creepy atmosphere of the film’s opening sequences. In the remake it is rushed, and rather gratuitous; included only because it was there in the original version. Faced with the prospect of re-making the film myself, I’d have injected some originality by taking these core events and changing certain details. The nanny, for example, could easily have committed suicide in a different way; at the secluded grave yard Thorn and Jennings might have been attacked in a different way. All these details could have been changed. But then that, after a while, would have become as pointless as keeping everything the same. Perhaps it’s better not to remake at all?

If you can put the remake issues to one side, however, The Omen is arguably a competent enough film in its own right. The pace is good, with just enough going on to keep you intrigued and a peppering of action, death and scares to make you jump. The story remains delightfully wicked and none of the devilry of the 1970s is lost here. Mia Farrow puts in a tremendously evil certain as Damien’s nanny and protector, Mrs Baylock and her eventual demise remains one of the high points of the entire film. The other cast members (Julia Stiles as Damien’s mother, Live Schreiber as Robert Thorn) are likeable enough, although Damien himself (Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick) just tries a bit too hard.

Despite clocking in ten minutes short of two hours, The Omen is something of a whirlwind affair and certainly doesn’t tire. It does, however, fail to justify its own existence, shamelessly raking in the cash to spit disappointed audience members out the other end. If you haven’t seen the original, then there’s probably a lot more here for you to like, but if you have you’ll find this a pretty pointless exercise from start to finish. The only thing more unsettling than the concept of the birth of the antichrist is the likely knowledge that remakes of the sequels may also soon descend upon the planet.

Not recommended

Summary: Pointless remake that replays the original scene by scene