The end of man is at hand and the seventh trumpet has sounded. From the abyss he rises, the son of the beast, the destroyer of mankind, the Antichrist. A child born not of man will fulfill the prophecies written down long ago in the book of Revelations and bring about the end of the world. We have seen the signs and read the scriptures but we all have ignored the warnings. It is the end of times, it is his time.

On June 6 of 2006 the remake of the 1976 classic hit the screen in biblical fashion, is it as good as the original? No. In fact, hell no! But it does come close in many ways.

I love the original The Omen. Not only do I think it is a great horror film, but it is a great film in any genre, much like Jaws, the film crosses many genres and finds it’s own niche in many different categories. What made it so good in my opinion was a great cast headlined by Gregory Peck and Lee Remick and a rich, deep, dark, slow building story that keeps the viewer in constant suspense and at times utter fright. And in that respect the new incarnation of evil in the remake does just the same. This film is about as much a remake as the 1998 version of Psycho was.

First I want to say how great a job some of the cast did like Live Schreiber as Robert Thorn and David Thewlis as Jennings do, at times it was like watching Peck and David Warner on screen again. The actors are different and the characters are slightly altered but watching these two you get an incredible sense of deja vu at times, especially when the two visit a roadside concession stand. Also Mia Farrow needs a nod of respect as well. She is great in the role of the sinister nanny. I’m not saying it was anywhere as good as Billie Whitelaw’s but once again, it’s different yet familiar. Also Pete Postlewaite and Michael Gambon make the best out of the small amount of screen time they receive. I do feel that the cast suffers a bit with the casting of Damien and Katherine Thorn. All the kid does is look pouty and all Julia Stiles does is complain about her child and the lavish lifestyle she is forced to live.

The story follows the original nearly to the T, there are a few variations but nothing that really harmed the story concept, just updated it a bit. One bad thing I noticed is in the beginning when the priest are giving their interpretations of the sounding of the trumpets in the book of Revelations, after showing visual bits dealing with the collapse of the World Trade Centers, the recent tidal wave and the Space Shuttle Challenger tragedy, they then say that it has all happened in order. Maybe it was me, but I think the video slides and the trumpet interpretations were a bit off, but other than that it stays very faithful to the first film.

Now where this one does up the ante a bit more than the original was in the gore factor. I love the decapitation scene in the first film, but HOLY SHIT they go above and beyond in this one, I loved it and the whole theater gasped aloud, it is fantastic! Also they add a few cheap “jump” scares, but they work and give the audience a few good reactions. One thing I could have used a little more of was rottweiler however. Much like I need cowbell, I gotta have more rottweiler baby! The original Omen trilogy had more rottweiler than you could shake a T-bone steak at! This one, however, goes a little light in the pooch factor, but it is a little more brutal. Plus what was the deal with the black German Shepard? I mean the rott just looked more the part, but I might be a bit biased on that aspect.

Anyways The Omen 2006 is a good flick and I enjoyed it. If you have seen the original you’ll only find a few new bells and whistles in this one to be had, but I think it’s worth it. All in all I found more good than bad in this one, but I’ll leave ya with this. This is not the 1976 Omen it is the 2006 Omen, go into it with that mind set and you will have a good time. And if this is your first visit with the little devil known as Damien then do yourself a true devilish delight and head on out and pick up the original, I promise you won’t be let down.

7 of 10

This was the first movie that I went to see it in theatres, and instantly I was zoned in on all of the subliminal messages/images throughout it. I know, a lot of it was probably my mind fantasizing it, but I still found all of the subs amazingly done, and veeeeery creepy.

That said....wow. Just wow. This movie is going down as possibly my favorite of all time. I only saw the original once, when I was very young. So I don't really remember it, but I loved this one all the same. The acting was very well done, all the characters seemed believable, and well cast.

As far as the gore and scare factor, I feel they really did very well without too much gore. I have to agree with Jare and say that the decapitation scene is a must see for any true horror hound. And I feel that the "cheap" jump scares were used extremely tastefully compared to how most directors use them.

Like I said, it's fastly becoming my all time fav of a movie. I loved every second I was in the theatre (and thats with a group of six people sitting behind me who would not for the life of me stfu, untill they fell asleep half way through)

10 out of 10 times I creamed my pants when a man's head was sliced off

I'm all for effective remakes of older films. Hey, why not keep the classic terrors rolling for another generation to witness? But shouldn't they try to surprise us?

The Omen is reasonably well directed, has excellent production values and performances, and even managed to make me jump once or twice. However, with the exception of one sequence involving Thorn's wife, I was able to accurately predict the eventual fate of EVERY SINGLE CHARACTER in this movie! Cripes, I could have served as a guide for how this thing unfolded, pointing at the screen and explaining each scene to willing audience members while eerie tour music thundered behind me.

Now, here's the thing. I work hard at a 50 plus hour a week job (which I hate) in order to keep money in my pocket. Some of said money is regularly set aside for tickets to the latest horror flick to hit local theaters. I don't mind the arrangement. Hollywood beckons, I answer the blood soaked call. Fine. But for fucks sake, SURPRISE me already! When I walk out of a remake realizing that I could have gotten the exact same experience out of a film which I actually have sitting in a dvd clamshell on a shelf at home, it tends to piss me off.

Is The Omen well made? Well, yeah actually. Is it worth a watch? Only on home video, where large numbers of people can view it for a grand total of four bucks instead of at eight dollars per person.

Y'know, things have gone too far south when I feel I've been ass reamed for trying to honor a classic favorite. No big surprises here. Save this one for dvd, kids.

Boy, this was terrible. I don't remember the original being this slow. The kills were pretty good though. The movie's only bright spot.

The movie lacked energy. The tense moments were relegated to dream sequence jump scares. A lame mechanism.

The hospital scene annoyed me. The Evil powers that be can strike down a priest while he is standing in a sacred place, but Damien and Co. need an elaborate ruse to gain access to a hospital room. Are you kidding me?

The thing that annoyed me the most though were all the misdirections. The hatchet in the foreground of one scene, the cemetery scene where you just knew the journalist was going to meet his fate with the slippery snow and the big sharp grave marker. Even the ending where they were teasing us on whether the ending would follow the original or not. It's like they felt they had to keep us guessing. If that is the case, then perhaps you should not do a remake and instead be creative and make a movie that hasn't been done already.

Avoid this. I give it 4.5 out of 10 lizard priests.

I liked a number of things that Prime liked about this one. The performances by Schreiber and Thewlis were great. The kills were well done (felt like the nanny fell farther than the original version).

What gave me a bad taste in my mouth was how Damien's character was presented. In the original film and even midway through Part II, Damien is not aware of his significance. But in this film it seems as though the young spawn of Satan fully comprehends that he is evil incarnate and embraces that fact.

I don't know if it was the writers who wrote it like that or the director who asked the kid to play it that way but it lost something that the original had going for it. It lost the human element. I'll explain.

In the original, Damien seems like a kid who is being a kid while weird shit happens around him. He might have understood that he was different but not at all sure how. In this film, he seems like the catalyst for most of what goes on around him. Thus leaving what he says to Thorn at the end of the film shallow and meaningless.

Because of this portrayal of Damien it would make it impossible to remake the second Omen film, one where Damien struggles with the knowledge that he's the Devil's son. Maybe that's a good thing. Hollywood should be remaking the films that need a re-tooling and not the classics that they can never live up to.

5 of 10