The mark of a good movie is when you can watch it with the minimum of commentary. Unfortunately The Omen isn’t one of those movies because Pia and I spent pretty much the entire time giving our comments on it. Not all of them good.
Case in point, when Robert Thorn (Liev Schrieber) learns that his child has died and a priest at the hospital offers an orphaned baby to him, saying “God will forgive this little deception”, I was thinking, “What kind of priest says that?! Thorn! Head for the hills!”
And even with the growing evidence that something was not quite right with Damien, Thorn still didn’t tell his wife about his “little deception”. Confess you fool! Tell her, “I’m sorry honey but I brought the son of Satan into our home”.
There were some creepy moments – Mia Farrow as the nanny is wonderful here. She really brought a sense of unease that was lacking in much of the movie. But on the whole it wasn’t that scary. Liev Schrieber was fine but I found Julia Stiles to be ineffectual. And the kid who played Damien…he just needed to stop looking so constipated.