“The devil doesn’t want us to film”: How the makers of The Omen were cursed

It all started when advertising executive Bob Munger approached producer Harvey Bernhard with the idea of ​​making a movie about the Antichrist. However, he himself soon became afraid of his idea and is said to have even said that “the devil does not want us to make a picture”. Despite this terrible foreboding, they decided to continue with the project. Agent Ed Rosen had just pitched director Richard Donner a script tentatively titled Antichrist, which had been rejected by all the studios. Rosen was confident that the script would be a success.

Filming began on October 12, 1975. And almost immediately, terrifying events began to happen to members of the film crew.

Shortly after filming began, actor Gregory Peck was on a plane that was struck by lightning. A few weeks later, the film’s executive director, Mark Neufeld, boarded a plane leaving Los Angeles and was also struck by lightning. Neufeld described the flight as “the hardest five minutes he’s ever spent on a commercial aircraft”.

The incidents with the planes did not end there. For the aerial filming, the group rented a small plane, but it had to be transferred at the last minute to another filming. As the plane took off, it was reported to have crashed, killing all on board.

The film was being shot in London, so Neufeld and his wife stayed at the London Hilton. During their stay, radicals from the Irish Republican Army attacked the hotel, killing two people and injuring 63.

Despite this tragedy, filming continued and even more terrifying circumstances occurred during the work. One of the scenes involved a group of baboons – in the story they were supposed to become aggressive in the presence of the devil child Damien. The scene required the work of a set trainer. The day after the episode was filmed, this trainer was brutally killed by a tiger.

Bad luck followed the creator even after the film was released in June 1976. In August of the same year, John Richardson, who worked on special effects for The Omen, was involved in a traffic accident that severed the head of a passenger. Coincidentally, Richardson also had a hand in creating the incredibly gruesome beheading scene of one of the film’s characters. Local residents, hungry for sensational reporters, reported that a sign reading “Ommen, 66.6 km” had allegedly been installed near the crash site.

However, there were some good things about the movie. The picture was awarded an Oscar for the best score and the young actor Harvey Stevens, who portrayed Damien, was nominated for a Golden Globe in the Best Debut category. True, after that he almost did not act in films and began to work as an animator. In 2017, Stevens was given a suspended prison sentence for aggressively attacking two cyclists – nothing short of a demon.

Also read: Also blue-blooded: what the actress who played Princess Diana for the first time looks like