Commercial-free on TV today: the gripping and chilling remake of a horror landmark that far exceeds its reputation

“The Omen” on ZDF Neo: that’s the story

It’s six in the morning on June 6 in Rome: Katherine (Julia Stiles), the wife of senior American diplomat Robert Thorn (Liev Schreiber), has just had a difficult birth. She still has no idea that her child did not survive. Robert is devastated by the loss and concerned about his wife’s mental health. After all, Katherine had already had two miscarriages.

Then Father Spiletto (Giovanni Lombardo Radice), the priest of the hospital, comes up with a solution: he offers Robert to adopt as his son another boy who was born the same night but whose single mother died in childbirth. Robert agrees without telling Katherine about his decision. The couple names the child Damien and are initially delighted.

A few years later, Robert is appointed US Ambassador to Great Britain. The family settles on a feudal estate near London, where disturbing incidents quickly take place. Damien’s nanny (Amy Huck) hangs herself during his birthday party, an eccentric priest (Pete Postlethwaite) issues dire warnings upon seeing the boy, and an innocent visit to the zoo ends with crazy animals and mass panic. After all, bizarre deaths are increasingly common in the immediate vicinity of the Thorns.

Katherine quickly becomes convinced that Damien (Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick) harbors evil. Meanwhile, Robert dismisses her theory as nonsense. But then photographer Keith Jennings (David Thewlis) shows him some chilling photos he’s taken of the recent victims, in which strange apparitions seem to predict the manner of their respective deaths…

The “The Omen” Franchise

The top cast “The Omen” is a straightforward, only slightly changing remake of the classic with modern means, set in our present. John Moore’s work is so heavily modeled that the American Writers’ Association of the Film and Television Industry there (Writers Guild of America) even banned the creators from naming Dan McDermott (“Eagle Eye”) as a screenwriter in the opening or credits. Instead, only the name of David Seltzers, who wrote the script for the 1976 film, was allowed to appear there. And that, even though Seltzer was completely uninvolved in the new edition.

When The Omen was released in theaters, the film was greeted with mostly negative reviews. But not only us at FILMSTARTS, but also the worldwide audience liked the work – and so the title went straight to the top of the US charts and was able to rake in an impressive $120 million on a budget of only $25 million.

So “The Omen” was a resounding success. It is therefore surprising that – as is not only usual with horror hits, but almost mandatory – no sequel was immediately worked on. The only plausible explanation for this is that the three sequels to the original film were all disappointing at the time, and perhaps that’s why restraint was exercised.

After the first film made horror history in 1976 with Hollywood icon Gregory Peck in the role of the father, ‘Damien – Omen II’ and ‘Omen III: Barbara’s Baby’ – despite significantly higher production costs – each fell well short of the box office. the income from the first time back. It was with Omen IV that the 20th Century Fox studio finally seemed to have lost faith in the franchise. The title made it to big screens in Europe and Australia (rather unsuccessfully), but was televised live in North America.

In 1995, Fox then tried to bring a TV series, also originally titled The Omen, to fans. A pilot episode was produced and aired on the internal US network. Strangely, however, the plot seemed much more focused on “Poltergeist”. The reviews were devastating and the public ignored the whole thing, and of course the planned series fell through. A second series attempt, launched in 2016 in the form of Damien, was only slightly luckier. This time the focus was on the title character as an adult male. After only ten episodes, the American cable channel Lifetime pulled the string.

For a long time, that seemed like the end of The Omen franchise. But in 2022, news suddenly came that the studio, which now belongs to the Disney group, apparently has not completely given up on reviving the horror story.

Of “The first omenThe prequel to the first film (and thus to the 2006 remake) has already been shot and is in post-production. Series director Arkasha Stevenson (“Legion”, “Brand New Cherry Flavor”) is responsible for the prequel starring Nell Tiger Free (“Servant”), Bill Nighy (“Love Actually”) and Sônia Braga (“Shotgun Wedding”), among others, in the leading roles.

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