The Omen DVD Review

The Omen DVD Review

DVD Released by Fox Home Entertainment

Written by David Seltzer
Directed by Richard Donner
Runtime – 111 minutes
Rated R

Starring:
Gregory Peck
Lee Remick
David Warner

The Film:
In 1973, The Exorcist came out to a massive box office take and a few Academy Award nominations. Seeing a good thing, other studios started bouncing around some of their own demonic films, with varying degrees of success. By far, one of the more successful (commercially and artistically) was Richard Donner’s film The Omen.

Gregory Peck stars in the film as Robert Thorne, an American diplomat in Italy. The film opens as Thorne is given the news that his newborn child died. He doesn’t know how he will break the news to his wife (Lee Remick). A priest tells him that a baby has been born whose mother died in childbirth, and Thorne could take the baby without his wife ever knowing the difference. Thorne gives the baby to his wife, and the family lives happily ever after.

Well, not quite happily ever after. Cut forward a few years and the baby, Damien, is now a young boy. Thorne is appointed ambassador to England, and the family moves in to a manor house outside London. Everything seems fine until, at Damien’s birthday party, his nurse hangs herself in front of all the children. Thorne thinks the accident is unfortunate, and when a priest comes calling who claims that Damien is more than he appears, Thorne has him tossed out.

Meanwhile, a photojournalist (David Warner) has been following Thorne and confronts him with some unusual information: Photos taken of Damien’s nurse before her death show a shadow in the picture that looks like a noose around her neck. As Thorne gets more and more bizarre reports surrounding Damien, he starts to wonder if perhaps Damien really IS more than he appears to be.

The Omen is still a wonderfully effective film. Donner gives the whole film a gothic feel, with scene in Rome and scenes at large Churches. The Oscar-winning score by Jerry Goldsmith is chilling and haunting, and Peck and Warner both give fine performances. Peck in particular lends a level of gravitas to his role, so when you see a man of such strong conviction believing that Damien is demonic, you believe it too.

Donner also understands the use of suspense and uses it well. There are a few jump scares scattered throughout the film, but on the whole, the focus is squarely on Thorne. From the opening shots of Thorne agonizing over his lost child, straight through to the climax, this is a film about a man put under enormous pressure. And it works very well. There isn’t all that much mysticism in the film, and the supernatural acts are so few that you wonder if perhaps there is nothing supernatural about Damien at all (a doubt quickly abandoned in the two Omen sequels). The Omen is ambiguous, scary, and effective.

The Picture:
This picture on this disc is soft. I’d almost call it gooey. Half the time it looks like Donner smeared Vaseline on the lens before shooting. I compared the picture quality on this to Fox’s original release of The Omen, and it while both had soft picture, this release definitely looked less sharp than the previous one. On the other hand, they used a cleaner print and there are no jagged lines in this new one, so it’s a bit of a toss-up. Both transfers have their flaws and I suspect that neither really do the film justice, unfortunately.

The Sound:
The biggest addition over the last edition of this film is the Dolby Digital 5.1 mix. For the most part, the score gets the best use out of this mix, with a few directional effects here and there. The original mono is included, which still sounds darn good.

The Extras:
All of the extras from the last edition were ported over onto this new release. They are:
-Commentary with director Richard Donner and editor Stuart Baird.
-666: The Omen Revealed
-Curse or Coincidence
-Jerry Goldsmith Discusses The Omen Score

These are all very good special features. The commentary is quite interesting, with Donner and Baird reminiscing on old times while discussing the film in an intelligent manner. 666: The Omen Revealed is a great documentary with interviews from just about everyone involved. This was the highlight of the last edition. Curse or Coincidence is a short featurette about the odd goings-on during the shooting of The Omen. Fun, but nothing serious. And Jerry Goldsmith Discusses The Omen Score is exactly what it sounds like. Since the score won an Oscar, it’s interesting to hear how Goldsmith went about writing it.

The new special features are:
-Commentary with Richard Donner and Brian Helgeland
-Deleted Scene with Commentary
-The Omen Legacy
-Screenwriter’s Notebook
-An Appreciation: Wes Craven on The Omen

I felt the second commentary wasn’t all that useful. It recycled a lot of information from the other commentary and features without adding all that much else. The deleted scene, on the other hand, is a very nice addition. It was mentioned in the commentary on the last edition but was not available on that disc. Now we can see it and even get a new commentary on it. Very nice. The Omen Legacy is an even more in-depth look than 666: The Omen Revealed, and also details the other films in the series. David Seltzer discusses his script in Screenwriter’s Notebook, which gives some interesting information on the origins of the story. Finally, Wes Craven appreciates The Omen by basically saying he was surprised at how good it was. Not much going on there.

We also get a trailer, an introduction by Donner, and some still galleries. All in all, pretty extensive.

Grades:
Film style: A (Gothic themes plus strong suspense = classic horror)
Film Content: A- (Themes)/A- (Plot)
Picture: C+ (Fox went a little off the deep end in the softness department)
Sound: B- (Nothing great, nothing terrible)
Extras: A (Some fluff, but the bulk of it is really good)

Conclusion:
The Omen is a classic horror film that every fan of the genre should see at least once, and probably own. If you have the previous version, this one doesn’t really require a double dip. If you don’t own it at all, you might as well snag this one for the extra special features and the 5.1 mix.

Clips From The Omen:

Clip #1 – “666”

Clip # 2 – “Casting Damien”

Clip # 3 – “Filming the Baboon Scene”

Clip # 4 – “Marketing the Omen”

Clip # 5 – “The Omen Vs. The Exorcist”