‘How do you control people who no longer believe? You create something to fear...’
Aside from the original film, The Omen franchise has never really taken off. The sequels are solid if unspectacular. The 2006 remake was badly received (although I am an apologist for that one). And yet, nunsploitation movies are all the rage right now following the recent success of Immaculate, Benedetta and indeed The Nun. This film feels closer in tone to those movies than the Omen films. It shares more DNA with Suspiria than anything else, however…
Margaret (Nell Tiger Free) arrives in Rome in 1971 amid left-wing protests to take her vows and become a nun in a local orphanage. She is endorsed by a powerful cardinal (Bill Nighy) and seems destined for great things within the church. Events start to take a dark turn when an uncharacteristic night of heavy drinking (with her roommate and fellow aspiring nun Luz (Maria Caballero)) results in Margaret waking up fully clothed with no idea how she got home (after dancing the night away with a handsome Italian gentleman, no less). Margaret finds solace in mistreated orphan Carlita (Nicole Sorace) and soon finds herself butting heads with the other sisters. Meanwhile, deranged Irish priest Father Brennan (Ralph Ineson) seems intent on issuing Margaret with a strange warning.
First-time director Arkasha Stevenson gets plenty right in this bombastic and entertaining prequel. Free is perfectly cast in the lead (a role she has surely earned through her excellent work on the under-seen Apple TV+ horror serial Servant), this is the best-looking Omen film since the original (vastly aided by the decision to shoot on location in Rome) and the frightening moments here are memorable and effective. Some of the death sequences hark back to the source material (with mixed results) and the film takes great pains to ensure that this is more than just a spiritual prequel. Indeed, I would recommend re-watching The Omen before heading into this movie if you haven’t seen it for a while. That being said, it’s odd that while The First Omen works hard to be as faithful to the original as possible, there is one major plot point that is subverted that doesn’t quite match up with Richard Donner’s 1976 classic. It appears this change was made to leave room open for a sequel and while I would welcome that, this lack of cohesion is a little jarring when considering how well the rest of the film flows into the opening scenes of the original movie.
The First Omen surprised me. I was expecting another average horror sequel and instead, I was treated to a thoughtful and at times powerful meditation on greed, religion and motherhood. Undoubtedly, the best film in this franchise since The Omen was released almost 50 years ago.