The Omen (1976)
Country: US
Technical: col/scope 111m
Director: Richard Donner
Cast: Gregory Peck, Lee Remick, David Warner, Billie Whitelaw, Patrick Troughton, Leo McKern, John Stride
Synopsis:
A US ambassador in Rome adopts a baby through a catholic priest when his wife loses their child at birth; through an accumulation of bizarre incidents and accidents he becomes convinced that he is the dupe of a heretical plot to install the antichrist in a position of political power and wealth.
Review:
Post-Rosemary's Baby and The Exorcist, this glossier, A-list addition to the diabolist sub-genre is slow to build and contains some annoying lapses of verisimilitude (the ease with which Billie Whitelaw's nanny establishes herself at the house, for one); but the scriptural appropriations and gradual accumulation of details are absorbingly deployed and, with Goldsmith's hyperbolic score ranting away on the soundtrack, Donner orchestrates some show-stopping pieces of grand guignol, utilizing multiple-camera setups for the first time to underline the mayhem. Two sequels followed.
Country: US
Technical: col/scope 111m
Director: Richard Donner
Cast: Gregory Peck, Lee Remick, David Warner, Billie Whitelaw, Patrick Troughton, Leo McKern, John Stride
Synopsis:
A US ambassador in Rome adopts a baby through a catholic priest when his wife loses their child at birth; through an accumulation of bizarre incidents and accidents he becomes convinced that he is the dupe of a heretical plot to install the antichrist in a position of political power and wealth.
Review:
Post-Rosemary's Baby and The Exorcist, this glossier, A-list addition to the diabolist sub-genre is slow to build and contains some annoying lapses of verisimilitude (the ease with which Billie Whitelaw's nanny establishes herself at the house, for one); but the scriptural appropriations and gradual accumulation of details are absorbingly deployed and, with Goldsmith's hyperbolic score ranting away on the soundtrack, Donner orchestrates some show-stopping pieces of grand guignol, utilizing multiple-camera setups for the first time to underline the mayhem. Two sequels followed.
Country: US
Technical: col/scope 111m
Director: Richard Donner
Cast: Gregory Peck, Lee Remick, David Warner, Billie Whitelaw, Patrick Troughton, Leo McKern, John Stride
Synopsis:
A US ambassador in Rome adopts a baby through a catholic priest when his wife loses their child at birth; through an accumulation of bizarre incidents and accidents he becomes convinced that he is the dupe of a heretical plot to install the antichrist in a position of political power and wealth.
Review:
Post-Rosemary's Baby and The Exorcist, this glossier, A-list addition to the diabolist sub-genre is slow to build and contains some annoying lapses of verisimilitude (the ease with which Billie Whitelaw's nanny establishes herself at the house, for one); but the scriptural appropriations and gradual accumulation of details are absorbingly deployed and, with Goldsmith's hyperbolic score ranting away on the soundtrack, Donner orchestrates some show-stopping pieces of grand guignol, utilizing multiple-camera setups for the first time to underline the mayhem. Two sequels followed.