The Omen (2006)

An American official realizes that his young son may literally be the Devil incarnate. Despite 2 pretty good leas such as Liev Schreiber and Julia Stiles neither of them could match Gregory Peck and Lee Remick plus the movie felt like a piece by piece remake of the original with a few changes here and there like the dream sequence. I mean the priest gets impaled again, the photographer loses his head, the girl jumps and Thorn gets killed in the end. Pretty much piece by piece remake that is without a doubt tho better than The Omen III and IV at least. (D+)

The Omen (2006): Dir: John Moore / Cast: Liev Schreiber, Julia Stiles, Mia Farrow, David Thewlis, Pete Postlethwaite: Faithful remake to the 1976 horror masterpiece about the son of Satan entering the world parented by the American Ambassador and his wife. Strange occurrences follow as Ambassador Thorne is approached by a paranoid Priest claiming to know the actual birth right of his son. He is also approached by a photographer who made haunting discoveries that will lead Thorne on a quest that he wishes not to fulfill. Totally unnecessary remake is beautifully made and directed by John Moore who made the awful Behind Enemy Lines. Some of the differences lose their dramatic shock or payoff such as nearly every death scene, which are altered. The scene at the safari park is also a mishap here. Liev Schreiber holds strong as Robert Thorne as does Julia Stiles as his wife but filling the shoes of Gregory Peck and Lee Remick is no easy task. Mia Farrow appears as the ominous nanny promising protection to Damien. The problem here is that it is too much of a send off to her great performance in Rosemary's Baby. David Thewlis is rightly cast as the photographer out to assist Thorne with proof of his son's birth right. Pete Postlethwaite plays Father Brennan who approaches Thorne with information regarding his son's birth. Pointless but well made update remains inferior to the original. Score: 7 ½ / 10

Before I begin, let me state for the record I have not seen the original, so cannot make any judgment of this as a remake!As a stand alone film, however, this leaves a lot to be desired, especially considering the pretty capable cast that was lined up. The problem is there is no strong performance from any of the actors, so the result is a pretty turgid film that lacks depth and subtlety. There is no build up in tension, no welling up of foreboding and very little fear induced. The overwhelming feeling is one of predictability, mixed with pointless and unoriginal gore. A man gets his head cut off by a sign and a priest is stabbed by a falling railing, but so mechanical is the build up that the actual instants are cold and almost medical. Was I scared at any point? well no not really. Did I jump? once, but only mildly? Was I immersed into the story? undeniably no.There are occasional good parts - the nanny has some good scenes and watching Pete Postlethwaite is always a pleasure - but aside from these, it's a pretty tepid affair. The kid creates a feeling of mild discomfort, but so much of it is borrowed cliché that it is nothing more than that.All in all, it's a pretty tedious and lacklustre way to spend an evening. Do yourself a favour and learn to knit instead.

This one is exceptionally slick for a remake but also one that made me throw up in the movie theater. The scenes in the remake are over the top graphic and they had to cut them out on the WGN showing of The Omen. This one is up there with the original with how scary it is -- everything about the film is strong but not perfect.It is a word for word remake but the death of the mother is different in the remake and that is all I am giving you about that, you have to figure it out for yourself about how the mother dies. That is not the ending though, I am not going to give that away though -- the mother's death is a spoiler in terms of one of the deaths in the movie, so I am just going to give that detail.The movie version of the original she dies from falling out of the hospital. The hospital death is a little different. The movie is all in all chilling but very graphic and vomit inducing in parts -- I normally don't have that reaction to horror films but this one gave me that reaction. The room mate got some vomit on her leg from when I threw up in the movie theater, I saw this on the premiere of the film on 6-6-06. It was worth every penny.