Director: Arkasha Stevenson
Cast: Nell Tiger Free, Tawfeek Barhom, Sonia Braga, Ralph Ineson, Bill Nighy
Screenplay: Tim Smith, Arkasha Stevenson, Keith Thomas
120 mins. Rated R for violent content, grisly/disturbing images, and brief graphic nudity.

It isn’t too often that a long-forgotten franchise gets resurrected with a prequel film of all things, and it’s even less likely that the finished product would actually be good, but director Arkasha Stevenson (Brand New Cherry Flavor) has seemingly accomplished that very feat with The First Omen, a graphic, disturbing (it’s there in the rating) and mean horror tale that adds something new to Richard Donner’s original horror classic.

When Margaret (Nell Tiger Free, Too Old to Die Young) arrives in Rome, ready to take her vows and commit her life to the church, she unknowingly stumbles across the most ancient and powerful of evils and a villainous sect planning to bring forth the Antichrist.

I’ve been a fan of the original Omen films (the fourth film notwithstanding) since I was a teenager, and one element that allows them to mostly stand apart from other horrors of the time is that a number of them found something unique to add to the narrative, a new take, a new look. The original film asks what a father would do when he discovers the most horrible secret about his child, while the first sequel asks Damian himself to reckon with the perceived knowledge of his parentage. The third film sees Damian as an adult, entrenching himself within the government vying for power. While the aforementioned fourth film, made for television, and the 2006 remake both didn’t make good on this promise, the franchise as a whole has been successful at recreating itself, and that continues with The First Omen.

I hadn’t really seen Nell Tiger Free since her stint on Game of Thrones, playing the young Myrcella Baratheon, but she really holds her own in the lead role here, giving notes of innocence and a motherly touch to Margaret. Her interactions with the troubled young Carlita, a young girl living at the orphanage, allow Margaret to serve as both protective parent and lost child as she navigates the confusing world she’s found herself in.

It benefits Free to be surrounded by so many legendary performers that help to uplift her, notably Bill Nighy (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1) as Cardinal Lawrence and the often overlooked but frequently exceptional Ralph Ineson (Guardians of the Galaxy) as Father Brennan, who knows more about what’s going on in Rome and needs Margaret to aid him in stopping it. It’s great to see Ineson get some time to shine here as well as play a more heroic character than he tends to get. His is the standout performance of the entire film.

The First Omen’s greatest strength lies in its ability to match the original film on several visual levels through some excellent production design and lighting. This prequel feels very much in step with The Omen. I went home following the screening of the film and popped in Richard Donner’s film and found that Arkasha Stevenson was able to match a visual language rather nicely without directly cloning it.

Stevenson’s film is also…a lot. I cannot remember a recent studio film that felt as graphic as The First Omen. In the weeks leading up to release, The First Omen has been in discussion over the multiple attempts to skirt the film past the MPA with an R-rating, and I can understand. In fact, trimming some of the graphic sequences likely added to their impact, with rather fast cuts accentuating this quick looks that allows the audience to keep adding elements from their own minds.

The First Omen is far more impactful as a horror prequel than I could have ever guessed, but it’s not without its faults, including a lagging 2nd act and a few too many callbacks in its deaths. The original Omen was notable for its almost-Rube Goldebergian death sequences, causing the viewer to question if that death was an accident or due to a sinister force, a precursor to the popular Final Destination franchise. There’s a lot of room within those confines for some real creativity, but most of the deaths in The First Omen are merely variations on those from the original film. While often still effective enough, they missed out on an opportunity to infuse the film with its own flavor.

There are some excellently moody scares in the film, but it does tend to fall back on more traditional jump scares, especially the kind that come from a random scary hand on our protagonist’s shoulder as she walks through a dimly-lit room. Some of these scares are well-timed and prepped, and others are a little too easy. There are also a few moments of CG violence that is noticeably CG’d, but these are rare within some of the great effects at play.

When Disney bought up 20th Century Studios, many lamented the possibility that we’d never see new entries in our favorite adult-skewing franchises (a silly notion), but in the past few years, we’ve gotten new installments of the Predator franchise and now The Omen, as well as original films like Barbarian, with another Alien on the way. It’s safe to say that 20th Century Studios has been taking on the monumental task of mining their best horrors for new terrain. The First Omen has a few stumbles to it, but director Arkasha Stevenson commendably swings for the fences, and this newest installment will definitely make its rounds in my home in the future. This is a mean and scary shocker worth your time.

3.5/5
-Kyle A. Goethe