The Omen (2006 film)

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The Omen:666
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	John Moore
Produced by	John Moore
Written by	David Seltzer
Starring	Liev Schreiber Julia Stiles Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick Mia Farrow
Music by	Marco Beltrami
Cinematography	Jonathan Sela
Editing by	Dan Zimmerman
Distributed by	20th Century Fox
Release date(s)	June 6, 2006
Running time	110 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$25,000,000
Gross revenue	$119,498,909
Preceded by	Omen IV: The Awakening

The Omen (also known as The Omen: 666) is a 2006 remake of Richard Donner's The Omen of 1976 and thus a part of The Omen series. Directed by John Moore and written by David Seltzer, the film stars Liev Schreiber, Julia Stiles and Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick.

Contents 1 Plot 2 Cast 3 Production 4 Release and reception 4.1 Box office 4.2 Critical response 5 Differences between the 1976 and 2006 versions 6 Connections to other films 7 DVD and Blu-ray 8 References 9 External links

[edit] Plot

Robert Thorn (Liev Schreiber) is an American diplomat, stationed in Italy. He is told that that his first-born son died soon after birth and to spare his still unconscious wife, Katherine (Julia Stiles), the anguish, Robert accepts the suggestion of the hospital's Catholic priest, Father Spiletto (Giovanni Lombardo Radice) to secretly adopt another newborn whose mother died in childbirth. Robert and Katherine raise the boy as their own and name him Damien.

Robert's career ascends over the course of the next five years. He is named Deputy Ambassador to the United Kingdom, and after the ambassador dies in a bizarre accident, become Ambassador and settles into a large estate just outside London. Disturbing events seem to revolve around Damien (Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick), the most prominent being his nanny hanging herself at his birthday party, driven to do so by a large black dog. Soon afterward, Robert is approached by a Father Brennan (Pete Postlethwaite), who delivers an eerie warning and seems to know the truth about Damien's birth, at which point Robert has him escorted out. Meanwhile, photographer Keith Jennings (David Thewlis) finds out that several of his photographs contain mysterious lightning flashes, later revealed to foreshadow a series of shocking deaths.

A new nanny, Mrs Baylock (Mia Farrow), is hired and tells Damien that she's been sent to protect him. Tension between Mrs Baylock and the Thorns rises when the nanny starts to make decisions against their wishes, including bringing a large black watchdog without their consent. On the way to the previous nanny's funeral, Damien becomes terrified as they approach the church, attacking Katherine. A field trip to the city zoo ends with primates going wild at the sight of the child. Katherine suspects that there is something not right about Damien, that he is not like other children. Robert again meets with Father Brennan, who tells him that Damien must die and a man called Bugenhagen, located in Meggido, can show him how. Enraged at this, Robert sends him away again. Father Brennan, sensing something evil, attempts to seek shelter in a church but is impaled by large steel rod falls from the roof of the church.

Upon discovering she is pregnant, Katherine wants to have an abortion, as she is afraid to have another child like Damien. Robert however is against the abortion. Shortly afterwards, Katherine is knocked off the landing by Damien riding his scooter, and tumbles over the balcony. He refuses her pleading for help and she falls to the floor, severely injuring her and causing her to lose the baby. After the bedridden Katherine begs her husband, "Don't let him kill me.", Robert finally becomes suspicious that something is amiss with his son.

Fuelled by the warnings given to him by Father Brennan and further information from Keith Jennings, Robert and Jennings go in search of Damien's real mother. After meeting a nun in Rome, he discovers that the hospital has burned down. Robert and Jennings go to a monastery in Subiaco and meet Father Spiletto, now badly disfigured, who tells them where to find Damien's mother. He finds the grave of Maria Avedici Santoya, Damien's real mother, in the old cemetery of Cerveteri, and find out that it contains the skeleton of a jackal. Revealing that Damien cannot be human. In the neighboring tomb, Robert discovers the corpse of a human infant with a cracked skull. He realizes his biological son was murdered at birth. He and Jennings are then attacked by a pack of rottweilers, and hardly escape over the fence.

Meanwhile, Mrs Baylock visits Katherine in the hospital under the pretense of delivering flowers and then murders Katherine by an air embolism. Sticking an empty syringe into her IV. "Almost done," Ms. Baylock exclaims as she restrains screaming Katherine.

After discovering the death of Katherine, Robert decides to follow Brennan's advice and go to Megiddo and meet Bugenhagen (Michael Gambon), who tells them that Damien is the long-prophesied Antichrist, and therefore must die. Bugenhagen advises Robert to search Damien for the 666 birthmark. Robert at first states his disbelief in Bugenhagen, God and the devil and refuses to kill his son. Bugenhagen Jennings however is determined to go through with the plan and is immediately decapitated by a falling sign. This causes Robert to change his mind. Back at his home, Robert cuts a lock of Damien's hair to reveal a 666 birthmark on his head. After fighting off an attack by Mrs Baylock, and then killing her by running her over with the car, Robert drives Damien frantically to a church to kill him on consecrated ground but just as he is about to strike the blow, he is killed by an officer of the Diplomatic Protection Group.

Robert's funeral - shown in parallel to the death of the Pope - is attended by the President of the United States, who holds the hand of Damien. The last shot shows Damien turning around, giving the camera an evil smile.

[edit] Cast

• Liev Schreiber as Robert Thorn
• Julia Stiles as Katherine Thorn
• Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick as Damien Thorn
• David Thewlis as Keith Jennings
• Mia Farrow as Mrs Baylock
• Pete Postlethwaite as Father Brennan
• Michael Gambon as Bugenhagen

[edit] Production

Principal photography began on October 3, 2005 at Barrandov Studios in Prague, Czech Republic

[edit] Release and reception

The film was released on June 6, 2006, at 06:06:06 in the morning. This symbolically represents the number 666, the biblical Number of the Beast.

[edit] Box office

The film recorded the highest opening Tuesday box office gross in domestic box office history in the United States, by earning more than $12 million. Fox initially stated that the film earned US$ 12,633,666 on its first day, but later Bruce Snyder, Fox's president of distribution, said admitted that they were "having a little fun" by manipulating the figure to contain the number of the beast in the last three digits.^[1]

The film ended grossing $119,498,909 worldwide, making it a modest success on a budget of $25 million. It finished as the 59th highest-grossing film of 2006, the 12th highest-grossing R-rated movie of 2006 and the 2nd highest domestic gross of The Omen series when adjusted for inflation. The 1976 original remains the top earner in the series.

[edit] Critical response

The film received a mixed set of reviews. The film currently has a rating of 43 out of 100 on Metacritic denoting that overall the film has received mixed feedback or reviews of an average nature.^[2] 26% of reviews collected on Rotten Tomatoes were positive.^[3]

James Berardinelli commented that "On every level, The Omen isn't just bad filmmaking, it's bad storytelling." and especially criticised the film's similarity to the original film, which he also greatly disliked^[4] Rolling Stone also made the latter point: "Not since Gus Van Sant inexplicably directed a shot-by-shot remake of Hitchcock's Psycho has a thriller been copied with so little point or impact"^[5]

Roger Ebert however gave the film "two thumbs up" praising John Moore for letting the strong story unfold itself rather than foregrounding visual effects^[6], while the Washington Post's Stephen Hunter praised the film: "It's handsome in the way it's fast-moving: sleek, well-engineered, full of gooses and honks. Some of the casting seems a little off. Still, it works."^[7]

Other critical quotes are as follows:

• "John Moore's remake - while arguably better than its source - can't help but feel a bit stale." - BBC fim review^{[citation needed]}
• "This film is for people who've never seen the original, and who are easily scared by mediocre horror films"- Eric. D. Snider^{[citation needed]}
• "Director John Moore has added some creepy visuals and assembled an unusually strong cast for a horror flick." - New York Post^{[citation needed]}
• "Competently made, and enjoyably played. But you do really end up wondering what the point was. Cinematic déjà vu is the most likely response." - Empire Magazine^{[citation needed]}

While Seamus Davey-Fitzpatricks perfomance did win him a Chainsaw award from Fangoria magazine for "Creepiest Kid", David Thewlis had been nominated for a Golden Raspberry Award for "Worst Supporting Actor" in 2007.^[8]

[edit] Differences between the 1976 and 2006 versions

• In the original, Damien knocked Katherine over the railings by bumping his tricycle into the chair she was standing on at the time. In this version, Damien used his scooter instead.
• In the original, there is no scene showing the death of the ambassador whom Robert succeeds.
• In the remake, recent events were purported to fulfill Biblical end-time prophesies, such as the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster, the Indian Ocean tsunami and the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
• In the original 1976 film, Robert finds out about the death of Father Brennan via a newspaper from a mysterious caller on the telephone. In this remake, he finds out from a news website from a hyperlink sent by Tom via e-mail.
• In the original, during the early stages of Katherine's suspicions concerning Damien, she becomes irritated by him playing with the balls on a snooker table and asks Robert to have him removed from the room. In this remake, however, it is Damian's noisy games console that causes Katherine's annoyance.
• In the original Katherine is pushed out of a hospital window by Mrs. Baylock instead of dying from an embolism when Mrs. Baylock injects air into her IV as in the remake.
• Katherine, played by Julia Stiles in this remake, has 2 vivid nightmares during the course of the film. In the original, there are no such scenes.
• In the original film, Keith Jennings is decapitated by a piece of glass which catapulted off the back of a truck. In this version, he is decapitated by the top bar of a metal sign when the screw is knocked out causing it to swing down.
• Mrs. Baylock dies when Robert stabs her in the neck and shoulder with kitchen utensils in the original. Here, he runs her over with his car. This was the original intended ending in both the book and original film, which featured as a deleted scene in the 30th Anniversary DVD edition.
• The nanny who commits suicide at Damien's Birthday Party sees a black Alsatian in the distance and falls into a trance. We never see the Alsatian for the rest of the film. In the original, the Nanny makes eye contact with a Rottweiler who later becomes Damien's protector in the house with Mrs. Baylock.
• In this remake, Kate and Damien visit the Zoo as part of a school trip. In the original, this scene was just a family outing. The animals distracted in this remake were species of monkey and gorilla. In the original, Giraffes and Baboons were the main animals who reacted to Damien's presence. Also noted is that Kate and Damien are not seen in their car as opposed to the original where most of the horror took place.
• Objects of a red color were designed for this film to signify danger. Such items in this remake include flowers, a coat and a balloon.
• The first meeting of Father Brennan and Robert Thorn in the original took place in Thorn's Office but in this version the meeting took place in the lobby of the Embassy. The second meeting also was in a different environment as the original took place at a Rugby match in Windsor whilst the remake decided to make this scene take place at an Opera event.
• In this remake, when Father Brennan is impaled by the church spire, shards of stained glass also fall and embed in his face. This does not happen in the original.
• In the original, when Father Brennan and Robert Thorn meet, Brennan tries to tell Robert that Damien's mother was a Jackal, but is cut off. In the remake, Father Brennan completes his sentence.
• In the original, Katherine comforts Damien when the Nanny commits suicide. The remake reversed the parent roles as Robert shields Damien from the tragedy instead.
• In the original, the soundtrack, (which won an Academy Award for 'Best Score') uses Gothic songs that strike terror into the viewer. In this version, however, the soundtrack plays a far smaller role.

[edit] Connections to other films

• David Thewlis quoted extensively The Book of Revelation in the 1993 film Naked.
• Mia Farrow gives birth to the Antichrist in the 1968 film Rosemary's Baby.
• After Father Brennan finishes talking to Robert, a red-hooded character can be seen running in the background, a reference to the 1973 film Don't Look Now.^{[citation needed]}
• David Thewlis and Michael Gambon both star in the third through sixth Harry Potter films as Remus Lupin and Albus Dumbledore respectively

[edit] DVD and Blu-ray

The film was released in the US on Region 1 DVD on October 17, 2006.^[9] It was released in the UK, on a Region 2 DVD on October 23, 2006.^[10] It was released in Australia, on a Region 4 DVD on March 7, 2007.

The film was released on blu-ray on Nov 14, 2006.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: The Omen (2006 film)

• The Omen at the Internet Movie Database
• The Omen at Allmovie
• The Omen at Box Office Mojo
• The Omen at Rotten Tomatoes

v • d • e The Omen Series Films The Omen • Damien: Omen II • Omen III: The Final Conflict • Omen IV: The Awakening • The Omen (2006 remake) Characters Damien Thorn • Secondary characters

v • d • e Films directed by John Moore Behind Enemy Lines (2001) · Flight of the Phoenix (2004) · The Omen (2006) · Max Payne (2008)