The Omen (2006)

Directed by: John Moore | 110 minutes | horror, thriller | Actors: Liev Schreiber, Julia Stiles, Mia Farrow, David Thewlis, Nikki Amuka-Bird, Reggie Austin, Marshall Cupp, Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick, Michael Gambon, Pete Postlethwaite, Matt Ritchie, Vee Vimolmal

Hollywood hasn’t forgotten the art of remaking, as is once again proven with the premiere of ‘The Omen’ on 6/6/2006. It is no coincidence that this film appears thirty years after the cinema premiere of the original horror classic ‘The Omen’ (1976). After all, the three sixes play an important role in this film and represent the number of the beast, the devil. The remake hardly differs from the original in terms of storyline. However, some minor changes have been made. The film is set thirty years later and has been given a political twist. For example, attention is paid to several global disasters of recent years, with the message that the ‘Apocalypse’ is coming. However, this political aspect does not add any value to the story and is rather annoying.

Most of the acting is not bad. Mia Farrow, the pregnant woman from the legendary film ‘Rosemary’s Baby’ (1968) plays a nice supporting role as the creepy nanny of the devil’s child Damien. Liev Schreiber and Julia Stiles do well as the hapless parents, and Michael Gambon (known as Philip Marlow from the British miniseries ‘The Singing Detective’) can be seen briefly in a small role as Carl Bugenhagen. Damien herself, played by Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick, somehow comes across as less scary than in the original film. This is unfortunate, as he is the main suspense element in the film.

The overall atmosphere in the film is quite grim, but this was certainly the case in the original. The horror moments from ‘The Omen’ (1976) are replayed and an attempt has been made to make the film even scarier by adding a number of nasty visions. However, these don’t really seem to fit the mood of the film. They make it too modern and betray in this way that we are dealing with a remake.

Overall, ‘The Omen’ isn’t a bad movie. The film looks slick and hardly deviates from the original. However, this is also the problem. The movie adds nothing. They just managed to get close to Richard Donner’s ‘The Omen’ (1976), but nothing more. The most positive thing about this remake is the fact that the original film is being brought back to the spotlight and the release date of this remake is a clever form of marketing.