The First Omen made me mad. Not at this movie, which is shockingly pretty good! No, at David Gordon Green, who’s torpedoed TWO legendary horror franchises to the ground. After Arkasha Stevenson took this thankless prequel and made it what it is, how could you have 4 chances to do something and mess it up so badly?! Ok, focus, Pete: maybe I’m looking at this wrong. Maybe Arkasha Stevenson is just special, showing wonderful promise in their feature debut here.
I wish Sydney Sweeney’s Immaculate character read up on Italy’s churches a little more. In 1971, Margaret Daino (Nell Tiger Free) goes from the US to Italy, to study in a convent and become a nun (come on Sydney!) at the behest of Cardinal Lawrence (Bill Nighy). Margaret is paired with roommate Luz Valez (Maria Caballero), who convinces Margaret to sow some wild oats before she takes her vows. After a crazy night, Margaret feels she’s lived enough, and goes about a life of piety, trying to help the girls in the convent like young troubled Carlita Scianna (Nicole Sorace). But Margaret’s life turns more ominous when she runs into Father Brennan (Ralph Ineson) an excommunicated priest who warns of a “Scianna” child that this sect of the church has special plans for, if, she has a “666” marking on her body somewhere.
In general, IP continuations like The First Omen put all sorts of shackles on the filmmaker with regards to plot and storytelling, because we have to not screw up the beloved mythology. Arkasha Stevenson stares in the face of these limits, and says “challenge accepted.” She sidelines the plot mechanics as a selling point, as the big “twists” will be clear to anyone who’s seen a horror movie before. Instead, Stevenson goes for style and substance through incredible creepy visuals. There are multiple shots in this film that completely immerse you in The First Omen’s world, especially early on. Margaret and Luz’s night out it incredibly shot, pulsating with combination of booze haze and descent into pulsating hell, tongues and all, culminating in an incredible zoom out on Margaret, passed out on her bed, her hair oozing out in all directions like she’s Medusa. Even in scenes we know are coming, Stevenson puts a little something extra into them, making them 5-10% weirder or scarier than the audience expects going in.
And even with the strict endpoints in Omen lore, Stevenson really thinks through what she can do. While we know Damian is going to be born at the end of The First Omen, his purpose on Earth can be evolved. In the 1970s, religion was more powerful and prominent, but the 1970’s is also when the secular movements started to strip the church of it’s grip on the culture. Stevenson uses that last wrinkle to drive The First Omen, completely recontextualizing Damian’s birth, and what exactly it could mean in the 2020s. It’s a bold choice in a movie that doesn’t really want any, but works to make the movie more interesting than just selling out on IP, and for the producers, gives them new ways to do Omen movies without diminishing any of the other films.
So if you need a good fun horror night out, you could do worse than The First Omen. More importantly, I hope Blumhouse sees this and gives Arkasha Stevenson a chance to make her own original horror film. And more importantly, jettisons David Gordon Green from ever trying to resurrect another horror franchise ever again.