Fave film from the Omen trilogy?

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Giant Turtle For Fireball

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Film 4 have been re showing all three films and last night showed Damien: The Omen 2 which is by far my fave of the three.

Still think the opening scene when Leo McKern is buried alive is truly terrifying as imo that would be one of the worst deaths imaginable. :eek:

Also Jonathan Scott-Taylor was just wonderful as teenage Damien its a shame he didn't become a big star.

Also it has the most creepy score ever

The Final Conflist is on next week but thats my least fave of the three.
 
The worst death has to be the guy getting crushed by the elevator.:eek: Jonathan was great as Damian. Quite a understated and creepy performance.
 
I prefer the second, too. I wasn't as impressed by the first as some people are, and it doesn't help that Damien is so passive and characterless. The second film has him as a teenager and just coming to understand his heritage, which is great. The third film wimps out.
 
He actually got sliced in half by a wire that shot through the elevator

A well grizzly death though David Warner being decapitated in the first film was worse :eek:
 
The first two are superb, third is a good film but not on par with the first 2 imo. First is a masterpiece, and my favourite scene in the second is when Damien is reeling off historical dates at school (because he was present at each of them!), fabulous scene.
 
The first one was the only decent one of the three, IMO.

The reason the first one works so well is that Richard Donner did it in a way that makes Damien's destiny completely ambigous. He might indeed be The Omen or he might just be an innocent littl boy surrounded by lots of mad people. Donner himself rationalised that Damien was indeed just a normal kid. And its really that sense of keeping you guessing that makes the film work so well.
 
Animals act strangely sometimes.

Seriously, at no point in The Omen does Damien do anything that couldn't be explained as the actions as normal child. Everything else could be a mixture of coincidence (the deaths) guilt (Gregory Pecks guilt over covering up the dead child hangs like a black cloud over his and Lee Remicks marriage) and loopy people with over-active imaginations (the priest, the photographer, eventually mum and dad etc...)

Thats not to say Damien isn't The Omen, but its definately open to interpretation.

His smile at the end can either be;

1. YES, I've conquered the world.

or

2. Give me a break. Did you REALLY think I was the Antichrist?

Rosmerys Baby is similarly ambiguous as well and thats another movie I really like for exactly that reason.
 
I would say that the first one is the best movie.

I think like The Exorcist, it manages to create an atmosphere of horrible events happening to innocent, decent people in ordinary scenarios.

No dark, creepy houses, events largely taking place in brightly lit areas, a sense of normality punctuated by horrific events.

I think the casting also helped to add weight to the movie too...most of the actors are those not normally associated with horror movies - Peck certainly wasn't, neither was Remick.

And the likes of Warner, Whitelaw and Troughton helped to lend a sense of authenticity to the proceedings.

As for the deaths...I would agree that Warners demise in the first was probably the best...I can still remember watching it for the first time, and I think it was also very well done - the fact that you can see the head spin round, with not only the horrific expression on the face of the head, but also with blood dripping from it still looks pretty damn good, even for a piece of plastic and some karo syrup.

But I do have a liking also for the life sequence in the second. I like the way it wrong-foots you, thinking that the lift is going to crash to the bottom and the guy will be crushed...then the wires start shooting up to the top of the shaft, and you are kind of relieved because you think he is safe...then there is a sense of confusion when you don't quite know what is happening...until the wires start descending...
 
the original is my favourite,
and i enjoyed the second
and the 3rd isnt that great - but contains one of my favourite scenes of all time - the bit when Damian addresses his mass of followers on that big hill - and there are 100s of them. all different aspects of society. Brilliant.
 
I have only seen the first two, but I much preferred the original.

It's also the first time, I've ever turned to someone out loud during a film ang gone (re. Gregory Peck), "This guy is a ****ing awesome actor!"
 
The first one is the best, then the third.

I have little love for the second. There's some terribly wooden acting, the editing is all over the place, Jonathan Taylor-Scott's acting is both annoying and hammy at the same time, and Damien's vague discomfort at being the Antichrist only makes him more irritating.

Also, the presence of Lance Henriksen makes it look like a B-movie, the American setting just looks out of place, the death of the woman on the road is laughably bad, and the whole storyline is a rehash of the first one (Damien moves in with family, family try and kill him, family die). They even rehash the cliched mentalist trying to warn them, but with a journalist instead of a priest.

The only high points are William Holden and the lift death, which is actually quite corny when you think about it - "Jackal... it can't be!." Please :rolleyes:

The third one is a vast improvement, not only because it's technically competent with much better cinematography, but because the acting is better, it actually has a storyline, Sam Neill is great, and it's by far the most unpleasant of the series, possibly one of the most unpleasant mainstream films ever made even though most of the really bad stuff is implied rather than shown. What's not to love.
 
The original Omen is one of my all-time favourites. Still enjoy the other two though.

I think the original works best for modern audiences more than the Exorcist does now actually. The Omen is much more like a hollywood blockbuster with set piece deaths at regular intervals rather than spinning heaRAB and pea soup. No wonder it inspired the Final Destination series.

So many great moments in the original. Love the composition of the shot when Gregory Peck is shown the baby he is about to adopt. Lee Remick's death is probably my favourite. For any fan, the dvd commentary is a hoot.

The second one seems to end very quickly but has plenty of great moments. The death under the ice is a good one and I love the way everyone suddenly stops moving as the camera pulls back.

The third hasn't aged well. The score by Jerry GolRABmith is excellent though, the best he did for the three films. For me, the hunt followed by the "disciplines of the watch" sequence is his best work in any film.
 
Loved the first one, not keen on the second, don't really warm to your everyday child, let alone Demon spawn.:D
The third was great. Sexy Sam Neil, was yummy, loved the bit where the guy set up the shotgun to blow his head off when the door opened, then buzzed for his secretary. (Played by Ruby Wax, BTW).
 
Little devil gives clergy the needle. Arf.

The first is easily the best and I'd agree the masterstroke of it was to have Damien unawares of his identity. A trashier film than The Exorcist perhaps, but a better piece of entertainment. The rather disturbing scene when Damien goes berserk in the car taking him to the christening lingers in the mind as much as anything in The Exorcist too.

A tricky film to pull off when you think about it, as the audience is always well ahead of the characters. For them it's all unexpected, for the audience it's the horror of the inevitable.
 
First. Then Second. Tend to ignore the Third.
Jerry GolRABmith's soundtrack creates a truly er... ominous atmosphere.

Always had a soft spot for the horror shocker that bumps off it's cast in ingeniously gruesome ways.
 
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