Inevitably, and sometimes unfortunately, a movie remake is compared with it’s original. In certain cases the movie will be able to stand alone as a credible piece of work. In some cases it will surpass the original (Peter Jackson’s King Kong comes to mind, and yes, I can here the critics screaming at that).
   In the case of The Omen neither of these points is truthful.
   You know that feeling you get when you open your mouth to say something and since you can’t think of anything nice, you snap your mouth shut again?
That happened a good dozen times when I watched this film.

PLOT:

   The movie opens with a Vatican astrologer seeing an alliance of stars that has been prophesized for thousands of years, followed by a very heated discussion between a panel of Cardinals and the Pope. 
   Cut to- Robert Thorn, the God-son of the President of the United States, and the new golden boy of the political world. He is at the hospital for the tragic birth of his first son who has died soon after being born. Robert’s wife, Katherine, has no idea.
   A priest at the hospital has an answer for him. A child has been born who’s mother has also died. There is no other family and it would be very simple for Robert to take the child and pass it off as his own, shielding his wife from the pain.
   He does and they name him Damien.

   For the first few years the family is everything that anyone would want. Damien is adorable, Robert and Katherine love him and Robert’s political career is escalating at an alarming rate.
His boss’s death leads to him becoming the youngest Ambassador to the Court of St. James which is an almost certain step to the White House.
   But something’s wrong.
   Strange or tragic occurrences begin to follow the Thorns. It begins with the death of Robert’s boss and then Damien’s nanny commits suicide at his birthday party.
A priest hunts down Robert and tells him that he was present at Damien’s birth and saw “it’s mother”. He claims the mother was a jackal and that Damien himself is the Anti-Christ. He tells Robert that he must hunt down a man named Bugenhagen in a town called Megido to find out how to kill his son.
   He also tells Robert that Katherine is pregnant again and Damien will not let the child be born.
   Anyone who stands in Damien’s path to power will die.
   And they do.
   Robert Thorn and a photographer named Jennings (David Thewlis), who’s pictures are foreshadowing the deaths that are occurring, pair up and make a trip to find out as much as they can about Damien’s birth.
   The hospital where he was born, the priest who convinced Robert to take Damien, the graveyard of Damien’s mother and Robert’s true first child… none of them are what they should be.
Continuing, escalating tragedy leaves only one conclusion for the actions that Robert Thorn must take.

OPINION:
   If I had graded this on it’s own merit, it may have been three stars however the original version, filmed in 1976, is one of my favorite horror movies so I was a bit tougher.
   The problem is that almost everyone involved with this film seems to be simply going through the motions.
   The director John Moore lacks any of the vision, style, foreshadowing or sense of suspense that Richard Donner had when filming the original. The choices that Moore made all seemed like he put no thought in to this.
   There are dozens upon dozens of examples where you watch this movie and think, “Now why did he do that?”
   Here, the priest talks Robert in to taking the child. In the original Robert pretty much talks himself in to it with the priest steering him in that direction. It feels more deceptive.
Here it’s obvious that the Nanny is about to hang herself. In the original Donner hid as much of the rope as he could until she jumped. There’s more of a sense of suspense.
   Here Damien can’t go to church because he isn’t feeling well. In the original Mrs. Baylock (Damien’s new nanny) openly challenges Katherine Thorn by saying that church is no place for a five year old.
Here the priest talks to Robert Thorn in the middle of a hallway allowing Robert to end the conversation and walk away at any time. In the original, Father Brennan corners Robert in his office and locks the door, leaving no escape.
   Here, Katherine is standing on a stepladder watering a hanging plant over a balcony because she’s an idiot. In the original, she was standing on a table because she was impatient.
   I have more, lot’s more.

   Time after time while watching this you realize that the easy way out was taken.
   The settings are cold and clinical and the shots used are unimaginative. You are watching the action unfold in straight forward face shots, when you could be watching the action from adjacent hallways, through banister bars, or from around corners making it feel like you’re seeing something that you shouldn’t be. It lacks any of the warmth and humanity of the first one, which of course makes the horror of the situation ineffective.

   The relationship between Robert and Katherine is strained at best and wooden at worst. For that I blame the actors.
   They’re married. There should be a certain amount of ease and rhythm to their relationship and it’s not present.
   Go watch the original and pick up the subtle (and sometimes not so subtle) choices that Donner makes. Almost every time we see Damien in his bedroom he has a fire going and the flames are either behind him or the shadows are reflecting on him. The scene in which the baboons attack the car at the zoo scares the crap out of you and it's foreshadowed by the reaction of the giraffes.
   It was good film making.
   This was not.
   It was a waste of an interesting concept and a good marketing ploy.

Recommended: No

Movie Mood: Scary Movie
Film Completeness: A few glitches, but mostly complete.
Worst Part of this Film: Everything