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From: BTR1701 <atropos@mac.com>
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Subject: Re: What Did You Watch? 2024-04-05 (Friday)
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In article <uus8jp$2914c$1@dont-email.me>,
 Arthur Lipscomb <arthur@alum.calberkeley.org> wrote:

> The First Omen (theatrical) New horror movie that is a direct prequel to 
> the 1976 "The Omen." It is set in Rome in 1971 and tells the backstory 
> behind where "Damien" came from. While it seems a bit of a retcon I 
> guess it can be said the movie is clarifying details that were only 
> guessed or assumed before. But it does at least make it clear why/how 
> priests and nuns had Damien in the first place at the start of the 1976 
> movie and they knew *exactly* what they had and what they were doing.

I didn't like the explanation.

SPOILERS:

In the original OMEN, the turncoat clergy were portrayed as true 
believers, actual Satanists who worshipped Lucifer and were rejoicing at 
the birth of their 'savior'.

Here we find out they were just corrupt clergy, upset that young people 
were turning away from the church and thereby costing the church its 
power in society, so they 'created' the anti-Christ in some sort of 
weird quasi science experiment so he would wreak havoc on the earth and 
drive people back to the church again.

No, sir. I don't think I like it.

I did think the movie was well done and did a great job of creating an 
atmosphere of foreboding and evil lurking just around the next corner.

The lead actress was appealing and did a good job and I had the nagging 
impression I'd seen her somewhere before but her IMDb doesn't show her 
in anything I've ever seen. (And her name-- Nell Tiger Free-- just 
screams "Thanks mom and dad for being hippies when you had me. Wonderful 
name you picked there.")

I knew the roommate was a baddie from the moment she walked on screen 
and it didn't take much longer than that before I'd guessed that the 
troubled girl in the orphanage was just a red herring. (I did 
momentarily doubt myself when the 666 was revealed in her mouth, but it 
turns out I was right anyway.)

Loved how the moment it was revealed that the baby was a boy-- and 
therefore the anti-Christ they'd been waiting for-- Goldsmith's "Ave 
Satani" boldly took over the score.

All in all, it was a good movie except for the retcon about the church 
and, I suppose, the way it contradicted Damien's origins from the 
original movie, which clearly indicated his mother was a jackal, not a 
pretty novitiate.