The First Omen | |
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Directed by | Arkasha Stevenson |
Screenplay by |
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Story by | Ben Jacoby |
Based on | Characters by David Seltzer |
Produced by |
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Starring | |
Cinematography | Aaron Morton |
Edited by |
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Music by | Mark Korven |
Production company | Phantom Four Films |
Distributed by | 20th Century Studios |
Release date |
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Running time | 119 minutes [1] |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $30 million [2] |
Box office | $53.9 million [3] [4] |
The First Omen is a 2024 American supernatural horror film directed by Arkasha Stevenson, who co-wrote the screenplay with Tim Smith and Keith Thomas from a story by Ben Jacoby. It is a prequel to The Omen (1976), and the sixth film in The Omen franchise. The film stars Nell Tiger Free, Tawfeek Barhom, Sônia Braga, Ralph Ineson, and Bill Nighy. The plot follows an American nun sent to work at a Catholic orphanage in Rome who uncovers a sinister conspiracy to bring about the birth of the Antichrist.
The First Omen was theatrically released in the United States by 20th Century Studios on April 5, 2024. The film received positive reviews from critics and grossed $53.9 million worldwide.
In Rome, 1971, Father Brennan presses Father Harris about an occult conspiracy; Harris gives him a photograph of a baby with the name "Scianna" inscribed. Harris is killed when a pipe falls from a church construction scaffold and splits his head open.
Amid political protests, American novice nun Margaret Daino arrives at the Vizzardeli Orphanage. She meets Cardinal Lawrence, Father Gabriel, Abbess Silva, Sister Anjelica, and her roommate and fellow novice Luz. Luz invites Margaret to a disco, where they meet two men. Margaret dances with the man named Paolo before blacking out. She awakens the next day with no memory of what happened.
Margaret bonds with the mistreated orphan Carlita, who is plagued by disturbing visions. Father Brennan warns her about Carlita, saying "evil things" will happen. She spots Carlita showing Sister Anjelica a drawing of a pregnant woman being restrained; moments later, Sister Anjelica immolates and hangs herself.
Brennan explains that radicals within the church, desperate to regain power against the rise of secularism, seek to bring about the birth of the Antichrist to create fear and drive people back to the Church, with Carlita intended to be his mother. During a field trip, a riot breaks out and Margaret experiences a demonic hallucination. Abbess Silva postpones Margaret's vows and orders her to distance herself from Carlita. She runs into Paolo; horrified, he tells her to "look for the mark" before being struck and killed by an oncoming truck.
In the Abbess's office, Margaret uncovers a hidden, underground chamber and a series of subject files, all labeled "Scianna". They contain photos of dysmorphic babies, all with a birthmark in the shape of three sixes, with Carlita as the only one to survive to adolescence. Margaret attempts to flee with Carlita, but is intercepted and spots the mark on Carlita's palate before being imprisoned.
Father Gabriel frees Margaret and they examine the stolen files with Father Brennan, discovering that another baby survived. Margaret locates the mark on her own scalp and suddenly remembers that she was forcefully impregnated in a satanic ritual the night she blacked out at the disco. They come to realize that the orphanage heads have determined that the Devil will need to mate with his own spawn in order to conceive the Antichrist, and Margaret had been brought to Rome as her half-sister Carlita was too young. They drive to a doctor who can abort the pregnancy, but another car crashes into theirs on the way, incapacitating everyone except Margaret, who staggers from the car as her body suddenly swells with pregnancy.
She awakens strapped to a hospital bed and is greeted by Cardinal Lawrence, the head of the conspiracy. The Cardinal and the other conspirators watch as she gives birth to two children via Caesarean section, a girl and a boy; the latter is hailed as the Antichrist. Luz and the man who was with Paolo at the disco are revealed to be among the conspirators. Margaret stabs Cardinal Lawrence, but cannot bring herself to kill her son. Luz stabs Margaret as the conspirators flee with the boy and set the chamber ablaze to cover their tracks. Carlita saves Margaret and her daughter, and Margaret sees a demonic jackal shrieking in the flames. The baby boy is given to American diplomat Robert Thorn to secretly replace the child his wife Katherine has supposedly miscarried. [a]
Years later, Margaret lives in seclusion in the mountains with Carlita and her daughter, now a happy family. Brennan visits and warns that the conspirators will be hunting her, and that her son has been named Damien.
In April 2016, a prequel to The Omen (1976) was announced to be in the works at 20th Century Fox, with Ben Jacoby writing the script and Antonio Campos in talks to direct. [6] By May 2022, three years after The Walt Disney Company acquired the Fox assets, 20th Century Studios began developing it, with Arkasha Stevenson signing on in her feature directorial debut. David S. Goyer and Keith Levine produced under the Phantom Four Films label. [7] Nell Tiger Free was cast in the lead role in late August 2022. [8] On January 3, 2024, Tawfeek Barhom, Sônia Braga, Ralph Ineson, and Bill Nighy were announced to star in the film. [9]
Principal photography took place on location in Rome and on soundstages at Lumina Studios from September 19 to November 22, 2022. [10] Buildings in Villa Parisi and a farm in Procoio was used to portray the orphanage. Production designer Eve Stewart stated, "We wanted it to be a very unique and beautiful building, and since we couldn't find everything within one building, we put three buildings together and made sure that they all linked well with one another". The basement was created on the soundstage. [10]
Costume designer Paco Delgado wanted the costumes to have a gothic feeling. He designed light clothing that moves with the wind so it would match Stevenson's vision of "the figures sort of floating through the hallways". The girls at the orphanage were dressed in 1940s/1950s costumes, even though the film takes place in the 1970s; the crew wanted a "specific ambience". [10] For Margaret's look, Delgado was inspired with Yves Saint Laurent fashion of the 1970s. Adrien Morot served as prosthetic and creature designer. [10]
The score was composed by Mark Korven, who wrote original music and referenced themes written by Jerry Goldsmith for the previous films, including "Ave Satani." The soundtrack album was released by Hollywood Records on April 5, 2024, the same day as the film. [11]
A specific shot in the birthing sequence resulted in the Motion Picture Association registering the film with an NC-17 rating classification. Producer Keith Levine said, "We had to go back and forth with the ratings board five times. Weirdly, avoiding the NC-17 made it more intense". [12] David S. Goyer commented that, "The movie, by its nature, deals with female body horror, and I do think there's a double standard. That was really interesting when we were negotiating with the ratings board. I think there is more permissiveness when dealing with male protagonists, particularly in body horror". [12]
The First Omen was greenlit in development for an intended streaming release on Hulu, but was given a theatrical wide release after Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures determined it needed to expand the studio's theatrical release slate after shortages caused by the 2023 Hollywood labor disputes. [13] The film was theatrically released by 20th Century Studios on April 5, 2024. [14]
The First Omen was released on digital platforms on May 28, 2024, and for streaming on Hulu two days later. It was released on Blu-ray and DVD on July 30, 2024, by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, as the first Disney-owned title to be released as part of a home video distribution agreement between Disney and Sony Pictures that began in February 2024, in which Sony handles all physical media production and distribution for Disney's home entertainment assets in North America, but will remain using their respective labels. [15]
The First Omen grossed $20.1 million in the United States and Canada, and $33.8 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $53.9 million. [3] [4]
In the United States and Canada, The First Omen was released alongside Monkey Man , and was initially projected to gross $14–15 million from 3,375 theaters in its opening weekend. [2] [16] After making $3.2 million on its first day (including $725,000 from Thursday night previews), estimates were lowered to $8 million. It went on to debut $8.4 million, finishing fourth at the box office. [17] In its second weekend the film made $3.8 million, finishing in seventh. [18]
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes , 81% of 189 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7/10.The website's consensus reads: "Frequently frightening even as it plays within the confines of a nearly 50-year-old film series, this prequel is The First Omen of a bright future for the franchise in quite some time." [19] Metacritic , which uses a weighted average , assigned the film a score of 65 out of 100, based on 33 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews. [20] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "C" on an A+ to F scale. [17]
Kyle Turner of Slant Magazine gave it 3/4 stars, writing, "Throughout the film, Stevenson slides easily between earthly delights and disgusts, wedding them together through viscera and audacious aesthetics. In The First Omen, Stevenson atomizes all the darkness and the light within ourselves." [21] The Guardian 's Benjamin Lee gave it 3/5 stars, calling it "far more artful and striking than it has any right to be, thanks in overwhelmingly large part to the TV director Arkasha Stevenson, whose bravado works incredibly well until it really doesn't, when she's forced to play by franchise rules rather than her own." [22] Writing for The Times , Ed Potton gave it 3/5 stars. He said, "Stevenson leans too heavily on the old horror staple of female hysteria and the explanation behind the plot to spawn a tiny Antichrist is the kind of thing you'd expect from a conspiracy nutjob on YouTube. Tiger Free makes a compellingly unstable heroine, though, and Bill Nighy and Charles Dance pop up as senior priests and wear their cassocks well... This is Call the Midwife directed by Satan." [23]
The Wall Street Journal 's Kyle Smith wrote, "The First Omen may have a noble predecessor in one of the scariest films of the 1970s, but it has little to distinguish it from the last 665 mediocre horror features I've seen." [24] Tim Robey of The Daily Telegraph gave it 2/5 stars, writing, "Stevenson has configured her tale as female body-horror fit for a dissertation, without giving it much of a spine: while slick, the set pieces are few, far between, and over too fast." [25] Frank Scheck of The Hollywood Reporter wrote, "Ultimately, it all feels very familiar, and not just because this is the second movie in as many months to revolve around nuns and the birth of an Antichrist." [26]
Due to sharing similar premises and a common Italian setting and released at about the same time, The First Omen and Immaculate have been dubbed as twin films. [27] Both films explore the issue of female bodily autonomy, depicting the "systemic control of women's bodies reduced to vessels". [28] Bilge Ebiri of Vulture wondered about "why should anyone be surprised that suddenly, in the wake of the Supreme Court's overturning of Roe v. Wade , as state after state attempts to enact religious laws depriving women of bodily agency, America is getting horror movies about people forced into monstrous births by religious institutions worried about their growing irrelevance". [29] They are both consiredered as nunsploitation films. [30]
The Omen is a 1976 supernatural horror film directed by Richard Donner and written by David Seltzer. An international co-production of the United Kingdom and the United States, it stars Gregory Peck, Lee Remick, David Warner, Harvey Spencer Stephens, Billie Whitelaw, Patrick Troughton, Martin Benson, and Leo McKern. The film's plot follows Damien Thorn, a young child replaced at birth by his father, unbeknownst to his wife, after their biological child dies shortly after birth. As a series of mysterious events and violent deaths occur around the family and Damien enters childhood, they come to learn he is in fact the prophesied Antichrist.
Omen IV: The Awakening is a 1991 American supernatural horror television film directed by Jorge Montesi and Dominique Othenin-Girard and written by Brian Taggert, from a story by producer Harvey Bernhard and Taggert. The film is the fourth installment in The Omen series and the final installment of the original series. It stars Faye Grant, Michael Woods, Michael Lerner, and Asia Vieira. Its plot follows two attorneys who adopt a young girl, unaware of the fact that she is to possibly succeed Damien Thorn as the Antichrist.
Francis Lawrence is an American filmmaker and producer. After establishing himself as a director of music videos and commercials, Lawrence made his feature-length directorial debut with the superhero thriller Constantine (2005) and has since directed the post-apocalyptic horror film I Am Legend (2007), the romantic drama Water for Elephants (2011), four of the five films in The Hunger Games film series, and the spy thriller Red Sparrow (2018).
Damien Thorn is a fictional character and the primary antagonist of The Omen franchise. He is the Antichrist and the son of the Devil. The character has been portrayed by Harvey Spencer Stephens, Jonathan Scott-Taylor, Sam Neill, Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick and Bradley James.
The Omen is a media franchise, centering on a series of supernatural horror films, which began in 1976. The series centers on Damien Thorn, a child born of Satan and given to Robert and Katherine Thorn as a child. It is revealed among families that Damien is in fact meant to be the Antichrist, and as an adult is attempting to gain control of the Thorn business and reach for the presidency.
The Hunger Games is a media franchise centering on a series of science fiction dystopian adventure films, based on the novel series of the same name by Suzanne Collins. The films are distributed by Lionsgate. The series feature an ensemble cast including Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss Everdeen, Josh Hutcherson as Peeta Mellark, Liam Hemsworth as Gale Hawthorne, Woody Harrelson as Haymitch Abernathy, Elizabeth Banks as Effie Trinket, Stanley Tucci as Caesar Flickerman, and Donald Sutherland as President Snow. In the prequel film, Tom Blyth stars as Coriolanus Snow, Rachel Zegler as Lucy Gray Baird, Josh Andrés Rivera as Sejanus Plinth, Hunter Schafer as Tigris Snow, Peter Dinklage as Casca Highbottom, Viola Davis as Dr. Volumnia Gaul and Jason Schwartzman as Lucretius "Lucky" Flickerman.
Nell Tiger Free is an English actress and singer. She began her career as a child actress in the films Mr Stink and Broken. She also played Myrcella Baratheon in seasons 5 and 6 of the HBO series Game of Thrones (2015–2016). She has since starred in the Apple TV+ series Servant (2019–2023), the Amazon Prime series Too Old to Die Young (2019) and the movies Settlers (2021) and The First Omen (2024).
It Chapter Two is a 2019 American supernatural horror film directed by Andy Muschietti from a screenplay by Gary Dauberman. It is the sequel to It (2017) and the second of a two-part adaptation of the 1986 novel It by Stephen King. The film stars Jessica Chastain, James McAvoy, Bill Hader, Isaiah Mustafa, Jay Ryan, James Ransone, Andy Bean, and Bill Skarsgård as Pennywise. In addition to the latter, several cast members from the previous film also reprised their roles including Jaeden Lieberher, Jeremy Ray Taylor, Sophia Lillis, Finn Wolfhard, Wyatt Oleff, Chosen Jacobs, Jack Dylan Grazer, Nicholas Hamilton, Molly Atkinson, Stephen Bogaert, Jake Sim, Logan Thompson, Joe Bostick, and Megan Charpentier. Set 27 years after the events of the previous film, the story centers on the Losers Club and their relationships as they reunite to destroy It once and for all.
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Thanksgiving is a 2023 American comedy-horror slasher film directed by Eli Roth and written by Jeff Rendell, based on a story by the pair, who produced with Roger Birnbaum. Based on Roth's fictitious trailer of the same name from Grindhouse (2007), it is the third feature-length adaptation of a fictitious Grindhouse trailer after Robert Rodriguez's Machete (2010) and Jason Eisener's Hobo with a Shotgun (2011). The film stars Patrick Dempsey, Addison Rae, Milo Manheim, Jalen Thomas Brooks, Nell Verlaque, Rick Hoffman, and Gina Gershon, and follows a small Massachusetts town that is terrorized by a killer in a John Carver mask around the Thanksgiving holiday one year after a Black Friday riot ended in tragedy.
Never Let Go is a 2024 American survival horror thriller film directed by Alexandre Aja and written by KC Coughlin and Ryan Grassby. The film stars Halle Berry, Percy Daggs, Anthony B. Jenkins, and Will Catlett.
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Arkasha Stevenson is an American filmmaker and former journalist. She has directed episodes of Legion and Briarpatch, as well as the third season of Channel Zero. She made her feature directorial debut with the 2024 horror film The First Omen, prequel of The Omen.