“It’s all for you, Disney!”

It seems that for 2024, the horror genre is back in its catholic guilt era. 20th Century Studios’ latest entry, The First Omen, is a legacy prequel to the 1976 original that breaks new ground for the franchise, and possibly the entire horror genre at large.

 

Margaret, a twenty-something American woman ready to take the veil, is selected by a Priest at a Roman orphanage to serve at their parish and eventually take her vows. Once there, she becomes captivated by one particular girl who seems to be neglected by the other nuns, and soon discovers some disturbing truths about the orphanage.

 

Arkasha Stevenson dives headfirst into this feature debut, a 1970s tinged exploration of a sheltered young woman discovering the realities of adult life. Its social commentary manages to feel just as pertinent today as in its 1971 setting, exploring the growing fear of religion and the price of maintaining the church’s place of power in society.

 

Nell Tiger Free’s leading portrayal of Margaret is the core of this film. Her shining moment near act three has deeply haunted and intrigued me since my viewing.

 

As a standalone story, The First Omen has got to be hands-down one of my favorite horror films in a long time. As an extension of The Omen franchise? I can’t really say that it fits. Sure, it ties in to the 1976 classic, but only very loosely. Not to mention it’s filled with plot holes big enough to jump in and fill up with your own explanations. It doesn’t really serve its source material, nor does it attempt to reboot or recontextualize an established franchise. Aside from a few shot for shot recreated sequences purely as fan service, it seems like The First Omen was a solid spec script that got picked up and re-tooled by the studio into an Omen prequel. This is nothing new for Hollywood, of course. If you call it The Omen, it’ll sell more tickets. I do wish the filmmakers had more freedom to tell this story without the need to fit in Omen references, because they clearly cared deeply about what they were making. If this film had stood on its own without a franchise tag, I think it could have made its point more poignant and come off less like a cash grab. 

 

Not only does The First Omen have some of the creepiest atmosphere and imagery, there is one particular scene that has some of the most gnarly, gross, jail-time deserving gore that I truly don’t think I’ve seen done in a studio film quite like this. It goes there. The worse it gets for women’s body autonomy in the real world, the more I’ll lean into body horror. I loved this movie more than most people will understand and that’s okay. Call it an obsession, but the recent catholic aesthetic horror films like Saint Maud, Immaculate, The Nun/Conjuring joints, and even 2017’s comedy The Little Hours, I just love them all.

 

Which leads me to the comparison that nobody will shut up about. The First Omen’s twin, if you will…

 

If you’ve already seen Immaculate, GOOD. If you haven’t, do a double feature if you can. It’s true, Immaculate and The First Omen have a very similar premise, and yet they each do their own thing like they’re the only film doing it. If you don’t believe me, watch both and see what you think! Both films can have their own place. They each deserve to be seen and showered with love (and box office numbers).