Collider ‘Damien’ Review

Collider:

As far as classic scary movies go, The Omen is actually one of the more tame of the bunch. There isn’t a potent sense of dread – the kind that seeps into your bones and joints – like John Carpenter‘s Halloween, nor is there the wild, imaginative brashness of Wes Craven‘s A Nightmare on Elm Street, anchored as it was by a bloodthirsty harlequin who can enter your dreams. The Omen is more akin to something like The Excorcist, in that it’s as much a taught dramatic thriller as it is supernatural horror; both films are focused on the future and temperament of children, as well as the effects of legacy on the psychology of youths. The films are also both punctuated by acts of violence, but whereas The Exorcist is far more personal, even intimate, in its views on religion, The Omen is a far more broad narrative conception, an entertaining but thematically thin depiction of the coming of the Anti-Christ.