The First Omen: A New Prequel to the Classic Horror Franchise

Keshawn Allen

“The First Omen” released in theaters April 5, the prequel to “The Omen” from 1976. In the first movie of this series, the audience is introduced to a couple who adopted a boy from an orphanage after they lost a baby of their own. In the first movie, many strange occurrences happened after they adopted their son. People are dying, the family feels haunted and the son, Damien, comes off as a strange young child. 

It turns out that Damien’s birth father is the devil, and he is the antichrist, which is why there are so many odd occurrences happening. The parents who adopted him tried to kill him, but they failed. As the franchise continues, it follows Damien growing up and what happens as he gets older. The last Omen film, “Omen IV: The Awakening,” was released in 1991, and another child was adopted. “The First Omen,” however, puts the attention back on Damien and how his birth went. 

In this film, the setting brings us to a catholic all-girls orphanage in Rome. Supervising the girls at the orphanage are a bunch of nuns and a few priests. One nun, Margaret, is caught up in a conspiracy about the church that makes her wonder what is true and false about her faith. As she tries to solve the mystery of what the higher-ups in the church are trying to accomplish, she tries to protect a young girl from a fate that no one could imagine. 

This film does a great job of answering enough questions about the franchise while still maintaining enough originality as a stand-alone film. Since it has been thirty-three years since “Omen IV: The Awakening” was released, the director and the writer needed to make this film unique while still connecting it with the storyline. Given that this is the second film the Director, Arkasha Stevenson, has ever worked on, she did a wonderful job of collaborating with the writer from the original movie to obtain authenticity.

Aside from the plot, another notable thing about this movie is the impressive cinematography and editing. Using shock value as its benefit, this film brings out the terror in its audience by displaying horrific and shocking visuals. Not to mention that the soundtrack and the sound editing do an excellent job of keeping viewers suspenseful and lost simultaneously. 

If anyone is interested in following the storyline of the Omen series, “The First Omen” will be in theaters for a few more weeks before being released on streaming platforms,  joining the rest of the film series.