I hate to call “The First Omen” unexpectedly well-crafted and a little bit surprising, even. But for an essentially unnecessary prequel to “The Omen,” the 1976 hit about one satanically-minded child, two unfortunate parents and three sixes, its virtues point to an auspicious feature debut from director and co-writer Arkasha Stevenson, a former Los Angeles Times photojournalist with an eye for sinister beauty.
Rome doesn’t hurt, although in “The First Omen” it certainly doesn’t help young Margaret . An American with a troubled childhood, she’s a novitiate soon to take the veil thanks to her American sponsor, the high-ranking cardinal played by Bill Nighy. Much of the narrative, written by Stevenson, Tim Smith and Keith Thomas, unfolds in the confines of the orphanage to which Margaret has been assigned.
“The First Omen” underwent some trims involving graphic footage of childbirth, of a sort, filmed forthrightly by director Stevenson but in ways, at least as recut to avoid an NC-17 rating, that aren’t the usual sort of horror movie fodder. Never mind the double standard: I’ve seen far more disgusting screen violence in R-rated movies made by men, in male-driven stories. Gynecological body horror remains a final frontier for some viewers.
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