The Omen (1976) poster
In 1976 The Omen was released and provided people with a name to call children that were bad. I’d imagine that reduced the amount children named Damien that year except for horror fans or parents with a sense of humor. I guess that couldn’t blame anyone if bad things start happening after that though. The Omen is about a set of wealthy parents (Gregory Peck, Lee Remick) have a son that dies during child birth. The son is replaced by another child that’s mother dies during child birth at the same time (what a coincidence). That boy is given to the parents and the mother is not told that her son died. If you guessed that bad things start happening after this…you’d be right.
Let’s watch the trailer…
More after the leap…
The Omen was written by David Seltzer, who also wrote Prophecy. The film was directed Richard Donner. Richard Donner started directing television in 1960 on Zane Grey Theater. He went on to direct a lot of television like The Loretta Young Show, Wanted: Dead or Alive, The Detectives, The Rifleman, Have Gun – Will Travel, Twilight Zone, The Man from Uncle, Gilligan’s Island, Perry Mason, Get Smart, The Fugitive, The Wild Wild West, Kojak and many more. He also directed some movies you may be familiar with. Some of Mr. Donner’s movies include: Superman, Superman II (uncredited), The Toy, The Goonies, Scrooged, all the Lethal Weapon films, Maverick, Conspiracy Theory and many more. If you watch Braveheart with the commentary, Mel Gibson gives Richard Donner a lot of credit and says he learned a lot about directing by studying Mr. Donner on the 6 movies he did with him. Writer/director, Brian Helgeland (wrote and directed Payback with Mel Gibson. Also wrote Conspiracy Theory with Mel Gibson and directed by Richard Donner. See how all that ties together.)
The Omen stars Gregory Peck, who won an Oscar for his role in To Kill a Mockingbird. In 1977, he won the Saturn Award for the best actor in a horror film for his role in The Omen. Lee Remick also stared in the film. She is famous for her roles in Anatomy of a Murder (1959), Days of Wine and Roses (1962), The Europeans (1979). Harvey Stevens played the role of Damien. He was also in Gauguin the Savage, which was a film with David Carradine about the life of painter Paul Gauguin. I have not seen this film but I will find it and watch it (has Van Gogh and Degas also!). Jerry Goldsmith won an Oscar for the score for The Omen. Gilbert Taylor won the Best Cinematography Award from the British Society of Cinematographers as well.
Here is a clip!
Here is a cool interview with Richard Donner:
