MOVIE REVIEW! - 'The First Omen'

'The First Omen' (2024)

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In “The First Omen”, Margaret Daino (Nell Tiger Free) has arrived in Rome in 1971 to work at an orphanage. She is also a novitiate, set to become a nun in the Catholic Church. Soon, she meets Carlita Scianna (Nicole Sorace), a troubled girl that the nuns keep a particularly strict eye on but Margaret becomes close to Carlita and wants to discover why they’re being so strict with Carlita.

Then, a priest named Father Brennan (Ralph Ineson here and Patrick Troughton in the first movie) comes to warn her that a great evil is coming and it feels like it is surrounding Carlita. Margaret soon finds herself having to figure out a grand conspiracy that is set to bring the ultimate evil into the world.

Okay, so first I’ll note the movie’s biggest criticisms. Number one, it does take its time to get going and can be a bit of a slow burn in the first half. I was enjoying what I was seeing but could also see that maybe they could have trimmed this movie down a bit in order to make a tighter movie.

Margaret and Carlita are looking at something ominous in 'The First Omen'.

Secondly, it suffers from what I like to call “Prequel Syndrome”. We know where this movie has to go and we know what its ultimate destination is. When certain characters showed up, I couldn’t help but immediately think, “Well, that person isn’t dying.” That can take a little bit of the bite out of the story.

On the flipside of that, though, the writers did a good job with the story and you’re more into seeing the journey rather than the final destination. The writers also do a good job of staying true to the original film and what it had already established. The movie’s biggest goal was to expand more upon the conspiracy that was mostly only hinted at in the first movie and on that level, they mostly succeeded.

The good news is that when the movie truly gets moving, it goes for it. There are some genuine jump scares and the tone is just right for a movie set in “The Omen” series. If you’re a fan of the first movie, I believe you’ll enjoy how they expanded upon this world.

Now, if anyone remembers the first movie, you know that the movie contains more than a few notable kills. I mean, everyone remembers the famous scene where Damien's nanny jumps to her death and hangs herself outside the Thorns' house while exclaiming, "Look at me, Damien! It's all for you!" Well, this movie has a few memorable deaths in it as well.

I will say that there were one or two deaths that tried to replicate and even one up the deaths from the original movie. That was a little too "wink-wink" for me, but they were well executed nevertheless.

The cast is also great, especially Free and Ineson as Margaret and Brennan. Margaret feels like a genuine character with a genuine past and a genuine story. Free is also able to handle the various twists and turns that they take with her character pretty much flawlessly.

Ineson does a great job recreating the essence of what Troughton did in the original film, but in his own way. It’s not just a simple impression of another actor’s performance. The moment he hit the screen, I recognized him as Father Brennan and ran with it. He also has the luxury of playing a younger version of Brennan before the character completely lost his mind trying to warn others of the impending doom.

The movie may take its time a little bit in the first half and it is a prequel with a set destination. However, it’s a damn sight better than any of the other films that followed up “The Omen”. It has a genuine story, performances, and most importantly the scares to back it up. “The First Omen” is a solid horror flick that does the original proud.