A Primeira Profecia

I went into this movie aware that it was a 'slow burn'. This is fine with me and I greatly enjoyed movies such as VVitch, The Invitation, The House of the Devil etc. However, a slow burn movie done well maintains the suspense / dread throughout to keep you invested. In this movie, scenes are just stretched out to twice as long as they need to be and (in my case at least) boredom set in. When I needed a bathroom break I even ended up browsing the boards for upcoming movies rather than return to my seat straight away - I have never done that before in a cinema. To top it off there are continuity issues between this movie and the original this is the prequel to, which irritates as the original is such a classic. Not scary, and not worthy of the Omen name.

In a world of prequels and frenchise universes this movie has been one I didn't wait for or did expect.

Especially after the 2006 Omen remake.

The story is not full of surprises. We always heard of Damian's birth, his real mother, the jackal. Now asome creative people wrote the story and brought it to life.

What to say? It's what you expect in the year 2024. But wait. It's more. Or better said: less!

It's a modern flick but in the style of the 70s. No jump scares. Just a good horror stories told in a decent way. The first death scene was something I haven't seen in a long time. An unexpected kind of killing and dying. But even more impressive. Not the usual "He's dead Jim" bloody jump scare death. More a "what the heck!? Really?" scene which keeps you mouth wide open.

And the movie continues this style of story telling and unexpected kills and how the people die. All in time without rush.

All in all this movie is doing things right other modern franchises are missing. A good story, people with patience and creativity who gave us something familiar from the past in times we only rush threw life.

Finally a horror movie that doesn't rely on jumpscares every 10 seconds.

The story is of Margret who goes to an orphanage run by nuns in Italy in the 70s. She is on the road to getting her veil when we discover she was also brought up in one of those homes and was plagued by visions which she was thought that they were her imagination. When a girl starts having similar experiences she grows close to her trying to uncover the route of them. As people are losing faith in God around the world the church pose a plot to gain back their faith, going to extreme lengths, sinister lengths.

The movie is solid, it focuses on telling a story in the horror genre with about 3 jumpscares and a major lean on visual horror scenes.

The acting is good, there also seems to be a good sense of dread in the entire movie as the characters are on edge the whole time. The settings are good and the music is good. The story is a little predictable as I caught on quite quick the "twist"

Overall an enjoyable time and I hope more of these come out as I like them not filled with Jumpscares as that gets so boring, 7.5/10.

Between The First Omen and the Sydney Sweeney vehicle Immaculate, 2024 is the lucky year for anyone who happens to really dig neo-nunsploitation horror films that partly function as a commentary on anti-choice dystopia and religious subjugation. Aficionados of all things spooky are inclined to pit the two films against each other as "rivaling pictures", à la Deep Impact vs. Armageddon (in 1998) or Drive-Away Dolls vs. Love Lies Bleeding (also this year), but I think it's better to view occasions like this as a double treat.

I will say this, though: Despite my adoration of Sweeney's performance (mainly near the film's finale), I hold that The First Omen is the superior movie, not only because it leans harder into both the nunsploitation campiness and the psychological Rosemary's Baby-esque side, but because it is more consistently disturbing -- beautifully so. I also think the themes are delivered with more tact and confidence but it's really no surprise that both films are being celebrated as "necessary" post-Roe v. Wade masterworks (though Immaculate deserves extra cred for upsetting more Christian conservatives, namely in how it "took" Sweeney from them).

The First Omen, if you hadn't figured, is a prequel to Richard Donner's Omen from 1976. I haven't seen that movie myself and as sacrilege as this confession may sound, I actively chose to see this movie first to see if it works by itself and makes sense to an outsider. And apart from a vaguely "Member Berry"-ish namedrop at the end (and whatever other references I surely missed), I believe The First Omen stands more than fine on its own.

From the moment it starts, its cinematography, staging, and editing are worthy of the classics -- encapsulating the beauty of '70s cinema in just a few minutes, to paraphrase a commenter -- and this is only the beginning of the film's thoughtful homages. To be clear, these aren't just facile invocations; they all work. There is a scene later that recalls the iconic breakdown sequence from Andrzej Zulawski's Possession (1981), but it's "expanded" upon in ways I shan't unveil here.

Right after that prologue -- that shot of stain-glass window shattering in slow-motion -- the film takes on an ominous energy that never lets up, even during ostensible moments of levity. There are several other striking images and inspired bits of cinematography throughout the film, like when the main character awakens from a drunken stupor in a medium closeup shot that shows her hair laid out like a spider's web holding her head in place. Note that the shot immediately preceding it is of a spider. There are, fittingly, omens everywhere.

The acting is also pretty spectacular. Nell Tiger Free, playing an American Catholic woman sent to Rome to be confirmed as a nun, is destined for the Scream Queen Hall of Fame and Ralph Ineson's booming voice adds weight and urgency to his fearful warnings of what the Church is up to.

Mark Korven's music is no less brilliant. It, too, makes us feel as though we are truly watching a movie from the '70s, albeit with more advanced special effects that, without giving too much away, caused the film to nearly get slapped with an NC-17 rating.

What holds the movie back a little bit is that it has a few weak supporting performances and, more importantly, it fails to resist jump scares -- which I concede can work fine and leave an impact, but The First Omen has a few of the fakeout variety. Don't let this stop you, however. This is a superbly crafted, well-acted, well-lit (hallelujah), and thoroughly ghastly tale that works on one level as a statement on choice (as well as the abuses within the Catholic Church) and another as a nasty yet artful horror movie.

How can a prequel of a classic directed by a first timer (at least when it comes to feature films) be this good???

The First Omen is a must watch for it's cinematography alone. Adding Nell Tiger Free as the incredible lead, eery body horror, spectacular sets and costumes and the feeling of 70s cinema.

It might be a tid bit too long and the whole Dan Brown-esque scavenger hunt wasn't fully working, but damn is it fun and just beautiful to watch.

Arkasha Stevenson did the original Omen justice.

I have to compare it to Immaculate since it's basically the same story, but so much better! Go watch this instead, trust me.