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 (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.
