10 "Doomed" Upcoming Movies That Might Actually Succeed

10. The First Omen

There's an understandably instinctive reaction to roll your eyes at the prospect of a prequel to Richard Donner's fantastic 1976 horror classic The Omen. 

When producers can find nothing worthwhile to do with a franchise, the prequel route typically signifies the creatively bankrupt next step.

Add to this a director and team of writers with few major credits to their names, and it's easy to write this off as a cynical cash-in desperately trying to coast to box office glory on the strength of its brand name alone.

But then the first trailer for The First Omen dropped and there was a collective air of surprise among horror fans, that it honestly looked... not bad. Pretty good, even.

The visuals look suitably ominous and the cast is unexpectedly stacked - including Bill Nighy, Ralph Ineson, Sônia Braga, and Servant alum Nell Tiger Free - enough that this could very well be a rare horror prequel to carve out a worthy place for itself.

It's still worth tempering your expectations, but in the very least this may not be the artless obligation its original announcement suggested.