10 Best Horror Movie Kills Of 2024

The First Omen gets its grimmest kill out of the way right at the very beginning, when Father Brennan (Ralph Ineson) talks to Father Harris (Charles Dance) about an ongoing occult conspiracy, only for the scene to end with Harris being brutally, suspiciously killed.

In a gorgeously gut-wrenching slow-motion sequence, we see a construction pipe fall from the top of the church they're standing in front of, after which it seemingly lands behind Harris, just barely missing him.

Harris initially insists he's fine and goes to walk off, at which point we see a horrified Brennan do the Sign of the Cross gesture, because he's clearly seen something we haven't.

At that moment, Harris then turns around, revealing to the audience that the pole actually cleaved a huge chunk away from the back of his head. Even so, he smiles eerily at Brennan, blood staining his teeth, before the scene abruptly cuts to black, leaving us well aware that Harris is mere seconds away from falling over dead.

Talk about an opening scene that immediately obliterated all that pre-release hand-wringing about The First Omen being another listless horror prequel nobody asked for.