10 Recent Horror Movies That Had No Right To Be This Good
4. The First Omen
There simply wasn't anyone asking for a prequel to The Omen, because neither the three sequels to Richard Donner's classic 1973 original nor the 2006 remake made much of a dent with audiences or critics.
Not all stories have the juice for a worthwhile franchise, and that's totally fine. But Hollywood gonna Hollywood, and with first-time filmmaker Arkasha Stevenson helming The First Omen, there was even less reason to expect much good from this wholly unnecessary prequel.
But it sure is nice to be wrong sometimes.
The First Omen isn't just a "pretty OK" horror flick relative to expectations - it's a superbly shot, intensely visceral film that goes so, so much harder than anyone surely expected it to, while further elevated by a mesmerising performance from Servant star Nell Tiger Free.
If you took all the Omen iconography away, this would still be a really, really solid horror flick on its own terms, which is probably the grandest compliment anyone could give it.
It ends up slotting neatly into the existing chronology while functioning as a perfectly robust one-off outing in its own right.