10 Recent Movies That Avoided Obvious Mistakes

There wasn't much enthusiasm at all when The First Omen - a prequel to Richard Donner's 1976 horror classic The Omen - was first announced. After all, did anyone come away from that film feeling like it needed more of a backstory?

This had a strong whiff of perfunctoriness from the outset, existing solely because of Hollywood's insatiable obsession with milking their existing "IP" for every drop they're worth. There was no doubt that The First Omen would be crammed with corny, forced references to the iconic original film, and likely end up feeling like a dull facsimile of it. But credit to all involved - this is actually a genuinely well-made, brilliantly acted, and uncomfortably intense horror film that stands extremely stably on its own two feet.

Yes, there are nods to the original film, but the picture isn't using them as foundations for its story or leaning on them as crutches. You could easily watch The First Omen as a standalone horror and be perfectly entertained by it. Who could've ever seen that coming?