20 Things You Didn't Know About The Omen
Be it a PR stunt or an actual curse, there was something going on behind the scenes of this classic.
Arguably more so than any genre, horror moves in trends. There are periods throughout the history of film when a certain kind of horror film resonates with the era. Today, Joran Peele uses the genre to maximum effectiveness, blending horror with sharp social commentary and racial politics.
In the 70s, however, a different kind of horror lurked in theatres. We were a few years away from the era of a masked killer hacking away at hormone-raging teenagers and American film had just recently caught up with the rest of the world regarding new wave cinema. More importantly, the horror that film was exploring was more internal than external.
This led to an explosion of religious horror films after the success of The Exorcist, with clones like The Sentinel, Carrie, Beyond The Door and, of course, The Omen.
The Omen is the only religious horror film of its ilk to directly involve politics (odd, considering The Exorcist is the one set in D.C.), though it never gets political. It centres on the family of Robert Thorn (Gregory Peck), U.S. Ambassador to England. We at a Rome hospital where we learn Thorn's wife (Lee Remick) lost a baby during childbirth. Not wanting to see her heartbroken, he secretly adopts an orphan infant, unbeknownst to him the son of Satan.
The film would be a success, proving the method of aggressive PR marketing first employed for Jaws was the new norm, but it did so with a trail of bodies, tragedy and lightning. Here's how:
20. David Seltzer Wrote It Entirely For The Cash
It's somewhat reassuring, for those who still get rattled by films such as The Omen, that the screenwriters tasked with assembling them tend to think they're full of rubbish. David Seltzer, who took the assignment, was handed it from an idea from a friend of producer Harvey Bernhard.
He at first turned down the offer, but soon after realized he'd never read the Bible. Beyond the specifics that it was to be about the antichrist born in modern times, Seltzer was allowed free range.
This resulted in the writer cobbling together a political story set in England, as Seltzer had always wanted to travel there.
To quote the writer: "I did it strictly for the money. I was flat broke. I do find it horrifying how many people believe all this silliness."