The First Omen (2024)

The Devil went down to Rome

The First Omen is about Margaret (Nell Tiger Free), a naïve, well-meaning young woman who is forced to confront unimaginable evil, both in the outside world and within herself.

Margaret is a novice nun living in Rome in the early 1970s. She meets Carlita (Nicole Sorace), a troubled young orphan who experiences terrifying hallucinations. The older nuns believe that Carlita is evil and treat her abusively.

Margaret, who can relate to Carlita’s troubles because she was tormented by creepy visions as a kid, attempts to intervene to help her.

The nuns in this movie smoke like chimneys. I confess that I’m not familiar with nun culture, but I would think that smoking cigarettes would be against the rules. I guess even nuns like to be naughty sometimes.

Speaking of naughty, Margaret and her roommate Luz (Maria Caballero) decide to have some late night fun. They ditch their nun attire, put on sexy outfits, and head out on the town.

Margaret meets a guy named Paolo (Andrea Arcangeli) at a bar. After dancing with him, she blacks out and wakes up back at the convent with no memory of what happened. She later encounters Paolo again, but he seems frightened of her.

Margaret discovers that she’s pregnant and learns that the church is involved in a horrifying conspiracy involving Satanic children. Can she save herself and Carlita before it’s too late?

A Franchise Resurrection

The First Omen is the latest addition to the Omen franchise. It is a prequel to The Omen (1976). The original film is about Damien Thorne, a young boy who is the Antichrist. People who try to stop or harm Damien are killed in a series of grotesque “accidents.” The Omen is the only movie I can think of where the good guys are attempting to murder a toddler.

The Omen was followed by two sequels, Damien: The Omen II (1978) and Omen III: The Final Conflict (1981). The series later continued with Omen IV: The Awakening (1994), an obscure TV movie about a daughter of Satan. A remake of the first film, also titled The Omen, was released in 2006. None of the follow ups were able to approach the success of the original.

The First Omen does a nice job emulating the creepy atmosphere of the first film. Some of its scenes are fun callbacks to events from The Omen. The film also brings back elements of the original’s ominous orchestral soundtrack.

But is this movie really necessary? We’ve had five previous Omen movies. The franchise has been dormant for many years. This is not Halloween or Scream where you have a huge fanbase clamoring for another film.

The original Omen trilogy did a decent job explaining Damien’s origins. This new movie is entertaining but unnecessary. There isn’t much here that hasn’t been done before.

With that said, this is the best Omen  since the original. The acting and production values are far superior to any of the sequels.

Immaculate vs. The First Omen

It’s easy to compare The First Omen with Immaculate, a similar film that was released at around the same time. Immaculate stars Sydney Sweeney as Sister Cecilia.

How are these movies similar? Let me count the ways. Both feature American novice nuns who live in Rome and become pregnant with unwanted/unnatural offspring. Both heroines start off naïve, but change dramatically after discovering that they are embroiled in an evil church conspiracy. The films each have themes related to women’s rights issues, but both avoid making direct political statements.

There are differences as well. In my review of Immaculate, I noted that Cecilia’s personality transformation was too abrupt. I found Margaret’s more believable. For one thing, Margaret was never quite as innocent as Cecilia. It’s impossible to fathom Cecilia sneaking out and meeting a guy at a bar, for example.

I also preferred Nell Tiger Free’s performance. Sweeney was good, but she underplayed her role a bit in the first half and then overplayed it at the end. Free delivers a more even performance.

Without giving away too much, it’s also notable that Margaret and Cecilia make drastically different choices in regard to their pregnancies. Anyone who has seen the original Omen will think they know how this movie is going to conclude, but the film adds a surprising extra twist.

Rating

Although its existence seems superfluous, The First Omen is nevertheless worth a watch. It’s a fun period piece with an effective performance by Nell Tiger Free, solid character development, and creative death scenes.

Rating from 1 (avoid at all costs) to 10 (masterpiece): 7.5