The First Omen – Review

Cert – 15, Run-time – 1 hour 59 minutes, Director – Arkasha Stevenson

Novice Margaret (Nell Tiger Free) is welcomed into a convent in Rome, however everything may not be as it seems, especially as she shows kindness to an isolated child (Nicole Sorace)

The slow-burn psychological nature of The Omen’s horror could mean a hit or miss take when melded with jump scares from dark corners. While not filled with them, prequel The First Omen throws in a couple of jump scares throughout its run-time, and manages to be successful with a couple of them thanks to drawing them out and making the situation feel as if it’s not going in such a way. As for the psychological nature while there might not be a major fear factor to the film, particularly with the way in which it tries to draw its ideas together, there are still some effective moments here and there.

Novice nun Margaret (Nell Tiger Free) has been welcomed into a convent in Rome, one working as an orphanage where she extends a hand to silent teenager Carlita (Nicola Sorace) – often excluded by the nuns for her behaviour which puts her in ‘The Bad Room’. However, with Margaret’s friendliness towards Carlita conflicting with how everyone else treats her already something appears to be up, something pushed further by the appearance of Ralph Ineson’s Father Brennan – claiming there’s an evil plot unfolding in the convent that might involve the Antichrist.

As Margaret begins to uncover more around her bursts of horror come through. When dealing with the gorier elements director Arkasha Stevenson gives the film a real kick, not skimping on the detail while avoiding making this a river-of-blood affair; giving us not one but two squirm-inducing birth scenes. Such points act as the highlights, the horror sometimes quite literally bursting through, in a film that can occasionally feel quite busy with its narrative strands. With the various perspectives and ideas that crop up over the almost 2-hour run-time the final stages of the film, particularly the key climactic sequence, feel quite drawn out due to just how much needs to be wrapped up.

A feeling which isn’t helped by the fact that this prequel has multiple points where it could effectively cut things off and yet carries on with more endings – one sequence in particular seems to have a number of key cut-off points and yet somehow carries on before another scene or two. There’s a good 95-100 minute film within The First Omen, but it does draw itself out, largely with references to the classic 70s film, and with a bit of trimming could be slightly breezier, and perhaps more effective with the bursts of horror which are there. When aiming for prequel over requel this is a much more solid film.

There’s some effective gore and jump scares within The First Omen, while it might feel narratively busy, leading to an overall set of endings, there’s enough within the drama and bursts of horror to create a solid prequel.