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Overall Rating : 7/10
Directed By : John Moore
Liev Schreiber (Scream)
Julia Styles (O)
Mia Farrow (Rosemary's Baby
Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick
Supplied By : Fox Home Video
Film Reviewed By : Rick Blalock
Date Reviewed : Oct. 13, 2006
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| PLOT An American official realizes that his young son may literally be the devil incarnate. |
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| THE REVIEW The remake of THE OMEN, follows the plot of the original, hardly changing anything, and only altering a few things. The plot stays the same, US ambassador Robert Thorn and wife Katherine have a baby born on the 6th of June. Unbeknownst to Kate, here son has died unexplainably. Later a worried priest pulls Robert aside and tells him of the news and offers him another child born around the same time.... but as we find out later on, he is the Devil reincarnate, and just as predictably things start happening to those who come in contact with young Damien. Usually when a remake is made they try to make it differ from the original in many ways, maybe from changing events, adding scenes or even delete them, but in the case of the 2006 remake of the Horror classic THE OMEN, I was quite happy to see that most has not been changed. Plot wise, it is almost to the number the same as the original while the death scenes have been altered just slightly more than likely just to modernize the film I am assuming. One change in particular that did bother me is the altering of Damien on the tricycle... probably the scene people remember the most from the original. Instead, in the remake, Damien rides a modernized scooter(I guess tricycles aren't cool anymore), while re-imagining the classic scene in which he knocks an un-expecting Kate Thorn from the top story of the house sending her plummeting to the ground below(this would end up killing Katherine and Robert's 2nd child in which she was carrying and hospitalize Kate). I am having a hard time deciding which version of this particular scene I like most, but I would have to go with that of the original, although I do prefer Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick's portrayal of Damien over Harvey Stephens' As for the acting, I am a little mixed, only because the performances in the original were so powerful and impressionable. For instance, I loved Lee Remick as Katherine Thorn, I thought she brought a feel of innocence and love to the character, where as here, Julia Styles played the part more mellow and dramatic and I felt her performance was great to say the least. Liev Schreiber, is a great, great actor and a favorite of mine, however I feel Gregory Peck's original performance of Robert outshines Schreiber here. I feel that in this one the believability was a factor, for me it was just to difficult at times to believe him in this role, he just did not look like the ambassador type to me. But one character that was a vast improvement in this remake was the character of Mrs. Baylock. In the original it is my opinion that Mrs. Baylock was rather bland and uninteresting, Mia Farrow here brought at first a likeability of the character and then by end, you saw her as someone ruthless as she is virtually Damien's assistant. Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick as Damien, brings the same intensity as Harvey Stephens did, from the grim stare to the piercing eyes, but for some reason I found Seamus to be more likeably, it may be just me.... John Moore, another director that is over-criticized for reasons I don't understand, crafts a remake that I actually liked better than the original. Again, this is yet another remake that could be seen as unnecessary and even I agree - but I also believe the updates made to the film are very welcome ones - and plus the characters are almost as likeable as the original cast. |
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| GORE
METER 3/10 This film has about the same gore level as the original as it stays very true, I for one thought the decapitation in this one was a lot more brutal! |
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| MUSICAL
SCORE 5/10 Not quite as effective as the original's score, but close. The tunes played in Damien's "growing up" montage was very similar as well. | ||||
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| OVERALL
IMPRESSION OF THE FILM Not many people will say this, or better yet, even admit it - but I actually found the remake better than the original. There is not one element that makes one better than the other, however - for instance I may like something in one may be slightly better in the other. In the end this would be an occasion in which it comes down to the preference of a viewer, but to me I found the remake more fast paced, thus making it more enjoyable - highly recommended! This DVD will be available on October 17, 2006 |
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