The First Omen Review: A Knockout Origin Story!
In an industry full of remakes and reboots we often also get origin stories explaining the lore behind some of the most popular stories and franchises in cinema. An even more difficult feat is creating a film almost fifty years later to one of the most iconic horror films of all time, The Omen. Anytime a filmmaker takes on a widely popular story they run into the obstacle of being compared to the original and being tied into a discussion as to whether an origin film should exist at all.
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Arkasha Stevenson has directed a couple of short films and an episode of the Netflix Horror TV Show Brand New Cherry Flavor, making her brand new on the movie scene. Without a doubt Arkasha Stevenson is here to stay as The First Omen (2024) is not only an incredible directorial debut but the best horror movie this year and even one of the best in recent years.
The original Omen film follows Damien, a young boy thought to be the Antichrist incarnate, given to Robert and Katherine Thorn after the passing of their own child. The mystery of Damien’s origin and his backstory was always a mystery, until now. The First Omen follows Margaret (Nell Tiger Free) who travels to Rome to work in an orphanage before taking her vows as a nun. As the film progresses audiences are able to witness the connection between Margaret and Damien’s stories as they collide.
The First Omen (2024)
dir. Arkasha Stevenson pic.twitter.com/EROrBexOF1— Horror Collective 🩸 (@THEH0RRORKID) April 7, 2024
The First Omen pays tribute to its original in the way Arkasha Stevenson directs it and how the story unfolds, providing more horrific ideas and terrifying atmospheres than jump scares. Where the original Omen focuses more on parenthood and the terrors that come along with seeing the worst in your own child, this movie has a more direct focus on the church, the horrific nature of the treatment of women in and outside of religion, as well as how corrupt institutions utilize their own beliefs and weaponize it to get what they desire.
Oftentimes in origin stories, it is obvious where the story must end up. However, the First Omen does not allow the original lore to restrict its ability to formulate a larger story surrounding Margaret. It uses its own methods of creativity and thematic concepts to expand the story with a spin on it that allows Stevenson to thrive in her own filmmaking and ideas.
Arkasha Stevenson’s ability to bring up deeper topics surrounding women and the Church is executed in a disturbingly vital way. Her direction and choice to show visuals at times while also choosing to utilize sound and turn the camera away from the action is precisely executed where the unsettling nature of some of her shots comes from showing other’s actions while pain is being inflicted.
The film takes on how every story of good versus evil has an equal counterpart to our “villain” or “hero”. Given the film uses women as its subjects and the treatment they encounter at the hands of a larger institution run by males, one may interpret that the film takes on women possibly being the ones to undo the destruction of men in and outside the church.
In a world where we have seen the Catholic church cover us heinous crimes, Arkasha Stevenson uses The First Omen to put women at the forefront where life and birth, although beautiful, have dark sides. Also, the way women are typically seen as vessels in this film to be used and discarded is a powerful commentary that makes any free thinking person question the values we hold dear in religion.
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Finally, Stevenson’s patience with her story is enough to show her passion behind the camera, never using The Omen as a means to guide her story at hand until the end, where it must coincide. Although there are a couple of nods to the original, Stevenson creates a fully stand alone film that never tries to be better than its predecessor but on different levels entirely making it so they never have to be compared because of how their focuses are so different. An incredible start for Arkasha Stevenson, making her a new force in horror.
‘The First Omen’ Rating – 4.5/5
Follow Steph (the Author) on IG – @cinemasteph_7
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