If we are to believe the poet, “the most beautiful trick of the Devil is to persuade you that he does not exist”. Now, obviously, many people like to believe that the Evil One could exist. Proof of this is the enormous success of productions dealing with its presence, such as Rosemary’s Baby (Rosemary’s baby), The Exorcist (The Exorcist), And The Omen (The curse). This last film, which relates the advent of the Antichrist in the person of a very hateful boy, gave rise to three sequels and a remake. Coming out just after Easter, a holiday supposed to mark the resurrection of Christ, here comes the pre-episode The First Omen (The curse, the beginning), where director and co-writer Arkasha Stevenson traces the conception of Lucifer’s son. Sensitive souls refrain.
A bit like the recent one, but much more pretentious, Immaculate (Immaculate), The First Omen opens with the arrival in Italy of a young American novice (Nell Tiger Free, from the series Servant) who is about to pronounce his vows. Her name is Margaret, and she is initially delighted to have been relocated to Rome in an old convent converted into a boarding school for orphans.
However, between a wild night at a nightclub in the company of her roommate (a novice who is not very Catholic), and the suicide of a colleague, Margaret does not take long to sense something sinister. What Father Brennan (key character in The Omen), an excommunicated priest, but aware of what is going on.
In this regard, one of the good ideas of this pre-episode is to take Baudelaire’s famous quote literally, by giving a logical motivation to Satan’s henchmen who are part of the Church, to act as they do. . Thus, it is with the aim of bringing back to the right path a population which has turned away from God for lack of fear of a “non-existent” Devil, that a misguided section of the clergy has been plotting for years the conception of the Antichrist.
In short, we commit evil in the name of good: let’s call this the paradox of faith.
Explicit horror
So The First Omen makes it malevolent, like many horror films before it, but with a marked sense of atmosphere, concepts, places and figures traditionally associated with benevolence: religion, orphanage, nuns…
In fact, if there is one certainty that emerges from the film, it is that it was designed by fans of horror cinema – which Arkasha Stevenson confirmed to us in an exclusive interview. We think, for example, of this use inspired by an extract from the music of Suspiria by the Goblin group. Speaking of music: thanks is obviously given to the Oscar-winning one that Jerry Goldsmith composed for The Omen. Moreover, both musically and visually, the film displays appreciable stylistic continuity with its illustrious predecessor.
Arkasha Stevenson also pays homage to the aforementioned Rosemary’s Babyas well as Possession (the famous scene of psychotic decompensation by Isabelle Adjani).
In this regard, there are passages where the filmmaker demonstrates great audacity regarding the horror shown, including a birth sequence (perhaps hallucinated, perhaps prophesied) which led the Motion Picture Association (MPAA ) to initially want to prohibit the film for under 17s. When it comes to explicit horrific imagery, no major Hollywood studio has gone this far since, yes, The Exorcist (as opposed to independent cinema, which is more adventurous).
Prestigious distribution
Certainly, the story sometimes turns out to be unnecessarily convoluted in the first part (and the epilogue is too much), which compromises the narrative fluidity. Purists will also be annoyed by a handful of contradictions to information stated in the original film.
The convincing performance of a prestigious cast including Sônia Braga (Kiss of the Spider Woman / Kiss of the Spider Woman), Bill Nighy (Living / Live), and Ralph Ineson (The Witch / The witch), certainly helps.
Above all, Arkasha Stevenson proves to be very gifted at composing diabolically evocative images. Several are certain to haunt moviegoers. That’s the idea.