The First Omen - Review 

If horror movies were recognised by the Academy, this one would sweep the nominations. Best: director, lead actress, supporting actrors, cinematography, original score, costume, editing and so on and so on. What a masterpiece, masterclass, in the genre.

I did not for the life of me expect the First Omen to have a higher score than Monkey Man

I agree that the marketing department fumbled the rollout of this movie, but that first teaser with the footage playing in reverse set to "If I Had a Heart" is one of my favorite trailers in years

I hope they make The second Omen. Just to see what Dan does with that intro.

Saw it last night with low expectations and I left the theater feeling my expectations were exceeded drastically. It was REALLY GOOD. Definitely recommend.

Dan is basically the only person I trust to let me know what movies I should watch or not. Sometimes I feel he has to see a lot of meh movies just to filter the good stuff for us lol Gonna see it tonight!

Not forgetting that the superb Sonia Braga is also in this. She plays the forceful mother superior. Great review Dan

The intro made me think "Who's on first, What's on Second...." 🙂

The studio thought the movie would get bad reviews, so they held the embargo till release date. Sadly did they know critics would like this movie.

Between The First Omen and Immaculate, it seems we're in a golden age of nun horror. I notice Valek wasn't invited to the party.

Happy to hear this. I've got my ticket for Sunday. I was worried about the studio holding back screenings and reviews also. But I was also confused because everything I saw from the trailer and little clips that are floating around out there looked good to me. Looking forward to this!

I will definitely give The First Omen a chance. Thank you, Dan! Have a great weekend.

I'm a big fan of the original Omen series, that era of horror is definitely my thing, they all had stellar casts too. Will go see this.

It was interesting watching this right after Immaculate a few weeks ago. Very similar movies in what they are going for - nun horror involving pregnancy in Italy. But while I enjoyed Immaculate, First Omen was a much superior film. It's a bit long, but once it gets going, it doesn't let up and is honestly pretty scary. Two scenes stand out in my mind as I left the theater that I couldn't shake on the drive home - that's the good stuff! Also, the cinematography was excellent.

Wow! Can’t believe it opened in Japan on the same day! That rarely happens… had to wait 5 months for M3GAN last year. I will go Saturday morning, thanks to your review.

Hi Dan, A very well thought out and unexpected positive review. After the fiasco that is The Exorcist: Believer its great to hear that The First Omen exceeded your expectations. Satan is certainly having a terrific moment in cinema with the release of three satan themed films, Late Night With The Devil, Immaculate, and now The First Omen. Thanks

Dan! This was one of my favorite openers to your videos. Love your videos and reviews.

6:50 Are you referring to the scene after the car crash before she’s brought into the underground church? Reminded me very much of the iconic subway scene in 1981’s Possession and yeah she tight-walked the line between “grotesque” and “embarrassment” there beautifully.

Big fan of the OG Omen movies, hell even the remake was good. I have high expectations for this one, and looking at the praise for it makes me happy; yet I was surprised how marketing handled the promotion for this film. Can’t wait to watch it! And Monkey Man as well

Just watched it. It's solid, I give it a 7.5/10. While it has a lot of good, it too often goes for shock instead of building up and adding depth. Still worth a watch, but not sure it's worth a trip to the theater

We do have a thing for atmospheric horror - one of our early date movies was The Shining which is still a favorite - but not likely we’ll head to the theater for this one. Not surprised that Disney screwed up the marketing for this - they really don’t appear to know WHAT to do with Fox, and this is another example of the general incompetence. But it sounds like it’ll make a great double feature with the original for movie night at home.

I'd love to see her version of William Peter Blatty's "Exorcist"

Lol loved the opening bit. I think it would be funny if you had cut yourself off trying to explain what you were reviewing.

I didn't expect this film to have so many good reviews. I'll definitely check it out now.

I find this strange in terms of when they allowed critics to see the film as there have been TV spots out for two weeks with supposed critic quotes on them. Bear in mind, even after the embargo dropped today I still can’t find the so called reviews they took these quotes from.

Nell Tiger Free is really good in the show Servant

I liked the trailer and I liked Nell in Servant, but I was worried about the review embargo being a few hours before release. Good to hear the quality is high.

I absolutely loved Brand New Cherry Flavor on Netflix. Arkasha also produced and directed that series, and it’s also bonkers and fantastic.

Genuinely was so glad i trusted a couple reviews saying this was cool and didn't check the trailer Its been days and im still thinking about it

Watched the original first one last night. I was thinking the same thing that directors need to create horror closer to those in the 70's and 80's. Going to have to check it out.

Would love to see you do a review of Immaculate Dan! Always appreciate your views on horror movies (and will add the First Omen to my watchlist because of this!)

Top notch performances, great camera work, an eerie score, and great wardrobe. Sadly, a lot of the story felt redundant of other films like this. I was left a little underwhelmed, but appreciated the filmmaking.

The trailer is incredible. Glad to hear a positive review.

Okay, I need to see it NOW!

Definitely going to the theater tonight.

This movie was not good. It dragged, it was predictable, and lacked horror. Felt very conservative! Would have been nice to have more time when she went out to the club or even build off her hallucinations. Lead actress did a great job, but the film was shit…!

I will say, that, although the preliminary marketing may have been mishandled, I did see the movie last night in 35 mm at a historic independent theater in my area (one of the theaters that you actually shouted out in a video). This theater typically shows classic/older movies, but they will show some select few first runs. However, (outside of Oppenheimer) the theater only shows artistic and independent movies for first runs (they currently have love lies bleeding and the first omen for first run), so, to me, that actually was a really good sign to the movie’s quality. It encouraged me to check it out last night. I really enjoyed it too! Do movies like this sell their movies to independent theaters to try and find an audience, or do the theaters ask for certain movies to be shown at their theaters? I’m ignorant to the whole process

Thanks to the ad campaign on youtube. I can't imagine ever wanting to watch the actual movie. 30+ times a day and sometime 2 times on the same video...WTF

Thanks Dan! I would’ve never gone to see it in theatres just by my experience with shameless cash grabs in the horror genre. Definitely will check it out!

I can’t wait! Definitely seeing it this weekend!

Didnt have this movie on my radar but I have AMC stubs and will check it out now! I just saw immaculate which seems like a very similar plot. Will be interesting to compare

I agree with you that the performances and the atmosphere were great, but this was a mid movie for me (I liked Immaculate slightly more). For me, it was predictable almost from the jump, and the third act suffers heavily from "Yeah, I get it". Currently a mid-tier for me, but it may fall to the upper echelon of low-tier by years-end.

Idk why they waited so long to lift the review embargo for this. It’s so good.

Disney acquiring Fox was a sad day. Everyone on the internet said they wouldn't know what to do with these more R-rated IPs. So of course they chose not to release Prey theatrically even though it was great, The First Omen is pretty great and they completely ignore it, and then of course they do release Alien Romulus which was horrible dragged down by memberberries.

After years of ‘Haunted Nun Exhaustion’ (mainly the Nun lol) I was so surprised to see both Immaculate and the First Omen actually being good at being scary films.

Since I saw the trailer I was already quite curious, but after this positive reception I will definitely see the movie in theaters. An almost perfect prequel/sequel that respects and enriches the original source, while being able to land its ending is pretty rare, even more so if it comes from Disney.

They released a 70s inspired trailer and I kinda wish that was the first trailer. I will never forgive the marketing team for fumbling this movie. 2024 is the year of GREAT horror

Hell yeah! I'll be making _Immaculate_ and TFO as a double feature this weekend!

I’m hearing good things about.. will have to check it out

The First Omen is not my cup of tea (grew up Catholic and movies like this freak me out too much), but def gonna pass along your review to others that I know will like this movie.

It was a good movie, I’ll admit - the only reason I didn’t like it as much as I could have is because nothing flashy happened. The whole time I was waiting for the other shoe to drop, the creature to finally come out, or the demon to possess someone and show itself… but this never happened. It entirely relied on atmosphere until it came to a conclusion I really wasn’t surprised by. There’s two scenes in the whole movie that i can’t get out of my head, and they were tense and I loved them, but ultimately it came to nothing in my opinion.

Quite intrigued for this movie. Definitely seeing it this week. Except for the teaser, the marketing has let this movie down. Well put.

I’m not a big horror fan, but your review has me changing my mind. Thanks Dan!

I'm glad to hear this is good!

Damn. I fi ally watched it. I wish I had seen it theaters. I love horror movies, I saw the Omen as a kid and really stuck with me. Last year I saw the new exorcist and really disappointed me. Maybe that informed my decision to not go watch this since they're both new iterations of 70s classic horro movies. Will definitely watch this one again!

0:42 a prequel to the 1976 film the Omen directed by Richard Donner. Edit: I'm looking forward to watching the first omen partly because last night I decided to watch the 2006 remake that was directed by John Moore; and man did I have a few gripes with that mainly with Julia Stiles' performance as the wife.

Let me help you here : The First omen is the prequel of the original The Omen movie

Heard lots of good things about this film! And I never go to see horror films

Just got out of seeing this movie really enjoyed it really surprised how good it was

I expected it to be bad since I'd heard so little. Happy to hear that it's good and I'll check it out as soon as I can. I've really been using the hell out of that AMC stubs membership lately.

If you could give Oscars to video game performances Ralph Ineson would have gotten one for Final Fantasy XVI he's so amazing in that game

It was nice but also disappointing that there were only two other people in our screening of this. I agree that the studio completely mismanaged the marketing for this and it deserved to make more than $8 mill opening weekend. Earlier critics screenings and allowing reviews to come out on Mon or Tues would've pushed this up to the $10 mill area I bet. For me I would rate it an 8/10

Nell Tiger Free was phenomenal in NWR’s Too Old to Die Young

What a brilliant review, had completely consigned First Omen to the 'catch it when it streams' department, will actively go look for it now.

It failed as a prequel when it changed the whole classic background story about Damien's mother being a Jackal. The Titaninc wasn't sunk by hitting a rock, there wasn't a silver ticket in the Wonka bar, and Flash Gordon didn't blow up the Death Star. Fail Fail Fail Fail!!!!

I actually think they did well holding the embargo until the end, it seems they just wanted to surprise (in a good way) otherwise both trailers, posters and clips on instagram are great, i think they hope (as i do) that word of mouth will help them out and i appreciate the risk. lastly i watched the movie today, loved it, hacent seen a horro movie this good in a while i was getting tired of all the psychological horror movies and this is a nice of fresh air and a great companion to the original. watch it if you can in the cinemas! 🖤

This movie was what I wanted Immaculate to be. I really hope it finds its footing in the next couple weeks, because it deserves it

The Devil hand crotch shot. This is how I knew this wasn’t a cookie cutter movie. This one goes there and so beautifully.

I didn't like it much. You say it didn't have a lot of jump scares, but i counted at least four. It seemed like they happened a lot. Also, while very atmospheric, the film was mostly shot in the dark, which started to annoy me after a while. And, my biggest and most important issue with this film, is how it breaks Canon several times. Some of the things i loved most about the original film, this one steps all over and attempts to "normalize." I cant forgive it for that. Also, the film clearly attempts to spawn a franchise from this which seems cheesy at best. C- from me.

It was good; I find it hilarious that this came out SO close to Immaculate and they're essentially the same movie. I can't decide which one is better tbh, but I was pleasantly surprised with this one, it's legitimately creepy and disturbing

The trailer did not impress me. I expected a lot of cheap jump scares. Good to hear it is better.

It’s really too bad people mishandled its release and did it way better with way lesser films

I saw it today and was pleasantly surprised I saw it based on Disney/20th Century’s track record with Prey and Hellraiser both being so well done. I’ve been watching reviews to see if it was a fluke or I was mistaken but no

I'm still disappointed that back then didn't remake all of the omen movies. Reason why I say that is because the remake of The Omen was actually pretty good

Too bad this movie had a "C" Cinemascore. This is a SOLID film. Perhaps the opening night viewers that rated the film were on the younger end? Excellent job Arkasha Stevenson! I cannot wait to see what you do next!

I thought it was well made and acted but i dont jnow if id pop it in to the bluray when it comes out ever again.

This movie was surprisingly awesome! Unfortunately, only my partner and I were in the theater. I sure hope word of mouth catches on for it!

Oh my God, it dragged like crazy. But I like the concept where ties in to the omen. I feel like it needs another movie. To finalize it

I wouldn’t normally say this, but I’d love to see a remake of The Omen off the back of this film

I cannot wait for it to come out on video. Loved it so much I can't wait to own it!!!

I need to figure out how to keep medium to low expectations for horror movies, then I can be pleasantly surprised. The first half is good, but the classic “deaths by accident” which make the 1976 iconic, are meh in this one. The jump scares are even more forgettable, some body horror scenes are good, but others look too fake. One scene reminded me of Piranha 3D… that cannot be a good comparison 😅 It became too predictable imo, and the ending scene feels so forced to get more films out of this franchise…

the best and most surprising movie I've seen this year so far.

I was not expecting this movie to be so great. The sound, acting really everything. They almost never make a good prequel let alone better than the original.

Going to watch it tonight with the wife. Hope it is good

As a stand-alone Antichrist horror film, it’s a decent creepy, dumb horror flick. As a prequel to The Omen, it’s an abject failure. It contradicts several elements and significant plot points of the original. Even worse, the theology is nonsensical and flat out stupid. The makers couldn’t be bothered to crack a Bible and actually learn about Christianity.

I'm going to imagine that the marketing was purposefully trying to utilize reverse psychology.

Really enjoyed this.

It's called the First Omen but still it doesn't follow the story of Omen 76. Damien's mother was not human.

Beats the hell (no pun of course) out of me that people like this movie as a worthy prequel when it got so much stuff wrong...... Prequel to The Omen:4/10 As a standalone: maybe a 7 or 8/10

Great review. Youve definitely put this movie on my watch list. And earned a subscriber 👍👍

Great review!

I wanna know how I can watch this movie and where? I'm not going to the Palace Theater to watch it either.

i heard Damien's mother isnt a jackal like they said in the original , is that true ?

Isn't that Jaime and Cersei's daughter?

This was a great review Dan, thanks.

The critical reception has been positive but not spectacular for this, so I’m not really sure if an early embargo would build that much buzz. I think I’m just gonna wait for streaming for this one. Trailer looked pretty cool, but it doesn’t really feel like something that needs the theatrical experience to be enjoyed

Great reveiw i could tell just by the comercials for it that it was going to be really good its been awhile since i have seen a good scary movie sinister was pretty creepy

I absolutely loved this movie!!!

Disney’s making the best legacy horror but they don’t know how to market it. They dumped arguably the best entries in the Predator and Hellraiser franchises since the originals on streaming.

We don't talk about the Omen IV