The First Omen (2024)

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   Siskoid

   From its first shot, The First Omen is already evoking the original film's aesthetic, whether it's white skies over 70s America or the golden sun of Rome. But by focusing on the girl whose birth was engineered to then give birth to the Antichrist, the film also has a modern layer, absolutely scripted in the wake of the American Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade. It's the dangers of the anti-choice movement taken to its most horrific metaphorical extremes, with religion forcing women to give birth to their rapists' babies, even at the cost of their own lives. Not hard to decode this one. Nell Tiger Free is supremely watchable as the young nun trying to uncover the mystery at an orphanage and protect the girl who seems to be tagged as Damien's mother. Now of course, it's a prequel to a horror classic, so some things seem destined to happen. There's some very nice ambiguity about whether the supernatural is happening or not, which is undermined by that fact. It also helps the savvy audience member figure out what's happening before it's actually revealed and makes various call-backs and tributes perhaps expected (except they do play things completely differently, and don't limit themselves to The Omen). And yet, they still pull an ending that, while never contradicting the previous films, also opens the door to future chapters in the series. I quite liked it, perhaps as much as the original. 5 days 21 hours ago

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