The Omen (1976) – Horror Film Review

THE OMEN 1976

By Steve Biodrowski

This film of the Antichrist’s appearance on Earth was part of the 1970s trend toward big-budget, studio-produced horror (e.g., JAWS) – a trend that effectively squashed the medium-budget genre efforts from Hammer Films and American International Pictures that had dominated drive-ins and local theatres throughout the 1950s and 1960s. THE OMEN is a slick, polished, and professional thriller that combines an intriguing mystery with periodic eruptions of bloody violence; in fact, it might be considered a breakthrough in terms of mainstreaming graphic gore – general audiences flocked to theatres in droves turning it into a major hit. In retrospect, THE OMEN looks a bit mechanical and soulless. In 1976, the film benefitted from the then-current social-political context, in which the Continue reading “The Omen (1976) – Horror Film Review”