Granted, the film’s gruesome set-pieces are all pretty unforgettable. But I’m sorry, “The Omen” (1976) just didn’t scare me. Then again, my dad took me to the drive-in to see “The Omega Man” when I was five. So I was probably fairly well inured to stuff-and-nonsense like the son of Satan being born to a jackal. Atticus Finch and family terrorized by the Devil’s Rottweilers? A little silly, don’t you think? But Charlton Heston, the last man on earth, battling legions of plague-induced zombies? That sh** can happen!
Few would deny that the 1970s was a very strange decade. It was an era when audiences could accept supernatural Rottweilers doing the bidding of Satan, and a successful franchise spun out of “The Doberman Gang.”
One thing I think we can all agree on is that little kids are creepy. Also, David Warner looks sinister even when he’s supposed to be one of the good guys. (I was amused to learn that Warner held on to the film’s iconic severed head for years – until it was taken by his wife when they divorced.)
FUN FACT! Jerry Goldsmith’s Oscar-winning music can be used to underscore almost any situation.
Lawn crew pulls up at development [Cue “Ave Satani”]
Sniff carton to discover milk has turned [Cue “Ave Satani”]
Squirrel hangs upside down from tube feeder [Cue “Ave Satani”]
Try it!
Then check out our conversation about “The Omen” on last night’s Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner.
Next week, we’ll be joined by Bill Scurato, managing director of Country Gate Players. Bill is presenting a Saturday night film series this month (with a 100th anniversary screening of F.W. Murnau’s “Nosferatu” tonight at 8:00) at Country Gate Playhouse in Belvidere, NJ.
On the 29th & 30th the players will present a “live experience” assimilating Ed Wood’s masterpiece of incompetence, “Plan 9 from Outer Space.” We’ll learn more about it, when we discuss one of the films shown at Country Gate this month, George A. Romero’s seminal zombie classic, “Night of the Living Dead” (1968).
So leave your brains in the comments section. Human flesh is on the menu, when we livestream on Facebook, next Friday evening at 7:30 EDT!
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PHOTO: Rubber bands had to be put around the muzzles of the “Satanic” Rottweilers in order to make them look like they were snarling
