The First Omen

The First Omen is a 2024 American supernatural horror film directed by Arkasha Stevenson, who co-wrote the screenplay with Tim Smith and Keith Thomas from a story by Ben Jacoby. It is a prequel to The Omen (1976), and the sixth film in The Omen franchise. The film stars Nell Tiger Free, Tawfeek Barhom, Sônia Braga, Ralph Ineson, and Bill Nighy. The plot follows an American novitiate (Free) sent to work at a Catholic orphanage in Rome who uncovers a sinister conspiracy to bring about the birth of the Antichrist.

The First Omen was theatrically released in the United States by 20th Century Studios on April 5, 2024. The film received positive reviews from critics and grossed $53.9 million worldwide.

Plot
Father Brennan presses Father Harris about an occult conspiracy; the shaken Harris gives Brennan a photograph of a baby with the name "Scianna" inscribed. Harris is killed when a falling pipe splits his head open.

In Rome, 1971, amid political protests, American novitiate Margaret Daino arrives at the Vizzardeli Orphanage. She meets with Cardinal Lawrence, Father Gabriel, Abess Sister Silva, nun Anjelica, and her roommate and fellow novitiate Luz. Luz invites Margaret to a disco, where they meet two men. Luz dances with one of the men while Margaret dances with the other man named Paolo before blacking out. She awakens the next day with no memory of what happened.

Margaret bonds with the mistreated orphan Carlita, who is plagued by bad visions. Father Brennan warns her about Carlita, saying "evil things" will happen around her. Margaret spots Carlita showing Anjelica a drawing of a pregnant woman being restrained; moments later, Anjelica self-immolates and hangs herself.

Brennan explains that radicals within the church, desperate to regain power against the rise of secularism, seek to bring about the Antichrist to create fear and drive people back to the church, with Carlita intended to be his mother. During a field trip, a riot breaks out and Margaret experiences demonic hallucinations. Sister Silva postpones Margaret's vows and orders her to distance herself from Carlita. She spots Paolo; horrified, he tells her to "look for the mark" before getting cut in half by an oncoming truck.

Margaret sneaks into Sister Silva's office. She uncovers a hidden, underground chamber and a series of subject files, all labeled "Scianna". They contain photos of mostly dysmorphic babies with a birthmark in the shape of three sixes, with Carlita as seemingly the only survivor. Margaret is intercepted and spots the mark on Carlita's palate before being imprisoned.

Father Gabriel frees Margaret; as they examine the files with Brennan, they discover that another baby had survived. Margaret locates the mark on her own scalp and suddenly remembers that she was forcefully impregnated in a satanic ritual the night she blacked out at the disco. The Devil will need to mate with his own spawn in order to conceive the Antichrist, and Margaret had been brought to Rome as her half-sister Carlita was too young. The group drives off to have the pregnancy aborted, but another car crashes into theirs on the way and Margaret's womb suddenly fills.

She awakens strapped to a hospital bed and is greeted by Cardinal Lawrence, the head of the conspiracy. Cardinal Lawrence and the other conspirators watch as she gives birth to two children via caesarean, a girl and a boy; the latter is hailed as the Antichrist. Luz and the man who was with Paolo at the disco are revealed to be among the conspirators. Pretending to be complicit when asking to hold the baby, Margaret stabs Lawrence but cannot bring herself to kill her son. Luz stabs Margaret as the conspirators flee with the boy and set the chamber ablaze to cover their tracks. Carlita saves Margaret and her daughter, and Margaret sees a demonic jackal in the flames. The baby boy is given to American diplomat Robert Thorn to secretly replace the child his wife Katherine has supposedly miscarried.

Years later, Margaret lives secluded in the mountains with Carlita and her daughter, now a happy family. Brennan appears and warns that the conspirators will be hunting her, and that her son has been named Damien.

Production
In April 2016, a prequel to The Omen (1976) was announced to be in the works at 20th Century Fox, with Ben Jacoby writing the script and Antonio Campos in talks to direct. By May 2022, three years after The Walt Disney Company acquired the Fox assets, 20th Century Studios began developing it, with Arkasha Stevenson signing on in her feature directorial debut. David S. Goyer and Keith Levine produced under the Phantom Four Films label. Nell Tiger Free was cast in the lead role in late August 2022. On January 3, 2024, Tawfeek Barhom, Sônia Braga, Ralph Ineson, and Bill Nighy were announced to star in the film.

Principal photography took place on location in Rome and on soundstages at Lumina Studios from September 19 to November 22, 2022. Buildings in Villa Parisi and a farm in Procoio was used to portray the orphanage. Production designer Eve Stewart stated, "We wanted it to be a very unique and beautiful building, and since we couldn't find everything within one building, we put three buildings together and made sure that they all linked well with one another". The basement was created on the soundstage.

Costume designer Paco Delgado wanted the costumes to have a gothic feeling. He designed light clothing that moves with the wind so it would match Stevenson's vision of "the figures sort of floating through the hallways". The girls at the orphanage were dressed in 1940s/1950s costumes, even though the film takes place in the 1970s; the crew wanted a "specific ambience". For Margaret's look, Delgado was inspired with Yves Saint Laurent fashion of the 1970s. Adrien Morot served as prosthetic and creature designer.

Music
The score was composed by Mark Korven, who wrote original music and referenced themes written by Jerry Goldsmith for the previous films, including "Ave Satani." The soundtrack album was released by Hollywood Records on April 5, 2024, the same day as the film.

Release
A specific shot in the birthing sequence resulted in the Motion Picture Association registering the film with an NC-17 rating classification. Producer Keith Levine said, "We had to go back and forth with the ratings board five times. Weirdly, avoiding the NC-17 made it more intense". David S. Goyer commented that, "The movie, by its nature, deals with female body horror, and I do think there's a double standard. That was really interesting when we were negotiating with the ratings board. I think there is more permissiveness when dealing with male protagonists, particularly in body horror".

The First Omen was greenlit in development for an intended streaming release on Hulu, but was given a theatrical wide release after Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures determined it needed to expand the studio's theatrical release slate after shortages caused by the 2023 Hollywood labor disputes. The film was theatrically released by 20th Century Studios on April 5, 2024.

Home media
The First Omen was released on digital platforms on May 28, 2024, and for streaming on Hulu two days later. It is scheduled for a Blu-ray and DVD release on July 30, 2024, by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, as the first Disney-owned title to be released as part of a home video distribution agreement between Disney and Sony Pictures that began in February 2024, in which the latter company will handle all physical media production and distribution for Disney's home entertainment assets in North America.

Box office
The First Omen grossed $20.1 million in the United States and Canada and $33.8 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $53.9 million.

In the United States and Canada, The First Omen was released alongside Monkey Man, and was initially projected to gross $14–15 million from 3,375 theaters in its opening weekend. After making $3.2 million on its first day (including $725,000 from Thursday night previews), estimates were lowered to $8 million. It went on to debut $8.4 million, finishing fourth at the box office. In its second weekend the film made $3.8 million, finishing in seventh.

Critical response
Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "C" on an A+ to F scale.

Kyle Turner of Slant Magazine gave it 3/4 stars, writing, "Throughout the film, Stevenson slides easily between earthly delights and disgusts, wedding them together through viscera and audacious aesthetics. In The First Omen, Stevenson atomizes all the darkness and the light within ourselves." The Guardian Benjamin Lee gave it 3/5 stars, calling it "far more artful and striking than it has any right to be, thanks in overwhelmingly large part to the TV director Arkasha Stevenson, whose bravado works incredibly well until it really doesn't, when she's forced to play by franchise rules rather than her own." Writing for The Times, Ed Potton gave it 3/5 stars. He said, "Stevenson leans too heavily on the old horror staple of female hysteria and the explanation behind the plot to spawn a tiny Antichrist is the kind of thing you'd expect from a conspiracy nutjob on YouTube. Tiger Free makes a compellingly unstable heroine, though, and Bill Nighy and Charles Dance pop up as senior priests and wear their cassocks well... This is Call the Midwife directed by Satan."

The Wall Street Journal Kyle Smith wrote, "The First Omen may have a noble predecessor in one of the scariest films of the 1970s, but it has little to distinguish it from the last 665 mediocre horror features I've seen." Tim Robey of The Daily Telegraph gave it 2/5 stars, writing, "Stevenson has configured her tale as female body-horror fit for a dissertation, without giving it much of a spine: while slick, the set pieces are few, far between, and over too fast." Frank Scheck of The Hollywood Reporter wrote, "Ultimately, it all feels very familiar, and not just because this is the second movie in as many months to revolve around nuns and the birth of an Antichrist."

Comparisons to Immaculate
Due to sharing similar premises and a common Italian setting and released at about the same time, The First Omen and Immaculate have been dubbed as twin films. Both films explore the issue of female bodily autonomy, depicting the "systemic control of women's bodies reduced to vessels". Bilge Ebiri of Vulture wondered about "why should anyone be surprised that suddenly, in the wake of the Supreme Court's overturning of Roe v. Wade, as state after state attempts to enact religious laws depriving women of bodily agency, America is getting horror movies about people forced into monstrous births by religious institutions worried about their growing irrelevance".