Omen, The (20th Century Fox 1976)

20th Century Fox’s The Omen, a dark exploration of the predictions of the Book of Revelation, was released on the 25th of June, 1976 (with a UK release on 6 June) – and fifty years on it remains one of the most respected and genuinely frightening horror films ever made. It belongs in the company of the era’s great devilish horrors, a serious, intelligent picture that made the unthinkable feel horribly plausible.

An Antichrist in the family

This Anglo-American production boasted a sterling cast, headed by Gregory Peck as Robert Thorn, US ambassador to Great Britain, and Lee Remick as his wife Katherine – the couple unwitting parents to the Antichrist in the guise of young Damien, played with unnerving stillness by Harvey Stephens. The premise is as simple as it is horrible: that ultimate evil could grow up quietly in a good family, shielded by adults who mean only to protect him.

Robert Thorn (Gregory Peck) comforts his wife Katherine (Lee Remick) after her ‘accident’ in The Omen (20th Century Fox 1976)

A cast that took horror seriously

The film’s power owes much to the gravitas of its players. Peck lends the picture the weight of a prestige drama, while there is superb support from the BAFTA-winning Billie Whitelaw as the baleful nanny Mrs Baylock, David Warner as Jennings the doomed photographer, and Patrick Troughton as the bedevilled Father Brennan. Zipped up in Richard Donner’s flawless direction, it is horror played absolutely straight – and all the more terrifying for it.

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The film they called cursed

Part of The Omen‘s enduring legend lies off screen. A run of grim coincidences surrounding the production – lightning reportedly striking aircraft carrying members of the team, a near miss or two, and a horrific car accident that befell others connected to the film – gave it a lasting reputation as a genuinely “cursed” picture. Whatever one makes of the stories, they have become inseparable from the film’s mystique, and have helped keep its dark reputation alive for half a century.

Robert Thorn (Gregory Peck) and Keith Jennings (David Warner) discover the terrible secret in the cemetery in The Omen (20th Century 1976)

Goldsmith’s devil, and a lasting legacy

If one element seals the film’s reputation, it is the music. Jerry Goldsmith’s demonic choral score, with its infernal centrepiece Ave Satani, won him the only competitive Academy Award of his long career, and remains one of the most recognisable in all of horror. David Seltzer’s intelligent screenplay proved influential enough to shape the 2006 remake, though that later film seems a thin imitation beside the original. Routinely named among the best horror films ever made, The Omen spawned a run of sequels – including Omen III: The Final Conflict – and lost none of its power in the process.

Our Omen 1976 Ultimate Guide Magazine tells the full story of the film across 36 luxurious full-colour pages – production history, cast and crew biographies, and a wealth of beautifully restored stills. Get your copy in the shop →