Devil Inside
Following the holiday Halloween tradition, we were able to get our grubby little hands on all sorts of Blu-rays. You’ve seen our Carrie, Amityville Horror and Poltergeist reviews (if not, you should check them out). Telekinesis, evil spirits and very strange ghost don’t really compare to the ultimate evil in our latest review, the devil.
20th Century Fox was nice enough to send us a review copy of The Omen Collection on Blu-ray and I must say, job well done. There have been just a handful of collections on Blu-ray recently. Most collections aren’t as classic as this one. If you’re not quite familiar with the story, let me catch you up.
The Omen
Picture this, it’s 1976 and you’re barely grazing terror with films. In comes The Omen, which tells the tale of an adopted boy named Damien who surrounds himself, and his foster parents, with very odd-happenings. When he turns five at his birthday his nanny ends up hanging herself in his honor. Later, we find out that she did it as a servant would for their master and his parents realize that their little boy is actually the devil. Once realizing this they come to a decision, with the help of a priest, that they must kill their only son to save mankind.
No big surprise how this turns out, as there are sequels in this collection. The greatest, horrific, part of this film is taking such an innocent child and making them out to be the devil. For an audience to have to separate and approve the killing of a child in a storyline is awfully tough. The film, which is incredibly violent to begin with, puts that uncomfortable choice for its audience right in front of them. The movie was perfect at making you not want to look, but forcing you to. It’s like watching your favorite character onscreen dying, but knowing it’s for the best. Such a tough choice.
Gregory Peck’s Robert Thorn was perfect. He leads the charge to take out his only son. Let us not forget the creepiest kid alive, Harvey Stephens (no relation), who plays a wonderfully vicious, yet silent, devil as Damien. The entire story really brought about so many different fears in this reviewer that now I check my son’s head for marks just-in-case. Just simply a great film that is very uncomfortable to watch, which is perfect for what it’s trying to do.
As for the features included in this classic, you’ve got tons. Commentary, documentaries, isolated score tracks and just tons of features that compliment the film very-well. I’m glad that 20th Century gave some real love to this classic horror. It certainly deserved it and the features just make it that much better.
Damien: Omen II
Sometimes catching lighting in a bottle twice can be difficult. The next step in the storyline has our favorite devil living with his aunt and uncle now. Damien finds himself in military school and primed and ready for taking over his uncle’s business when it ‘somehow’ becomes available.
In all honesty, this felt like a repeat of the first. I think it added another dimension, but certainly stretched out the story to let you know the devil child a bit more. In the first film we barely got to know Damien. We didn’t know how he thought, how he worked, what he was planning, basically nothing. He was silent most of the film. This time around he isn’t quite as silent and his plans seem a bit more open. Still, the sequel, while not as good as the first, is still vicious and sour in so many places. It truly leads the audience into a frenzy of… “I can’t believe we actually felt sorry for this kid in the first film.” Never trust the devil!
As for the features, you’ve got yourself some commentary and that’s it. I know sometimes when films don’t succeed as planned they don’t get as much love. This might be the case, but it does compliment the original very well.
The Omen III: The Final Conflict
Here’s where the story truly gets rolling. This is like watching Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines where the viewer can finally say, “YES They got to the place they should have started in the second movie.” Truly, an older-wiser Damien has become an industry leader worldwide and intends on setting up his place in history as divine ruler of the world. He is most vicious in the final movie (at least in the older films) and very unforgiving. His need for power only grows as much as his need to kill the newly born Christ-child in the world. He gathers an army in this movie and uses them to do his cruel bidding (someone has to take care of the business by killing kids… which is not funny at all… very horrifying).
The movie uses quite a bit haunting images to get its point across about Damien’s character and mindset. I think the real downfall of this film was the filmmaker’s desire for all to be revealed. You could probably blame that on the writer, but the director should have seen it coming. Damien’s transformation from likable politician (is there such a thing?) to Satan himself is quick and choppy. If the storyline had been smoothed a bit it would have been a lot better. Add that to the fact that the ending was very anti-climatic, which was so damn disappointing, and you have a film that could have been.
Much like the sequel, this one only gets commentary (trailers don’t count!)
The Omen 666 (2006)
Sometimes Hollywood is so darn wacky. Sometimes they believe they should take a perfectly good classic and remake it for nearly zero reason. I’m not sure what the coin toss was to make this film again, but it wasn’t a bad bet. The new film follows in the same footsteps as the original. The difference is that the budget isn’t low this time around and special effects certainly help the cause.
I think a very wise upgrade to the story were the choice of actors. I very much enjoyed Liev Schreiber (who doesn’t get enough credit in his acting career) as Robert Thorn. He played a very slick, sly and broken Robert Thorn. Opposite of his performance, and equally as impressive, is Julia Stiles’ Katherine Thorn. The scariest part of the movie is when she tries to love her little ‘devil’ and he wants nothing to do with her. For any mother that has a child it’s incredibly emotionally trying, I would imagine, for that child to reject them. Seeing her reaction to Damien and her love for him slowly grow apart is one of the more horrifying portions of the film. As for Damien himself, still creepy. No matter the child, as long as he has dark hair and a piercing stare, it works.
This one proved just as good as the first, though not better overall. I like how they remade the film, brought it into this age and made it a bit more dark and serious (is that possible?). I’m not a fan of remakes, but didn’t really mind this one.
Featured with this 2006 version is commentary, trivia tracks, extended scenes, a nice/creepy featurette and an Abbey Road Sessions featurette. Good stuff, for a good film.
Hey, his horns are Blu
This past week has been a lesson of appreciation. I appreciate the Blu-ray format so much more since I’ve had the pleasure of watching classic horror movies in HD. Having a horrifying picture in 1080p sends just a few more chills down your spine. The Omen Collection on Blu-ray will treat you no different. It truly brings a classic horror film back to life and makes it all too real. In the third film, the fog during the early morning fox hunt was all too real for the eyes. It literally looks gorgeous, ten times better than DVD. As for the audio, just as good as the video, if not better. That creepy theme music that goes along with the first three films really drives you nuts, but in a good way, in a 5.1 set-up. There were times where you just feel it coming thanks to the audio. And, much like most horror films, it still makes you jump when the audio hits at the right moment.
Blu-ray makes the experience better, as it makes The Omen Collection that much better.