[Demdike@Cult Labs]

The Omen (1976)

It really is one hell of a film and as a big budget horror blockbuster it works superbly well. From it's distinguished cast - Gregory Peck - I can't think of a single horror film from the seventies starring a more accomplished actor - Lee Remick, evil Billie Whitelaw, David Warner and Patrick Troughton - to the opening strains of Jerry Goldsmith's iconic theme and some brilliantly constructed deaths, not to mention Richard Donner's taut and pacy direction, The Omen is a classy affair.

It's gripping from the off and Donner really ramps up the atmosphere and chills treating us to some of horror cinema's most recognisable death sequences whilst David Seltzer's script embellishes on a prophecy from the Book of Revelation concerning the Antichrist and the coming of Armageddon, thus creating a suspenseful and genuinely scary horror film that at it's center is about the end of mankind and yet plays out as one man's struggle to believe his son could be evil.

Shown below are the title and end cards of the film.