The First Omen is directed by Arkasha Stevens which is her directorial debut. The film serves as a prequel to The Omen (1976) and is the sixth film in The Omen franchise.
If you told me at the beginning of this year that The First Omen was going to be an early favorite of mine this year I would not have believed you. Mainly due to the quality of The Omen franchise, outside of the 1976 original the series really does not do much for me, but life is full of surprises and not only was The First Omen good it was actually quite brilliant in a lot of ways.
First off the performances all around were quite great, nobody turned in a bad performance, Ralph Ineson was incredibly fun to have in the film especially with his voice that he’s well known for matching the tone of the film. Nicole Sorace is also quite fantastic here as well, I’m sure we are definitely going to see more of her after this performance because she completely nails down the atmosphere every chance she gets.
But the clear as day powerhouse here is Nell Tiger Free from the very beginning she captures the tone of each scene she is in. What I did not expect was a very grounded performance from Nell Tiger Free, the many themes going on here such as bodily anatomy really makes Free’s performance all the more powerful especially since it does lead to a quite shocking third act that is incredibly effective.
The First Omen very much goes for this 70s look and does as much as it possibly can to compliment the 1976 original film which it succeeds at doing so. Between the color palette, the classic 70s horror atmosphere and some very horrifying scares it really captures the spirit of the original film while being its own thing. The film itself also has this feel of the unknown where you get the feeling anything can pop out at any given moment, there’s some clues as to where the third act is going to go but it’s not enough to make the viewer predict just how far it will go.
All of that can be really attributed with Arkasha Stevenson’s direction and the script from Tim Smith, Keith Thomas and Arkasha Stevenson. They all do such a fantastic job of telling this dark story that goes in several different directions when the viewer least expects it, the third act itself only adds to Nell Tiger Free’s performance which is truly horrifying to watch. Especially from a studio horror film it’s shocking to witness and is incredibly well done (especially the score).
I don’t want to say too much else, The First Omen is absolutely a film that you need to go in knowing as little as possible to get the full impact. Just know that it’s one of the best films so far this year and really makes me excited to see what Arkasha Stevenson does next.
The First Omen is playing in theaters.
10/10 A+
Jerome Reviews... 