It was 1976. The Omen was released in cinemas worldwide and was to become one of the greatest horror movies ever made. Then, 30 years later, some idiot came up with the idea of remaking it for a modern audience. "Oh God", most people thought., and they were right. Leiv Schreiber stars as Robert Thorn, whose wife, Catherine, (Julia Stiles) loses her child whilst giving birth. Robert is approached by a priest, who suggests that he adopt an orphan (Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick) and not tell his wife of the dead child. However, 5 years later Robert regrets this decision when he begins to suspect that the boy, Damien, is the son of the Devil.
I'm going to admit that I do respect the makers of this film due to the amount of guts they must have had in order to do this. But, this doesn't mean it wasn't a stupid decision. The original Omen was such a great film that it was almost impossible for the remake to match it, and I know how they thought they could do this: taking every scene from the original and just changing it slightly. However, this technique doesn't work, and makes it very unoriginal and incredibly predictable by those who have seen the 1976 version.
The film isn't really very scary either. The only way it manages to scare its audience is by making a sudden change in decibel level. Ooooh, scary! The original had a spooky atmosphere which is what made it a great movie, but the remake fails terribly to do this.
However, I did actually like Leiv Schreiber in his performance, although I still prefer Gregory Peck from the original. Schreiber is a genuinely good actor and he did a great job in lifting this movie up and getting it a couple more marks. Julia Stiles is also on excellent form as Schreiber's wife, as is David Thewlis as the photographer. Also, Seamus Davey Fitzpatrick is pretty damn good at, well, looking creepy as hell.
What I think the writer should have done is do a re-imagining rather than a frame-by-frame remake. This worked perfectly for Rob Zombie's remake of John Carpenter's Halloween and it probably would have benefited The Omen. This would have made it a lot more original and given the writer a lot more creative freedom rather than just copying the 1976 version.
Even as a stand-alone movie, The Omen is still pretty average. Then again, if it wasn't for the original, it would probably be slightly better, but only slightly.
It most definitely isn't as good as the 1976 version, but The Omen does boast good performances from Leiv Schreiber and Julia Stiles. I give it 6/10.
I'm going to admit that I do respect the makers of this film due to the amount of guts they must have had in order to do this. But, this doesn't mean it wasn't a stupid decision. The original Omen was such a great film that it was almost impossible for the remake to match it, and I know how they thought they could do this: taking every scene from the original and just changing it slightly. However, this technique doesn't work, and makes it very unoriginal and incredibly predictable by those who have seen the 1976 version.
The film isn't really very scary either. The only way it manages to scare its audience is by making a sudden change in decibel level. Ooooh, scary! The original had a spooky atmosphere which is what made it a great movie, but the remake fails terribly to do this.
However, I did actually like Leiv Schreiber in his performance, although I still prefer Gregory Peck from the original. Schreiber is a genuinely good actor and he did a great job in lifting this movie up and getting it a couple more marks. Julia Stiles is also on excellent form as Schreiber's wife, as is David Thewlis as the photographer. Also, Seamus Davey Fitzpatrick is pretty damn good at, well, looking creepy as hell.
What I think the writer should have done is do a re-imagining rather than a frame-by-frame remake. This worked perfectly for Rob Zombie's remake of John Carpenter's Halloween and it probably would have benefited The Omen. This would have made it a lot more original and given the writer a lot more creative freedom rather than just copying the 1976 version.
Even as a stand-alone movie, The Omen is still pretty average. Then again, if it wasn't for the original, it would probably be slightly better, but only slightly.
It most definitely isn't as good as the 1976 version, but The Omen does boast good performances from Leiv Schreiber and Julia Stiles. I give it 6/10.