In addition to the usual reviews and comments you would find on a horror movie blog, this is also a document of the wonderfully vast horror movie section of the video store I worked at in my youth.

Monday, February 25, 2008

Omen 666: Mark of the Lame.


During my recent bout of sickness I was able to spend some ‘quality’ time in front of my idiot box. While channelsurfing (something I hadn’t done in ages mind you, DVR’s are wonderful devices, aren’t they?) I saw the 2006 Omen remake was coming on TMN-HD. Now, as you know, I usually steer clear of remakes and the only reason I flicked it on was because a friend – whose opinion I hold in high regard – told me it was decent. Well, I must get ahold of the crack he was smoking that day because it’s NOT decent. Not even close.

The movie follows the same path as the 1976 original, with only a few deviations in a half hearted attempt to update the subject matter. Gotta work the Twin Towers in there somehow! Oohh, aren’t we clever? The worst move though is to make Damien aware that he is the spawn of Satan. Bad move. And it doesn’t help that the kid is fucking terrible. Hey Seamus! Here’s a little tip. Pouting and staring isn’t acting. The rest of the cast is serviceable. Mia Farrow is good as the crazy nanny, but she doesn’t really add anything to the part. However, I did think that Liev Shrieber was a real standout and the scenes between him and David Thewlis (who played the reporter Keith Jennings to Shreiber’s Robert Thorn) was when the film was at its best.

And where is the score? There’s none to speak of in this movie. It’s completely ridiculous. What would Jaws be without the music? Halloween without the synth? If the makers of Omen 666 were trying to maintain that their version could speak for itself, well, good luck with that. I mean sure, there are a few good jumpers and the deaths have a more Final Destination quality to them, but you going to have to do a helluva lot more than that if you want to reinvent one of The Fearsome Fifteen.

My first instinct to avoid this was bang on. There is ABSOLUTELY NO REASON to see this over the tried and true original version. This is just another in a long list of redos that should have never happened.

1 comment:

Darren Demers said...

My first instinct to avoid this was bang on. There is ABSOLUTELY NO REASON to see this over the tried and true original version. This is just another in a long list of redos that should have never happened.
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