In 1976, Damien, the Antichrist, was introduced to cinema goers across the world in The Omen. The forces of evil were pitted against the forces of good and horror cinema history was made. Created by David Seltzer and starring Gregory Peck and Lee Remick as Robert and Katherine Thorn respectively, it went on to become a highly-popular horror franchise.
Future sequels tracked Damien through his adolescent and adult years. In 1991, The Omen IV: The Awakening was released when a girl becomes the new Antichrist.
The time was ripe for Damien’s origin story. Screenwriters Arkasha Stevenson (who also directed) and Tim Smith penned The First Omen to reveal the Antichrist’s terrifying beginnings. The story is set in Rome 1971, where a young Margaret (Nell Tiger Free) enters a life of service in an orphanage. In so doing, she uncovers a dark conspiracy.
Stevenson and Smith spoke to Creative Screenwriting Magazine about breathing fresh life into this iconic film franchise.
“We approached the idea of doing a prequel with a lot of skepticism because we do really love The Omen franchise. In order to do a prequel, you really have to have something to say, something new, and to speak back to the original 1976 version,” says Stevenson. They had no intention of remaking the original which they consider sacred. But they did pay homage do it with its chilling, dark storytelling.
Tim Smith & Arkasha Stevenson. Photo by Jesse Grant/ Getty Images for 20th Century Studios
“We were talking about is what was going on culturally around the time The Omen was made, but also all these other seminal horror films from the 70s, like The Exorcist and Rosemary’s Baby. There’s such a mistrust of authority and institutions, and also a mistrust of this new generation that was coming up during the time.”
People were very scared of their children who are being portrayed extremely demonically – Arkasha Stevenson
The First Omen explores the subject of a female giving birth without any autonomy over her body. The film is very much told through a female perspective as Margaret uncovers the horrors that underpin the church to keep its young flock from straying. The original film was very masculine in its energy while this film embraces the feminine.
Horror films are at their best when they turn a mirror to what’s going on in everyday life – Tim Smith
“We talked a lot about creating a film that could stand alone, and that if you hadn’t seen the original The Omen, this movie would still be its own thing that could possibly invigorate a new generation to go back and watch the original. Because we’re huge fans, we really wanted to pay homage to the original. We wanted lots of tie-ins,” states Stevenson.
The First Omen needed to speak to the original film, but also forge a contemporized path to appeal to contemporary audiences.
There are questions that we had after watching the original that we wanted to try and speak to in this film. “Going to Rome was essential. We wanted to capture the spirit of filming in Italy. That’s something that’s very specific to those films of that era, filming on location that’s very much a part of the 70s aesthetic,” notes Smith.
Who Is The Antichrist?
Traditionally, the Antichrist has been presented as a staunch opponent of Jesus Christ and the rejection of church teachings at the behest of the Devil. Might there be an updated definition of such prophets today?
“One of the things that we really wanted to talk about is that horror really starts with man and that the Devil’s really the tool that man uses. But it’s really a man who can conjure hell up on earth. I think there’s a lot of fear right now politically,” continues Stevenson.
In preparation for The First Omen, the writing duo read the Satanic Bible. “It said that God is this idealized notion of ourselves. Satan is our flawed self. Satan is all about individualism,” notes Smith.
The First Omen also explores the rapidly changing nature of the relationship many people have with the church which once formed the moral backbone of many communities. The film raises the issue of using the Antichrist as a means to stem the outflow of members by instilling fear. Church is both a great unifier and a great divider.
Adds Stevenson, “I think it’s not just the church, but any institution that that rules by way of fear that does this. One of the things that was really important for us was to talk about the years of lead that were going on at the time. And that was the emergence of these Neo Fascist groups. We were reading a lot about how terror was used as a tool. And that of course, led us to reading a lot about fascism and fascist propaganda and this idea that that terror was spiritualized. I think that has been the root of a lot of evil on earth.”
The film also explores issues of physical and mental control. In one scene, Margaret says, “You’re not bad. They’re just telling you you’re bad because you’re not doing what they want you to do.”
Elevating Horror
Arkasha Stevenson notes that her attraction to 70s style horror films was their particular use of pacing to create psychological fear. “A lot of that pertains to giving the viewer a chance to get to know the character, the world, and giving that real estate. It also has to do with the way they approach horror set pieces and using suspense rather than a jump scare.”
She found this approach to be the most effective way to direct The First Omen because “this film has a lot to do with paranoia. And that paranoia is something that really seeps into your bones and into your muscles… and having that slow feeling that you’re contracting the entire time.”
Sister Silva (Sonia Braga) & Margaret (Nell Tiger Free) Photo by Moris Puccio
Tim Smith concurs with this measured approach to creating horror. “There are horror films that you think are really effective, but sometimes they can feel like a roller coaster ride… and the horror is very fleeting. It’s visceral, but it leaves you once you exit the theater.”
The First Omen, like its predecessors, is constructed to crawl into your mind and bury itself there. That creepiness is the nature of effective psychological horror.
Horror has always tested its audience with the amount of graphic violence that they accept. At some point, either they become desensitized and run with it, or repulsed and reject it. Much of these decisions rest on current social norms. The First Omen also tests boundaries with a cinematic crescendo as Damien enters the world.
“We knew the birthing scene was going to be controversial,” recalls Stevenson. “Depicting the birth in such a graphic way was important to us. We didn’t shy away from those thematics of forced reproduction and loss of female body autonomy.”
“Showing the vagina in the birthing scene was really important, even though that we knew there was going to be a big fight. It was important to see the female form in a non-sexualized light and to talk about the body parts that we were violating.”
Writing Process
Arkasha Stevenson and Tim Smith inherited a draft of The First Omen which they rewrote. “We wanted to reconceive all the horror beats to be in Margaret’s perspective to capture that ‘grounded in female body horror,'” says Smith.
“We kind of do a figure eight where we’ll come together and brainstorm and outline. Then we’ll separate and write pages. We’ll read those pages, we’ll swap pages and it continues on and on,” he notes of their collaborative writing process.
20th Century Studios sent feedback and more rewrites were done. Notes were even given during production, making it a very labor-intensive exercise. The pair found this process to challenge them into making the script better.
Arkasha Stevenson considers The First Omen to be a sister film to Roman Polanski’s Repulsion.
“The real story here is about reemerging repressed intuition and starting to understand what’s real, what’s not real, what’s repressed trauma resurfacing, and what is supernatural,” she expounds. Margaret relives her childhood traumas of being abused in an orphanage through hallucinations.
“I’m really excited for people to see the possession homage and the ending because we wanted to give horror fans something new and exciting because that’s what the original The Omen did. We think it really pushed the boundary on the content that it was talking about and the way it was photographed,” notes Stevenson.
Hopefully, it will also inspire a new generation of film lovers to revisit and appreciate the seminal 1976 version.
