Monday, October 18, 2010

31 Horror Movies in 31 Days: Day 16

Day 16 of my Horror Film Marathon

October 16, 2010
The Omen (1976)

I watch The Omen every year - it is one of my favorites.  The Thorns (played by Gregory Peck and Lee Remick) unknowingly adopt and raise the antichrist.  He happens to be a five-year old boy named Damien, born of a jackal and baring the number of the beast on his scalp, 666.  You have to see The Omen at least once in your life.  It was re-made a few years back, and it was decent enough, but nothing beats the original.

Some weird occurrences surrounded The Omen.  Here are a few of them:

1.  Gregory Peck and screenwriter David Seltzer took separate planes to the UK for filming.  Both planes were struck by lightning.

2.  Peck canceled and rescheduled a flight to Israel.  The original plane he was scheduled to be on crashed, killing all of the passengers.

3.  The hotel that director Richard Donner was staying in was bombed by the IRA.  Shortly after that, he was hit by a car and injured.

4.  Several crew members were involved in a head-on car crash during filming.

2 comments:

  1. Bret, I agree with you on this one! Great flick, superior to the remake (disappointing). I would love to do a three nights in a row watching of the three original Omen movies, or all in one day!

    FYI, some fun trivia:

    http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075005/faq#.2.1.4

    Vincent w/Fangs
    San Diego, California

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  2. Thanks Vincent! I never read the book, so the explanations on Father Brennan really cleared things up. I believe there was also a 4th Omen movie, that featured a girl as the main character. I'll have to rewatch it in the future, because I don't remember it well. Bret

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