mahljan venedict selina
Amit Bolds
The reveal at the beginning sets-up wonderful moments of dramatic irony. Gary struggles so much with wanting to make it work with Samantha and he often talks about not wanting to give-up. It makes the viewer wonder how much more will he excuse for the sake of saving his new marriage. There is plenty of foreshadowing in the movie as well. Some of it is more overt and part of the main action and dialogue, but some of it is literally written on the walls. This makes for great subsequent viewings to see if all the clues stand out and what initially flew under the radar.
When The Omen hit theaters in 1976, fans and critics couldn't get enough of this thought-provoking film that focused on the early years of Damien Thorn, the Antichrist who was protected by supernatural forces and a sinister cult after adoption.
It was one of the highest-grossing films that year, garnering an Oscar for Best Original Score as well. On the back of this success, The Omen spawned three sequels but they just couldn't capture the magic of the original film. This was because what really grabbed audiences was the first film's big twist: Damien's adoptive father finding out his secret and the father's fate when he tried to murder the kid.
In The Omen, Robert was in denial of Damien's heritage, even after photographer Keith Jennings (David Warner) took him to Megiddo to uncover the truth. They found the boy's mom, a jackal carcass, and uncovered special daggers that could kill the Antichrist and stop the prophecy that a sect of Satanists was trying to fulfil. Eventually, after Keith's death and his own wife's, Robert scoured through Damien's head, found the mark of the Beast, 666, and took him to a church in Rome to kill.
However, when Robert was about to plunge the dagger into the boy's chest, the cops fired at him, with the film ending on a smiling Damien at Robert's funeral. He may not have killed the man himself but the Antichrist did get the last laugh in the end.
Eli tweaks things slightly as it deals with the titular character (played by Charlie Shotwell) who's brought to a rural medical facility in America to be treated for an illness. It turns out he isn't sick: the nurses are nuns and they're trying to exorcise the boy. They apply holy water injections to help with the ritual, but when he realizes what's going on, his powers manifest and he turns on everyone, including his parents.
Eli's mom Rose (Kelly Reilly) and dad Paul (Max Martini) brought him there without letting him know he was actually the son of Satan as Rose sired him through a pact with the devil. When Rose tries to free him, though, Paul knows all is lost and hands a special dagger over to the head nurse, Isabella (Lili Taylor), so she can kill the Antichrist.
Eli, however, goes into full-blown devil mode, using telekineses to fold the nurses up into crosses and then using pyrokinesis to burn them alive. As his mom tries to calm him down, letting him know she's sorry for bringing him into the world, Eli starts to buy into it, thinking maybe he's not destined to be a monster. However, as he's distracted, Paul sneaks up and tries to stab him in the back.
In a stunning moment, Eli uses his telekinesis to stop Paul without even batting a lash or turning around. It's a badass sequence that feels like we're seeing a young, evil Professor X from X-Men cutting loose, made all the more impressive by Eli's look: his skin is discoloured, his eyes are fiery-red and he really looks like a possessed avatar for the devil. When it comes to the kill, it's not something blas, mundane or anticlimactic like what happened to The Omen's Robert. Instead, director Ciarn Foy goes for all-out spectacle and action with something that looks like it was ripped straight out of the Mortal Kombat franchise.
Eli uses his telekinesis to slowly crush his dad's face in and then squishes it in a glorious moment of victory. This fatality is a brutal, gory and slow-burn. It holds a lot more drama. It's similar to how Robert laid his life on the line and sacrificed everything in The Omen, but Foy plays up the horror and violence in a less-subtle way, going for immediate bloodshed.
Having Eli do it himself also shapes him as a more intimidating figure than Damien, especially as he cuts a wry smile after the kill; showing the unforgiving (and yet somewhat sympathetic) monster he's become as a victim of circumstance.
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