Bugenhagen

Here, we can easily see the different paradigms in (horror?) cinema. I kind of like the full-on, more naturalistic theme of more recent movies, rather than the more melodramatic, even romantic, look of horrors past. This sort of works against my appreciation of the film since it has a tendency to get in the way.

You, no doubt, are familiar with the story and the baby switcheroo. In the details, there's the pretty scary moment of the dog in the house, and the dogs in the fog. But you wonder if they could have been scarier if they weren't just dogs (scary, but not that scary). It the same thing with the music. There's a good bit with the dogs, but it comes up short when it comes to the drama, with the music coming off as fluky (through no fault of theirs, just the times moving on). David Warner's hair was not a problem, though.

I certainly liked some parts. The ending is certainly a good one, and it is something that will make you want to see the (reportedly pretty poor) sequels. But I also disliked some others which could be easily remedied in a re-shoot with more 'modern sensibilities', which I guess got people into thinking that a remake would be great. Which I can't remember if it was a good thing here or not.

Even if it did, there is the problem of there not really being a villain, besides evil being put off much longer ('suspense'). In that sense, it certainly delivers the chills in some scenes, but I found it far from a complete movie. Damien is more of an unwitting vessel rather than the pure evil of Orphan. Mrs. Baylock is more of an annoyance than anything else. I think I can appreciate suspense, but this sort of leads us into a trap more than anything.

As the Thorns find out the horrible truth, so do we that that's the movie. They're pretty overmatched against a threat they can only deal with tangentially, and the exorcist (Budenhagen) who you think might have some work experience doesn't really help them carry out what they need to do to, you know, save the world. Putting everything together, it's pretty unsatisfying.

(The Omen - Richard Donner)