Celebrating 50 Years of THE OMEN (1976): “It's All for You, Damien!”

THE OMEN (1976) d. Richard Donner (USA)
DAMIEN: OMEN II (1978) d. Don Taylor (USA)
THE FINAL CONFLICT (1981) d. Graham Baker (USA)
OMEN IV: THE AWAKENING (1991) d. Jorge Montesi/Dominique Othenin-Girard (USA)
THE OMEN (2006) d. John Moore (USA)
THE FIRST OMEN (2024) d. Arkasha Stevenson (USA)

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The success of William Friedkin’s The Exorcist in 1973 sparked any number of cheapie imitations, spawning an entire subgenre of occult and possession-themed features. What sets The Omen apart from these is screenwriter David Seltzer and director Richard Donner’s thoughtful adherence to a rigid universe of logic and plausibility; all of the bizarre tragedies surrounding the Thorns could be justified as pure coincidence and/or freak accidents, without any supernatural leanings. This grounding in reality, further anchored by Peck’s stolid presence, turned what could have been a schlocky exercise in exploitation into a prestige picture that demanded attention and (occasionally grudging) respect.

MARIO BAVA'S BLACK SUNDAY (1960) UNMASKED – The Italian Gothic Horror Boom Begins!

BLACK SUNDAY (1960) d. Mario Bava (Italy)

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Tonight we’re discussing Mario Bava’s Black Sunday (aka The Mask of Satan) (1960), one of the most atmosphere-drenched cinematic forays into the supernatural. Marrying the feel of the Universal classics with the darkness of a Grimm fairy tale, and adding in the gorier and sexier feel of the rising Hammer color Gothics, this tour-de-force directorial debut introduced the world to Italian DP Mario Bava (Blood and Black Lace, Black Sabbath) and scream queen in the making Barbara Steele (Castle of Blood, The Long Hair of Death), both becoming genre superstars overnight.

ONE MILLION YEARS B.C. (1966) Blu-ray Review

One Million Years B.C. (1966) d. Don Chaffey (UK) (100 min)

“This is a story of long, long ago, when the world was just beginning. A young world, a world early in the morning of time. A hard, unfriendly world. Creatures who sit and wait. Creatures who must kill to live. And Man, superior to the creatures only in his cunning. There are not many men yet. Just a few tribes scattered across the wilderness. Never venturing far, unaware that other tribes exist even. Too busy with their own lives to be curious. Too frightened of the unknown to wander. Their laws are simple: the strong take everything. This is Akhoba, leader of the Rock Tribe... And these are his sons, Sakana and Tumak. There is no love loss between them. And that is our story.”

EYEBALL (1975) Blu-ray Review

Eyeball (1975) d. Umberto Lenzi (Italy/Spain) (100 min)

A group of American tourists seeing the sight of Barcelona are targeted by a red-gloved killer with a penchant for slashing and dashing and tarrying only long enough to puncture the victim’s left eye as a calling card. With a literal busload of suspects and a cranky veteran cop (retiring in a week) on the case, this is an admirably energetic and playful entry in the giallo sweepstakes, one of the last entries of the Italian heyday and Lenzi’s final effort in the subgenre.

TORSO (1973) Blu-ray review

Torso (1973) d. Sergio Martino (Italy) (93 min)

The female populace of an international Italian university is slowly being picked off by a ski-masked killer, beginning with two of the three subjects of a nude photo shoot, Flo (Patrizia Adiutori) and Carol (Cristina Airoldi). When fragments of a red-and-black scarf are found under the fingernails of one of the victims, their classmate Daniela (Tina Aumont) recalls that she recently saw someone wearing just such a scarf… but who was it? Was it Franz (John Richardson) the art professor? Stefano (Roberto Bisacco), the love-starved co-ed? The handsome local doctor Roberto (Luc Merenda), the creepy scarf vendor Gianni (Ernesto Colli), and the half-witted delivery boy (Enrico DiMarco) are equally likely candidates, as is Daniela’s overly friendly uncle Nino (Carlo Alighiero), who offers up his secluded villa as a place for his niece and her three friends to get away for the weekend after the killer calls and tells the frightened student that she’d better keep her mouth shut. Sure enough, as soon as the quartet settles in, the battle of wits begins, with the wily sex murderer seeking to have all loose women, er, ends silenced forever.

THE OMEN (1976) Blu-ray Review

Scare-A-Thon Totals to Date:

Total Movies Watched: 24
Total First Time Views: 11
Amount raised for AMAZON WATCH: $1,986.48

The Omen (1976) d. Richard Donner (111 min) (5th viewing)

While stationed in Italy, influential American diplomat Robert Thorn (Gregory Peck) receives the tragic news that the child born to his wife Katherine (Lee Remick) has died during childbirth. However, the kindly Father Spilletto (Martin Benson) suggests that the grieving father secretly adopt another baby – born the same night – and raise it up as his own. Five years later, Robert has been appointed U.S. Ambassador to England, he and Katherine are happy, and their son Damien (Harvey Stephens) is healthy and thriving. But following a series of strange, fatal accidents, Robert is compelled to investigate the circumstances surrounding Damien’s birth and, with the help of independent photojournalist Keith Jennings (David Warner), comes to believe that his son may in fact be the offspring of the Devil Himself.

THE VENGEANCE OF SHE (1968) Blu-ray review

The Vengeance of She (1968) d. Cliff Owen (UK) (101 min)

In this very loose sequel to the 1965 Ursula Andress vehicle (based upon H. Rider Haggard’s novel, itself first adapted for the screen in 1908 and remade at least a half-dozen times over the course of the century), a beautiful blonde amnesiac named Carol (Olga Schoberova, rechristened Olinka Berova by Hammer execs) is drawn toward the east, plagued by hallucinatory voices calling her “Ayesha,” better known as She Who Must Be Obeyed. After an encounter with a lascivious lorry driver, she arrives on the shores of Monte Carlo where, aboard the yacht of a wastrel millionaire, she meets up with Dr. Philip Smith (Edward Judd). Fascinated by the bikinied beauty’s tale, Smith travels to Africa with Carol, eventually arriving at the lost city of Kuma where she is greeted as the reincarnation of King Killikrates’ (John Richardson) beloved Queen. The lovestruck monarch, overjoyed by this apparent twist of destiny, encourages Ayesha to walk through the blue flame of immortality and stay with him forever, much to the dismay of Dr. Smith who smells a rat in the form of high priest Men-Hari (Derek Godfrey).