The First Omen
20th Century Studios (2024)
Nunsploitation horror flicks seem to be all the rage this Spring. We saw Immaculate two weeks ago and The First Omen two days ago. These two movies have a lot in common. The lead actress in both movies are novices (basically a nun-in-training) who travel from their home in the United States to Italy to work with a Roman Catholic order where they expect that they will soon take their vows. Both women befriend a fellow young novice in their new home, but they quickly learn that the order isn't all that it seems to be. Everything else that I want to say would spoil the plot, but the similarities continue to the point where I'd call these films two sides of the same coin.
Immaculate premiered in theaters across the country on March 22nd, and The First Omen followed two weeks later on April 5th. I'd strongly recommend Immaculate if you're only interested in seeing one of them. It's a better film with a stronger story and a much better ending. However if you're not opposed to spending a few hours in the dark with a bunch of creepy nuns, the these two movies would make one hell of a double feature.
As the name suggests, The First Omen is a prequel to the 1976 horror classic The Omen. It tells the story of how baby Damian came to exist, but reframes the story of his birth in a few ways that I wasn't too crazy about. The ending felt like it was tacked on to set up a sequel to the prequel. It seems like the ultimate goal of this film is to kick off a series of new Omen movies that run parallel to the events that take place in the original three films in the series. I hope that I'm wrong. This would have been a stronger movie if it had no connection to The Omen series at all. It's enjoyable as a stand-alone horror movie, but I don't think it works as part of the Damien Thorn story.
