The Omen

Richard Donner's 1976 "The Omen" is one of my favorite scary movies and I watched it again after not having seen it for a couple years and each time I watch it, I notice something new. It's about diplomat Robert Thorn and his son, who seems to be possessed by the devil. The introduction lists the actors names against a black screen with dark satanic opera music playing with a boy and his shadow, that takes the shape of a cross, in the right hand corner. This non-diegetic, opera-like music plays each time something bad happens or someone dies throughout the film. Gregory Peck, who plays Robert, does a good job of appearing worried and anxious throughout the film as more horrors unfold, starting with the first scene that shows Robert in a cab being rushed to the hospital with the overlap of a priest talking, telling him that his son was stillborn. Later in the church, a shot through the banister frames a priest telling Peck their son has past. There are lots of shots like this throughout the movie that are framed using the setting, such as the shot of the orphan baby Robert takes home in place of his actual son. You see the orphan baby, Damien, through hospital glass and Robert and a priests' reflection overlapping the baby, with soft suspenseful music playing in the background. There are shots through the gate of the mansion they live in every time they come and go. Most shots start with a view of the architecture of wherever they are, whether in Rome or back in London. The director made sure to show famous landmarks that make the setting recognizable, especially churches and religious statues.
Non-diegetic, suspenseful music plays throughout the film, often covering up the diegetic sounds in the scene. Rottweilers were used as a symbol in the movie, as they hypnotized characters, leading them to do bad things, and each time one was shown, "trippy", hypnotic music played, as the camera zoomed in on both the dog and characters eyes as it cut back and forth. The dog first appears at Damien's birthday party and hypnotizes his nanny, who then climbs to the top floor window and hangs herself, after yelling "I love you Damien look at me, its all for you" at the children playing happily at the party below. It is a total contrast, as the jubilant music cuts off as soon as she jumps. The camera then zooms in on Damien, smiling at the Rottweiler. Later, they get a new nanny except no one knows where she came from, she just kind of showed up, but the Thorns decide to keep her anyway. Her makeup exaggerates her wrinkles and crooked, yellow teeth and she just looks creepy. There is a long shot of the door to Damiens room and the shadow of the new nanny as she shuts herself in with him slowly.
The Thorns put up with a lot before actually doing anything, it seems to be a theme of the movie. At one point, the new, creepy nanny refuses to let Damien go to church until Katherine, Roberts wife, raises her voice and insists. When they do bring Damien to church, he goes crazy and throws a fit, screaming and scratching and hitting his mother. Yet they still do nothing. Next, the nanny brings the Rottweiler in the house without their permission, saying it needs to protect Damien, and Robert doesn't even seem mad that this random lady has brought this dangerous dog into his house. While Robert is at work at the embassy, a new priest comes in and starts talking about the Devil and accepting the Lord Jesus and drinking his blood, saying "I witnessed the birth of your son, I beg you, he will kill all you love!". Suspenseful music plays that rises in volume and the priest yells "His mother was a jackal!" right as the security guard comes into the room. The final straw for me would've been when Katherine brings Damien to the zoo and all the animals run away from him and at one point, they are attacked in their car by baboons, as the shot cuts from Kathy scared and Damien smiling and the scared, aggressive baboons. The scene of them driving away is from the subjective point of view of Kathy and you see the monkeys disappearing in the distance. "What could be wrong? We're beautiful people aren't we?" Kathy says after the attack, when back at home with Robert. They seem to avoid their problems because since they have everything they think they should lead a perfect life and it's not all actually happening. They are in denial which is why they put up with so much before taking action.
Throughout the film, there is this one photographer, Keith, that is always there, following the family around. Medium shots in his darkroom, washed in red (like blood) show his pictures developing. First, photos of the priest develop with weird slashes through his neck on which serve as foreshadowing, because later on in the film, a storm breaks loose as the camera takes a dolly shot of the priest running to get into the church and lightning strikes the churches lightning rod and it breaks off impaling the priest, and you see a wide shot of him surrounded by graves with the rod through his body. Keith looks back at pictures he took of the old nanny at Damien's wedding and sees shadows around her neck, symbolizing the way she died (hanged). Later on, Keith takes a mirror picture while at the priests apartment and there is a slash through his neck as well. He is later decapitated by a sheet of glass. His photos frame the way people died in the film.
Before his death, Keith and Robert travel to Rome and put together that Robert's son was born on 6/6 at 6 am and the hospital he was born in burned down after he left. Finally everything is starting to make sense. The two go to the grave of Damien's real mother and sure enough as they open it, they find the skeleton of a jackal.
I don't want to spoil the rest of the film but I liked the way the director used events and different objects as symbols. Throughout the film, the viewer begins to understand what's going to happen, say certain music is playing or there are shadows on a developing picture. These all serve as omens, thus why the film may have been named The Omen.