THE OMEN (2006)

Directed by John Moore. Starring Liev Schreiber, Julia Stiles, Mia Farrow, Pete Postlewhaite, Seamus Davey-Fizpatrick, Michael Gambon. Drama/Horror. Synopsis: An American ambassador in Europe experiences heartbreak when his child is stillborn, but takes the opportunity to take in another child on the same night without telling his wife and passing the child off as his own. As time passes, the child grows older and clearly begins to show signs of a very different parentage than anyone thought.

Yes, I saw the original The Omen with Gregory Peck and Lee Remick a long, long time ago, back in the day when, if you wanted to change the channel on your TV to one of the other five programming options that were available to you-provided you lived in a big market-you got off of your butt, walked all the way across the room and turned the knob yourself.

What I'm saying is, its been a long time, folks. Was I scared when I saw the original. You betcha'. Was I scared when I saw this one? Nope, not even a little. Does that mean that this one is not as good as the original? Well, I don't think it is, but not for that reason. The biggest reason, for me, is that I was younger than 10 when I first saw the original and, now, I'm...more than 10.

As I've said before when reviewing remakes of movies that scared my generation as pre-teens, I wouldn't expect the same things to scare me now that did then, particularly when I pretty much know what is going to happen. And in this remake, as far as I can tell, the story is retold again in pretty much the same way as the original, with only a few minor changes, but nothing of substance or nothing to bring the movie more obviously into modern times. Liev Schrieber (The Manchurian Candidate) does the turn this time as Ambassador Thorn, the Gregory Peck role in the original. Thorn and his young wife (Julia Stiles Edmond) lose a child and, unbeknownst to her, Ambassador Thorn accepts an on the spot offer from a priest to take a child whose mother has died in child birth and raise it as his own, without going through the trouble of telling his wife.

Well, when Thorn accepts, child of Satan or not, you know this is not going to end well. The child, Damien (Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick) is a precocious, kind of scary kid who never gets sick and just pitches an absolute fit when the folks try to take him to church. His mother, gradually sensing that something is not quite right (women have a way with those kind of things, don't they?) is the first to have some questions, particularly with the arrival of the second nanny (Mia Farrow), the first, of course, having committed suicide at Damien's birthday party, who has a strange attachment to Damien and does irritating things such as allowing a menacing looking dog into the home without consulting with the Thorns.

Pete Postlewhaite does the turn as the obsessed, guilt ridden priest who is the one to tell Ambassador Thorn that the child he is raising is, in fact, the fruit of Satan's loins. Now, its not every day that a young father hears that and I must say Thorn takes it fairly well. Postlewhaite is persistent, if cryptic and dour (I mean, c'mon, would you warm up to a priest who shows up out of the blue, gets in your face, and says things like, "I will see you in hell, Mr. Thorn"? Me neither). Well, when the priest meets his untimely and grisly death, an enterprising photographer (Michael Gambon) shows up with some photographic evidence that, just maybe, the priest knew what he was talking about. In fact, he did, and by the time Thorn realizes that his child is evil incarnate, his wife's life is in danger and he is in a race against prophecy...to kill his own child.

The movie is beautifully shot and stays very true to the original, which is a good thing for some, or might be a bad thing for a few. Schrieber is passable as the ambassador to Britain for the U.S. except for the little issue of his being way too young to have such a post, and we feel Stiles' pain as the mother of this creature. Both are solid, but nothing special, particularly when you've seen them in other work and know how talented they are.

The standouts are Postlewhaite and Farrow, for me. Both bring just the right amount of creepiness into their characters, which are important characters for the story to work. And, it does, although this is one of those times where, no disrespect to the work of the actors or the direction of John Moore (Flight of the Phoenix) but, all things being equal, I would encourage someone to get the original over this one. I can't describe it other than to say the original was creepier, scarier, and therefore, a little better movie. But, this is not bad, in fact, its pretty good...just not as good as the first. Have I talked out of both sides of my mouth enough, yet? Well, its an election year, somewhere, bear with me.