The Seventies brought both devil worship and Bible prophecy as subjects for the cinema and the two best known examples of the genre were The Omen and The Exorcist.
Gregory Peck is a rich American industrialist whose wife, Lee Remick, has just lost her child at birth. In a moment of vulnerability he makes a deal with some rather strange people who provide him with a newborn as a substitute. Lee and Greg leave the hospital in Rome with Lee none the wiser. Shortly after that Peck is appointed the American Amabassador to the United Kingdom.
When people start meeting all kinds of strange and bizarre ends around young Harvey Stephens as Damien, a few bells do start going off. But the film ends with most of the cast dispatched by satanic forces looking to protect the devil's own.
Peck and Remick do fine in the leads, they both realize that the roles and the film will indeed be subjects for satire later on, but perform without any tongue in cheek at all. My favorite in the supporting cast is Patrick Troughton, best known as the second of the Doctor Whos, and he plays a corrupt Roman Catholic priest. In bizarre endings he meets one of the most bizarre. Ditto to Holly Palance, Jack's daughter who plays young Damien's first governess.
These films aren't exactly my cup of tea. But The Omen made a mint back in the day and who can argue with that?
Gregory Peck is a rich American industrialist whose wife, Lee Remick, has just lost her child at birth. In a moment of vulnerability he makes a deal with some rather strange people who provide him with a newborn as a substitute. Lee and Greg leave the hospital in Rome with Lee none the wiser. Shortly after that Peck is appointed the American Amabassador to the United Kingdom.
When people start meeting all kinds of strange and bizarre ends around young Harvey Stephens as Damien, a few bells do start going off. But the film ends with most of the cast dispatched by satanic forces looking to protect the devil's own.
Peck and Remick do fine in the leads, they both realize that the roles and the film will indeed be subjects for satire later on, but perform without any tongue in cheek at all. My favorite in the supporting cast is Patrick Troughton, best known as the second of the Doctor Whos, and he plays a corrupt Roman Catholic priest. In bizarre endings he meets one of the most bizarre. Ditto to Holly Palance, Jack's daughter who plays young Damien's first governess.
These films aren't exactly my cup of tea. But The Omen made a mint back in the day and who can argue with that?