The Omen 666

A remake of the 1976 classic of the same name, this (slightly) updated version sees an American diplomat (Schreiber) ever-so-slightly perplexed when he's told that his son may in fact be the spawn of the ultimate wrong 'un, one Satan. Irish director John Moore (who came close to directing the third X-Men) does a workmanlike job of remaking the 1976 shocker that had many a hippy soil their pants. Varying very little from the 1976 version (original screenwriter David Seltzer is credited) it's a handsome production with an interesting cast - both Stiles and Schreiber are convincing - but is ultimately pointless, being near-enough to shot-for-shot in terms of its similarities with the original. Although Moore has a crisp visual style and a solid sense of pacing, it's hard to escape the fact that this was a bad idea to begin with. It comes off as lazy and somewhat cynical to (more or less) re-shoot the original script, and while there may have been criticism had they failed, it would still have been a noble failure. Here instead, they play it completely safe, whilst frustratingly hinting at a better film (the back of a suspiciously George Bush-like head towards the end shows a frustrating amount of untapped potential). Moore is obviously a team player, delivering exactly what the studio wanted; but he should've pushed for more of a proper re-write of the script instead of settling for what he was given. For the most part though, things move along briskly, with Farrow stealing most of her scenes as the nut-ball nanny, and the scares are sufficiently staged; but it falls asunder in the final third, when it starts feeling rushed and the shabby exposition bogs it down. Translating it to 2006 leaves an awful lot of plot holes that could easily have been polished out in pre-production. Think Final Destination, with an evil little b*stard.