Directed by: John Moore
Written by: David Seltzer (more on that below)
Starring: Liev Schreiber, Julia Stiles, David Thewlis, Mia Farrow, Pete Postlethwaite, and Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick

Have you ever been to a play and really liked it? Now, have you ever gone to see that exact same play with different actors and a different director? I mean…it’s the same play…word for word, but the actors and director try to put their own stamp on it, try to make their take on the work a memorable one. Such is this new version of The Omen.

For those who have not seen the 1976 original (sadly, judging by the surprised gasps in the theater during a scene featuring a hanging, that’s more than a couple of you), here’s the story…

Up-and-coming political hotshot Richard Thorn (Liev Schreiber) is told that his baby was stillborn. He thinks this news will destroy his wife (Julia Stiles), and so he adopts a child who’s mother died that same night. June 6th (I smell a release date!).

As the boy grows, odd things happen. He never gets sick, not even a cold, his nanny kills herself at his birthday party, and a school trip to the zoo results in apes gone wild. Soon, a priest (Pete Postlethwaite) arrives to tell Thorn that little Damien (Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick) is in fact the Antichrist, the son of Satan himself, and that he must be destroyed before he kills everyone the man cares about.

Let’s be honest, the 1976 version penned by David Seltzer had a few holes in it. When Fox gave Dan McDermott the job of scripting this update, he managed to fill some of them in quite nicely. His contributions also include an extended opening that tries to make current world events signs of the Apocalypse, and a few surreal dreams. The rest of the film, however, is word for word from Seltzer’s work, prompting the Writers Guild of America to give him sole writing credit for this movie as well.

But it isn’t the writing we remember the original movie for. It’s the music. Jerry Goldsmith won his first and only Oscar for his dark and haunting choral infused score. Marco Beltrami incorporates three of Goldsmith’s cues, but the choir is largely absent. (For those of us who like to hum Ave Satani in the shower [Stop looking at me like that!], stick around for the closing credits.) The remainder of Beltrami’s themes are original works of surprising power, particularly the driving beat that accompanies Thorn to an Italian graveyard. They are not as memorable as Goldsmith’s work, but they serve this version of the film well.

Director John Moore could have taken Seltzer’s script and created a shot for shot duplicate of the original (see Gus Van Sant’s Psycho), but he has wisely chosen to be more visually creative. His colors are deep, particularly the reds and blacks, and he has re-staged scenes in new and interesting ways. Scares come at you from outside the frame, and a scene involving an air bubble in an IV drip is truly disturbing as the camera follows the pocket all the way into the victim’s arm.

The actors have also tried to make these characters their own. Schreiber provides his best performance to date. His breakdown, after hearing of the death of his son, gives the opening of this film emotional weight the original lacked. And the casting of Mia Farrow as evil nanny Mrs. Baylock was a stroke of brilliance! Her eyes and smile provide a creepy menace that is echoed in the performance of Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick as Damien. Particularly creepy is a scene involving Baylock feeding strawberries to Damien prior to sending the boy out to kill. Now we know what kind of mother Rosemary would have been!

Did we need this remake? Hell no! But I did enjoy watching this particular company put on a good play. It was well directed and well acted. And, God help me, I even liked the new score!

3 out of 5 stars.