“The Omen” is a well-known horror movie franchise started in 1976, almost 50 years before the most recent movie, “The First Omen,” was released on April 5 of this year.  “The First Omen,” directed by Arkasha Stevenson, takes place in the early 1970s in Rome, following a young American woman named Margaret as she moves to Rome to serve the church and work with the orphan girls who reside there. Despite some unsettling encounters at the Church, Margaret thrives while teaching the young girls, but is drawn to one in particular, Carlita, due to the girl’s mysterious behaviors and how she is treated by the older nuns. In Margaret’s attempts to connect with Carlita, she begins to discover that her encounters at this church may be part of a much bigger darkness; one that leads Margaret to question her faith and the church’s true intentions. 

“The First Omen” is a film that has a classic horror movie style that fits the time period it takes place in, paying respects to the original film’s appeal while keeping the story fresh and unique. The pacing of this movie is fairly slow in the beginning, starting by showing mostly hints and building up to the fast-paced and shocking ending. I found it slightly hard to follow in the beginning, the visuals and flashbacks making some things unclear, but this made me think about the characters’ relationships and make more connections than I would have. One thing I found unique and most definitely horrifying was the graphic visuals, especially since I went into this movie mostly knowing nothing about it. At first, the graphic scenes seemed almost too much, I thought maybe it was purely for shock value, but the visuals lingered in my mind during very specific times of the movie, which added a lot more than I realized when first watching the scenes. I thought that the acting in “The First Omen” was amazing, the main actress portrayed the character’s growing paranoia and dread in a way that dragged me in and completed the mood of each scene. Of course I won’t spoil it, but the ending to this film does justice to the amount of buildup it had, exciting fans of the original movie while intriguing new viewers enough to wonder what’s next. While the film makes references and adds context to the 1976 original, it doesn’t linger too much on clearly establishing its relationship to the original movie, which again appeals to both new views and returning fans.

I recommend this film to fans of the original franchise, as well as lovers of horror and suspense; however, the graphic imagery may be disquieting to any squeamish or faint-of-heart viewers. While it may not be the best movie for fans just dipping their toes in the horror genre, it is an intriguing film that reimagines a classic movie in a way that brings old fans back and new fans in.