SPOILER alert:This article discusses plot points from “The First Omen.”
Director Arkasha Stevenson grew up as a fan of “The Omen” franchise, but any anxiety she felt about helming a prequel to the 1976 original was funneled into the potential of shifting the series’ perspective.
“It’s a pretty masculine franchise,” she says. “Exploring it through the point of view of a woman was exciting. It felt like it validated its place because it already had something new to say.”
The result is “The First Omen,” the sixth film in the franchise, which was last seen in a 2006 reboot. This feature, Stevenson’s first after directing episodes of television series like “Channel Zero” and “Brand New Cherry Flavor,” puts the events in motion to start the sprawling tale of Damien, a little boy who is the Antichrist. This kickoff chapter follows a young American woman named Margaret (Nell Tiger Free), who uncovers plans about the Antichrist’s birth while working at a church in Rome.
One key element Stevenson wanted to focus on was recreating an authentic ’70s feel.
“We didn’t want it to feel or look like a modern horror film,” she says. “Something so unique to the ’70s was the pace and the attention to character, both in the overall film, but also in the horror setpieces and the scares. Aesthetically, we loved how the camera in ‘The Omen’ was very elegant. We wanted to start from this place that elicited ’70s nostalgia by having a very reserved camera that eventually, as Margaret’s psyche starts to splinter and her reality starts to shake, starts to take on a life of its own.”
Tim Smith, Stevenson’s creative partner and an executive producer and co-writer on “The First Omen,” says that the genre of religious horror further bridges the gap between modern and classical storytelling.
“Dealing with good and evil and these otherworldly or supernatural forces, it’s always going to be appealing to us,” he says. “I think the Catholic Church wielded a different kind of power and influence, so we used this film as an opportunity to speak to institutions in power and how they respond to fear, how they cling to that power under threat, about the dangers of ideology, about patriarchal institutions, to turn a mirror to the horrors of our time. We were using religious horror as a means of tapping into other fears that resonated with us.”
Stevenson and Smith found a key partner in guiding down the path in Tiger Free, whose roles in series such as “Game of Thrones,” “Too Old To Die Young” and “Servant” dive into darkness.
“It’s the most fun to play at these characters because they get such visceral reactions and it’s just a fun thing to evoke in people,” Tiger Free says. “There’s loads of wiggle room, pushing and finding yourself in situations that no human being should find themselves in at any time. I get great joy out of the macabre and weird and wonderful world of horror.”
The original “Omen” is filled with indelible horror images, and “First Omen” takes the bold step of including scenes that echo two of the original’s biggest moments: The “it’s all for you” suicide and Father Brennan’s death via a metal rod.
“Our love for the original film compelled us,” Stevenson says. “One of the things that we always wanted to keep in mind was like, ‘OK, we’re gonna pay homage. How are we going to come at it from a different angle or do it in a fresh new way?’ I feel like you can smell when homages are coming, so either subvert expectations or bring a different filter to it.
“With the hanging, it’s such a seminal scene, not just in the ‘Omen’ franchise, but also in horror film history,” she continues. “We needed to take a very different tonal response and approach to it. I think it’s so upsetting to humanize that moment because you know it’s coming; the second somebody goes up high, you know it’s going to come, so to have it be more of a tragedy in this moment by seeing how conflicted Sister Anjelica is about her decision to commit suicide in this violent way was what made it more of a drama than a horror moment for me.”
Stevenson also enhanced the drama by drawing in concepts, like bodily autonomy, that could speak to modern audiences —much like films of the ’70s that faced cultural anxieties.
“We wanted to modernize the story by talking about real contemporary issues,” she says. “But you never want to politicize a sacred franchise. You don’t ever want to be pedantic. Something that we were cognizant of was keeping it within the theme of the film. I think the big question that I had as an ‘Omen’ fan growing up was, ‘Where did Damien come from?’ Naturally, you’re already talking about births and possibly forced reproduction. Just the way the story unfolds, we’re also talking about sexual assault. Being able to explore horror through the female perspective naturally lent itself to talking about these issues.”
Ironically, one of the biggest challenges for Stevenson and Smith was MPAA rating woes as a result of how women are depicted onscreen; in this case, it was a realistic scene in a birthing clinic that caused the creative team to have to resubmit the film four times to obtain an R rating.
“The female anatomy was what earned us an NC-17 rating,” Smith said. “It was only before the horrific body horror happened that they said we needed to get that imagery out of the film. It was interesting that we pitched that scene initially, and it was hugely important to us while we were shooting and in the edit. We were very nervous about its survival, and ultimately it was the MPAA that that nearly threatened its existence. But we were able to get it into the film, thankfully.”
Stevenson thinks that there is plenty of room for the franchise to keep growing, and she’d love to be a part of it.
“I’d love to keep working in this world,” she says. “There’s so much to play with in religious horror. It’s such a rich subgenre to be working in. We answered a big question with this film, but so many more questions popped up. I am very interested in the Jackal, where he came from. I’m interested in delving into that with the church conspiracy. I’m interested in where Margaret and the children go from here. What’s the future of Layla, Damien’s sister? I could talk about it for hours.”
