The Omen by David Seltzer
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Jeremy Thorne and wife Katherine have just had their son, after years of trying and losing pregnancies. Damien seems like a gift from the heavens, fulfilling the dreams of his parents and completing their little family. But in only a few short years, it becomes clear that Damien may not be as angelic as he once appeared. CW miscarriage, animal cruelty/death, child cruelty, child murder, violence against children, suicide
OK, I am assuming at this point that most people are familiar with this story, given that it has been around since 1976, and has been spoofed a million times, but I’m still going to avoid spoilers as much as possible. I read this in my efforts to catch up on some classic horror that was written before I was even considered by my parents (in fact, in this case, my dad was only about 16 when the book was published). And I am glad that I finally got to it, because I loved it more than I thought I would.
I’m not entirely sure how to review this, as it has been reviewed a million times before, but as always, I will start with the characters and say that they were, for the most part, quite believable. Some were a little… caricature-esque, especially the baddies. But the most important characters, the ones we follow throughout this tale, seemed so real, and that made the terrible things that happened all the worse. So, that aspect was spectacular.
The character we spend the most time with was Jeremy, the father of the Thorne family, and an altruistic politician with his eyes on the White House. He has selfish moments, as all people do, but genuinely loves his wife and child, and does his best by them. It’s kind of funny, as I forgot that he was played by Gregory Peck in the film (and turns out that the author/screenwriter even pictured him as Jeremy), and I was basically imagining him looking like him in my head (I was also kind of picturing James Caan). Anyway. Despite mistakes that he made and things he could have handled better, I really sympathised with him.
I thought Katherine was also an interesting character. Yes, she does fall into the ‘hysterical woman’ trope at some points, but given the age of the story, I was able to distance myself from that a little. Despite that, she was again a very human character who had flaws, and wanted to do the best she could for her husband and child. And in a refreshing twist, wasn’t looked at by her husband as weak for needing to seek help with mental health.
In fact, I was somewhat surprised by how positively The Omen seemed to look upon mental health care. There were some sideways remarks here and there, mostly by the people needing the care (feeling weak or inadequate for example, which can be a feeling experienced in this situation). Overall however, barring one character, seeing a psychologist was treated like seeing any other doctor, which I appreciated greatly.
Now, I know that I included content warnings up top, but I feel it bears repeating that this book contains some very intense scenes involving animals, children, and babies. If infanticide is not something you can stomach, for example, this mightn’t be the book for you. Mental health comes first! There are also some suicide scenes that might be of concern for some. Please look after yourselves, and don’t read this if you think it will be a problem for you.
I read The Omen via Audible, and I didn’t realise until the end that the narrator, Holly Palance, who was fantastic, actually played Damien’s nanny in the film. I love the sense of ongoing community this cultivates. The Omen was a very important film in horror cinema, and seeing people who worked on it still involved with the story is heartening. And Holly just did a wonderful job anyway.
So, if you are like me and trying to catch up on some important, influential horror, then might I recommend The Omen? The Audible audiobook is a great way to consume it if you’re not sure about sitting down with a written copy, though the style of the writing didn’t seem that outdated to me regardless. As I said however, do take care of yourselves, and if there is any content in the warnings that might make this difficult, well, you know yourself and what you can handle. I bloody enjoyed The Omen (more than The Exorcist I think), and while I’m not sure if I’ll continue reading the series, I am very glad I read this one.
PS. I am writing this review on my Omen laptop (highly recommend if you’re into gaming on a computer, fyi), which I named Damien when I bought it, because it just made sense.
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Rebecka O'Malley 