In The Omen, Damien, the son of the devil, wreaks havoc on Robert and Katherine Thorn, the unlucky terrene vessels the Prince of Darkness chose to unleash his beastly child into our world.  It was the first movie to scare the bezeejus out of me when, as a wee six-year old, I saw it on broadcast TV, peeking in and out of my deep blue binky. 

I’m not sure what scared me more, the Oedipal family drama (not coincidentally the source from which most great horror movies are derived) or that whole “son of the devil is maxin’ and relaxin’ in our world” stuff.  Whichever it was, I spent about a week to see if I had the mark of the devil tattooed on my head (that Mami and Papi Hong Kong even allowed me to watch The Omen, Carrie, The Exorcist, Amityville Horror, or any of those late-70’s, early 80’s horror movies is beyond me…). 

It is only out of an allegiance to the OG movie that scared the crap out of me that I want to see the remake which hits theaters today on 6/6/06 (New Line Cinema, the heavyweight champion of movie marketing, couldn’t have planned it better).  Yeah, yeah, it’s going to be horrible but on its face, it looks brilliantly cast, right?  With chilly Julia Stiles in the Lee Remick part and diplomaty Liev Schrieber in the Gregory Peck role, come on, it’s Miller Time, right? 

Sadly, the last time I saw the original - about 2 years ago - it failed to register a scare.  I will admit that at the end of the movie when Gregory Peck is fighting through the mental anguish of having to stab “his” son, I did exclaim, “stab that devil kid, stab the hell out of him, kill that bastard ass son of a bitch!” an involuntary, Tourette’s like response to that exact moment of the movie ever since I was wee and hiding inside that blue binky.

On a related note, does anyone find it strange that it’s 6/6/06 and also the date of primary elections in a handful of states?  Doesn’t Damien run for president or something in The Omen III: The Final Conflict?  Hmmm…

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