The dumbing down of cinema continues

By Claudia Puig, USA TODAY
The devil has a new spawn, but this one is not nearly as creepy as its progenitor.
The new Omen (* * out of four) includes a tedious Power Point presentation detailing the coming of the Anti-christ, shown by a cadre of priests to the pope. Who knew the Apocalypse could be so dull?

Yes, it may be 6/6/06, but was there a reason beyond that to remake the 30-year-old horror classic?

The new Damien (Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick), the diminutive son of Satan, is simply not scary. His predecessor (Harvey Stephens) was far more unsettling. Julia Stiles, who plays Damien's mother this time, lacks the sophistication and grace of Lee Remick. And few actors working today have Gregory Peck's distinguished gravitas. Liev Schreiber is a fine actor, but playing Damien's father is not his finest moment.

With the exception of revisions to accommodate Schreiber's age (he starts as an ambassadorial assistant, then gets promoted), a shot of the World Trade Center being attacked and the aforementioned papal seminar, the new Omen is almost a scene-by-scene re-creation of the original. (Perhaps that's because David Seltzer wrote both scripts.) Yet it lacks a critical component: the almost stately, suspenseful pacing and subtly eerie sensibility of the original.

The Omen 2006 is a much more obvious horror movie, its scare tactics more overt and gory. But these changes don't make for a more frightening movie.

When the infant son of American diplomat Robert Thorn (Schreiber) dies at birth, Thorn, worried about how his wife (Stiles) will take the news, hastily adopts a baby boy whose mother has just died. The adoption is orchestrated clandestinely through a priest in Rome, the wife kept unaware of the circumstances.

Though not exactly meant as a cautionary tale, The Omen does illustrate why background checks are important: You never know if the infant you impulsively agree to raise might be the spawn of Satan.

The family moves into a gorgeous estate in London, where ghastly events transpire. A nanny hangs herself at Damien's birthday party. Wild animals at the zoo grow frenzied at the sight of the demon seed. Mia Farrow of Rosemary's Baby fame shows up as the nanny from hell, in a nod to that creepier 1968 classic.

Things go from macabre to malevolent, but for the uninitiated, we won't indulge in spoilers. However, for those who have seen the initial Omen, it's easy to become distracted comparing dialogue and noting the rare occasional deviations. Those preoccupations take you out of the movie. And rapt involvement is critical for a horror film to get under your skin.

In the first Omen, the chilling story took some time to unfold, the unsettling nature of the story gradually building. This year's version seems to have a slight case of attention-deficit disorder, or at least impulsiveness: jumping in and almost rushing through the telling. (In theaters nationwide Tuesday. Running time: 1 hour, 45 minutes. Rating: R for disturbing violent content, graphic images and some language.)