Omen 666

(2006) ***

What's with this Liev Schreiber guy?  Are women actually attracted to him or do they find him as creepy as I do?    



If you haven't seen the original Omen then you're either a) Amish, b) under six years of age or c) weird and smelly.   But here's the plot summary anyway:

To spare his wife from learning that their baby was stillborn, Robert Thorn accepts a Catholic priest's offer to raise another newborn child as his own.   This arrangement solves two problems as poor Damien's real mother passed away during childbirth.   Flash-forward five years:  Damien grows up to be a relatively normal, albeit homely little boy, while Robert is promoted to ambassador of England.  But after the bizarre suicide of Damien's nanny, the evidence starts pointing towards the possibility that sweet little Damien is in fact, the antichrist.   Will they discover the truth in time to stop the apocalypse? 


I don't like it when I have nothing to complain about so that might be a good starting point for my complaints.   In many ways, this film could be considered the perfect remake.  Each scene is faithfully reconstructed with an uncanny attention to detail.  The death sequences are vastly improved (save the chilling hanging nanny bit, I prefer the original) and some of the duller scenes were omitted or else slightly tweaked to pick up the pace.    All of this was accomplished without sacrificing any of the tension or atmosphere that defined the 1976 masterpiece.  If I had never seen the original, it's quite possible that I would be literally singing Omen 666's praises.   Compared to the blasphemy of the Wicker Man remake or the shot-for-shot Psycho disaster, 666 is more than adequate.  But seriously, why bother?     Because no major changes were made, the inevitable question "what the hell is the point of this?" is never properly answered.