THE OMEN
SEQUELS, PREQUELS, AND REMAKES

THE OMEN

The world of filmmaking stood up and took notice when Director William Friedkin's THE EXORCIST, based on the novel by William Peter Blatty, became such a monster smash hit. Movies of defeating the devil - without actually destroying him - were in high demand but few knew the formula. All manner of nitwit Devil movies from THE HOUSE OF EXORCISM to THE DEVIL'S RAIN and more, were released with high first weekend returns and a box office freefall the following week. A few, like THE CAR, were even decent despite themselves.

But there was a specific group of religious people who seemed to have a knack for bringing the box office in Christian musicals and movies - and they weren't Christians.

Jewish showbiz folks were creating Christian entertainment better than Christians could. From hit musicals like Jesus Christ Superstar (Movie Produced and Directed by Norman Jewison) to Godspell (Composer and lyricist, Stephen Schwartz)? Christ all mighty there seemed no end to it (but there was: Leonard Bernstein's MASS. Great Cthulhu, what an insipid piece of crap! You could find more genuine emotion back then from a Coca Cola TV ad).

But all of these stopped dead when it came to Horror. Nobody seemed to understand the secret sauce that Friedkin pulled off (adapting a NYT bestseller written by a deeply devout Catholic author who believed it all with dead seriousness).

Then three Jewish men: Writer/Producer Harvey Bernard (THE BEAST WITHIN, THE GOONIES, THE LOST BOYS), Writer David Seltzer (THE HELLSTROM CHRONICLE, PROPHECY, THE EIGHTEENTH ANGEL, REVELATIONS [TV] - plenty of Christian themes), and Director Richard Donner (SCROOGED - I know, right? Christian theme again!) were ready to give it a shot.

So in 1976, after years of theaters being awash with cheap THE EXORCIST copycats, they succeeded beyond reason with THE OMEN.

DAMIEN: OMEN II

Sequels used to be a bad thing and to this day many still are (THE PLANET OF THE APES, THE OMEN, ALIEN, GHOSTBUSTERS, JURASSIC PARK, you're probably already thinking about the titles I haven't mentioned. The history is exhaustive!).

The bean-counting business concept behind a sequel made to bring in less money is the idea that the audience goodwill toward the original will sell it, so everything about it can be cheaper. Cheap advertising because the original will promote it to the fanbase. Low development, quick turn-around sequels with cheaper writers, directors, actors, and a producer who doesn't care are all considered because if the budget is low enough then the first weekend box office will probably put the movie into profit.

It's even better if the studio owns full distribution rights and creative control of someone else's property, because the distributor controls the budget while collecting and dividing the gross: deciding who gets what and how much. That is, the major studio distributor can pay less for it and still have first cut of the box office returns: even all of it. Meaning that even if the movie isn't profitable, the major studio will be, as they can point to poor box office returns as the reason the actual filmmakers / actors / shareholders are getting nothing.

The long string of once major studios that suckered their customers with cheap, intentionally bad sequels is a look into the archives of history, as they've nearly all died out or been devoured by their competitors: RKO, UA, MGM, Columbia Pictures, New World Pictures, Miramax, 20th Century Fox, Dimension Films, and plenty of the so-called Major Minors who set fire to the goodwill of their fans with garbage.

But there's another side of that coin.

20th Century Fox, stinging after the diminishing returns of having poorly shepherded their PLANET OF THE APES franchise, decided to spend about twice the budget for the THE OMEN sequel.

They ponied up the money for Oscar and Emmy award winning actors, William Holden and Lee Grant. Composer Jerry Goldsmith, who won an Oscar for his score for THE OMEN, also returned.

Unfortunately, Producer Harvey Bernhard was of the opinion that "sequels should be toned down, not up." Since he was also the main screenwriter for the sequel, he got his way. And if the director he hired had a different view on sequels? Stop production dead and waste a fortune of that bigger budget in finding a new director who will bow to Harvey!

This is the trouble that fell over production of DAMIEN: OMEN II.

OMEN III: THE FINAL CONFLICT

Filming wrapped on this, the second sequel to 20th Century Fox's wildly successful THE OMEN, in 1979. So why was it released in 1981?

With THE OMEN they hired Richard Donner, who worked in the trenches of episodic TV for over a decade, scratching by and getting nowhere. He took command of Harvey Bernard and 20th Century Fox's big budget feature and made it a box office hit! Then, proving it was no fluke, his next project, 1977's Superman, was a box office smash! Now Donner was too busy to return for the sequel.

The suits at Fox got to thinking, 'Well, we got lucky with Richard and amazing movie directors don't grow on TV trees. Let's hire a successful feature film director like Mike Hodges (THE TERMINAL MAN)!' Mike took Fox over schedule and so, overbudget. Mike left over his expensive artistic differences and Fox, in their desperation, found Don Taylor (ESCAPE FROM THE PLANET OF THE APES, THE ISLAND OF DR. MOREAU [1977]), who promised to hurry up and deliver the movie within budget and time contraints.

DAMIEN: OMEN 2 wasn't a hit, but it didn't lose money or damage the franchise. Suits at Fox, feeling they needed to get a tighter grip on THE OMEN property, wanted a nobody director with little output: one they could control. Who they wound up with, they didn't want, but Producer Harvey Bernard, who also wrote the original story, owned the movie rights to the property while Fox only owned distribution rights, and Harvey wanted obscure nobody Graham Baker (who would go on to direct ALIEN NATION).

In 1979 the note pushing suits sat in the dark and watched the result of their ideas and... were appalled. Is this our fault? No, it must be Bernie's fault! Over the course of the next nearly two years of limbo, they chose to remove OMEN from the title and finally release it in 1981 as, THE FINAL CONFLICT.

Also, in some foreign markets, it was distributed as a sequel to ROSEMARY'S BABY.

OMEN IV: THE AWAKENING

THE OMEN

When it comes to Remakes, sometimes I think, 'Yeah, it could have been better.' Usually, however, I watch the result and think, 'What's the point?'

What was the point of Gus Van Zant's PSYCHO remake? What the hell was the point of Ridley Scott rebooting ALIEN with not one but TWO stillborn prequels? What was the freaking point of remaking THE OMEN?1

1 Now they're remaking THE OMEN again for 2024? No. They already did. It was released on April 5th of this year. It didn't get much attention but its Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.

FEO AMANTE'S HORROR THRILLER