RIFLE RANGE BOY: At 6am, 6th June!

The First Omen (2024)
Director: Arkasha Robertson

Recently, I heard about a mysterious case of a missing teenager in Rome, Italy. She was 16 in 1983 when she was allegedly abducted. Her father was an administrative staff member in Vatican City. 40 years into her disappearance, the Italian Police never found her. Along the way, there were allegations of abduction by international terrorists, murder by serial killers and many more. Pope John Paul II was also heard to have appealed to the perpetrators to no avail. The Holy See was not spared of accusations. Conspiracy Theorists accused a convoluted union of the mob and the Papacy, a collusion between the Italian Police and the Vatican, as well as the possibility of an unmarked grave in the Vatican.

It is not the best of times for the Roman Catholic Church (RCC). At a time when many from the developed world had strayed away from Catholicism, stories of deviance and malfeasance spread quickly like wildflowers.

This movie is set at a time when the RCC was losing its fervour. In 1971, a young nun-in-making, Margaret Daino, arrives in Rome to work in an orphanage. Margaret observes many strange things happening in the place. Many odd characters, such as senior clergy, use unconventional methods to run the institution. Margaret herself had a checkered past as a young American, moving from foster homes to foster homes and having visual hallucinations.

Margaret discovers that certain clergy members tried to reignite people's attraction to Christianity. How they chose to do it was twisted. They invoked Satan to be born as an anti-Christ here on Earth to create mayhem so that people would once again go to the Church and God for help. Little does Margaret know she was the vessel to bear this devilish child.

The movie is actually the prequel to the 1976 blockbuster The Omen, which told the story of the US Ambassador's wife who delivered a stillbirth. A baby boy was swapped in the place of the stillbirth without the knowledge of the mother. The swapped baby turned out to be the anti-Christ. The child, Damian, went on a killing spree, killing his parents, abetted by his disguised nanny.

In terms of horror and suspense, the 1976 version is far superior to the latest offering from the Omen franchise. Despite what IMDB may say about 'The Omen' being banned in Malaysia, I distinctly remember seeing its posters around Penang in my teenage years.