The Omen Legacy (2001 TV Movie) User Reviews

An interesting and informative documentary on the "Omen" films

[Woodyanders · 8/10 · 25 September 2009]

This snappy and thorough documentary offers a comprehensive and illuminating take on the "Omen" movies. The first film was not only inspired by a chapter in "The Book of Revelations," but also was made to capitalize on the success of "Rosemary's Baby" and "The Exorcist." The original more fantastic script had to be rewritten to make the movie more believable and realistic. Moreover, the film was dropped by Warner Brothers and then picked up by 20th Century Fox instead. Charlton Heston, Roy Scheider and William Holden all turned down the lead role; Gregory Peck eventually agreed to play the starring part. Several strange coincidences occurred during the making of the picture, thus creating the popular urban myth of an "Omen" curse. Thanks to a brilliant (and expensive) marketing campaign, "The Omen" was a huge hit. Of course, there was a sequel. "Damien: Omen II" had its fair share of production problems: Director Mike Hodges was replaced by Don Taylor early in the shoot, the crew was stricken with influenza, and Lew Ayres' death by drowning in an icy river proved to be a very hard sequence to film. The death scenes were made more gory as well. The sequel wasn't the smash success the first one was, but did well enough to beget a third installment. A then unknown Sam Neill was cast as the adult Damien Thorn; James Mason paid for his airline fare so he could fly to America for his audition. The sequence involving a monk who catches on fire proved to be very difficult to shoot. There was also a love story added to the usual assortment of grisly deaths. Alas, "The Final Conflict" turned out to be a box office flop. It wasn't until the early 90's that a belated made-for-TV sequel was made. Once again, the original director had to be replaced by another director early in the shoot. The anti-Christ was made a girl instead of a boy. Character actor Michael Lerner loved his character's death scene in which he gets pulped by a wrecking ball. The TV movie received lackluster ratings when it aired. A spin-off TV show never made it past the pilot. But the original films still retain their appeal thanks to their classic good vs. evil stories (surprisingly, the church avidly supported the first and third "Omen" features!). Among the folks interviewed in this documentary are producer Harvey Bernhard, writer David Seltzer, religious adviser Robert Munger, director Richard Donner, actresses Faye Grant, Lee Grant, and Lisa Harrow, and actors David Warner, Martin Benson, and Lance Henrikson (the latter sports a really funky earring!). Jack Palance handles the narrator duties with perfectly sinister aplomb. Essential viewing for "Omen" fans.

Beware the ... Omen(s)

[kosmasp · 7/10 · 19 September 2021]

The Omen still can be considered one of the best and scariest horror movies ever made. Even if Richard Donner himself was seeing it more as a detective story (and there is some truth to that), the movie worked as a horror movie and having a kid in the dead centre of it ... scary to say the least.

This also depicts and talks about the sequels. Quite honestly at some places, it does know what it owes to the very first one. This was made way before the sequel was greenlit and made and there was no TV show either. But it had the 4 movies to talk about (again the first one has the bulk and the most interesting things to tell) and a tv project that fell to pieces. A tv show that Richard Donner gave his name for, but as he states here had nothing to do with ... and was anything but pleased by. It also does not seem to be connected to the Omen movies - apart from sharing the title.

I almost want to seek that failed pilot show ... it seems intriguing - even/despite or maybe even because it has nothing to do with the Omen movies ... anyway interesting documentary, much has been discussed in commentaries of the individual movies, but if you have not heard them yet, this can be quite eye opening.