Faith as an institution has historically been founded upon the goodwill of bringing people together, but in the wrong hands, like every other medium, it can be wielded as a terrible weapon to doom humankind. Arkasha Stevenson’s The First Omen, a prequel to the original The Omen (1976), focuses on the malevolent potential of faith when it is controlled by peddlers of religion. As the movie acts as a period piece to showcase a transition in contemporary Western generational consciousness, the horror aspects of the narrative get an anchor to establish themselves in a meaningful way.
David Seltzer’s horror classic The Omen gained much success through the sensational choice of portraying a child as the central evil entity and also by delineating the dispensationalist belief system, which had started making an impact on the cultural zeitgeist of the Western world during the 1970s. The first movie’s success was not replicated by the plethora of spin-offs it spawned, as this sociopolitical connection was lost in them. As a prequel, The First Omen is set during the 1970s to trace the elements that made the first movie click well with the audience, but despite a solid performance from the cast, the movie fails to pack as punch a strong, probably due to how much the showbiz has been dominated by similar movies in recent years. However, the movie opens up a way for restarting The Omen franchise in a new direction, fulfilling the key objectives of the makers.
Spoilers Ahead
What Did Father Brennan Warn Margaret About?
As the movie begins, the religious motif is addressed at once through choric songs, tolling bells playing in the background as we see a young Father Brennan (an older version of whom appears in the first movie) hearing the confession of a veteran priest, Father Harris, who mentions an ominous childbirth he had witnessed. According to Harris’ account, a volunteer was chosen to be impregnated by the biblical ‘Beast,’ the Fallen One, which resulted in the birth of a girl child named Scianna. Harris gives Brennan a picture of the child, accompanied by other priests (Spiletto from the first movie is one of them) and nuns, and describes the child, who has possibly grown up to be a teenager now, as the harbinger of evil. A guilt-ridden Father Harris avoids explaining further as the horrifying memories of the past continue to torment him, and all of a sudden, he meets a vicious accident in the churchyard that mutilates part of his head, as if in a form of divine punishment. Harris’ meaningful wince as a reaction carries a vile foreboding, which sets up the tone for the rest of the movie.
The scene shifts to Rome in 1971, as we see Cardinal Lawrence welcoming Margaret Daimo, an American novitiate who will be taking the veil as a sister in the all-girl Vizzardeli orphanage the Cardinal runs. As an orphan herself, Margaret grew up in missionary orphanages and had a troubled childhood, as she often found herself plagued by troubling visions. Due to this, Margaret had been unfairly disciplined for a certain time, until a visiting Cardinal Lawrence showed her kindness, allowing her to overcome the childhood trauma and fear. At Vizzardeli orphanage, Margaret meets the abbess Sister Silva, and as she shows Margaret around the orphanage premises, they come across a strange-behaving Sister Angelica. Later, as Silva leaves for a moment, Margaret meets a teenage orphan girl, Carlita, who is seemingly isolated from the rest of the kids. Margaret is impressed by the unique (borderline creepy) imagination Carlita’s drawings capture and wants to befriend her, but the girl appears to be hostile and awkward. Margaret is shocked to learn that Carlita gets confined to a solitary room as a form of punishment for her demeanor.
Returning to her quarters, Margaret finds herself momentarily haunted by childhood trauma before meeting with her roommate and fellow novitiate, Luz. Margaret quickly befriends an outgoing, flamboyant Luz, perhaps because her own cloistered upbringing has never allowed her to have a taste of life outside the shackles of missionary orphanages. Before taking the veil and becoming a sister, Luz wants to live the last days of her freedom in the best way possible, and she tries to instill the same spirit in Margaret as well. Luz takes Margaret to a nightclub, where, after a bout of drinking and dancing, Margaret gets intimate with a certain Paolo. The next day, Margaret finds herself back in her quarters, where Luz carried her after she passed out previously. At the orphanage, Margaret tries to befriend Carlita as she sympathizes with her due to having a common experience as a troubled child herself, and eventually learns that Carlita is often haunted by ominous visions as well. However, Margaret herself seemingly hasn’t recovered from her past experiences, as while witnessing childbirth, she starts hallucinating demonic influences, and once again, she passes out.
During city sightseeing, Margaret is visited by Father Brennan, who warns her about Scianna Carlita, mentioning her presence will result in evil occurrences around the orphanage. He also mentions that he knows that she is an outsider and instructs her not to believe anyone at the orphanage. Brennan provides his address to Margaret and asks her to visit to learn the whole story.
Did Margaret Find Carlita’s Birth Records?
Later, Margaret observes Sister Angelica acting strangely around Carlita and gets taken aback after seeing a sketch the duo has made. As she expresses her annoyance, Angelica displays even stranger behavior and leaves the place. Margaret tries to associate Carlita with the rest of the children, and while doing so, they get abruptly interrupted moments later by a horrendous sight. Sister Angelica immolates and hangs herself from atop the orphanage building after uttering that it’s all for ‘her’—and the scene is a near-exact recreation of Damien’s first nanny’s suicide in The Omen (1976). The incident shakes Margaret to her core, and she decides to go to Father Brennan to seek answers.
Brennan states that he was formerly a member of the orphanage before getting excommunicated after learning something terrible. He informs her that the orphanage is part of an all-powerful secret sect of the Roman Catholic Church, which has historically maintained the power of faith through abhorrent, blasphemous means for thousands of years. In an age where scientific advancements, the post-World War II crisis, and the overall geopolitical situation have turned a new generation away from faith, the secret sect is afraid of losing power over the masses and religion fading into obscurity. Which is why they have been engaged in despicable arrangements to ensure the birth of the Antichrist by impregnating women with Satan, manifested as a demonic jackal-like beast on the mortal plane. The prophesied Antichrist is said to be a male child, which the sect believes will take birth if Satan mates with one of its offspring, whom the sect has tried to breed through malevolent means. The sect aims to induce just enough fear and darkness through the Antichrist so that the church once again regains its dominance over the minds of people. Brennan believes Scianna Carlita is the only surviving child of Satan, and in due time, the sect will use her to bear the Antichrist, who will bring hell upon earth. Margaret shrugs off Brennan’s concerns by terming him a lunatic, and she prepares to leave. However, before she departs, Brennan asks her to verify his words on her own by seeking out Carlita’s birth records, which are stashed away in the basement of the orphanage, and looking for the mark of the evil, ‘666,’ inscribed somewhere on her body.
Margaret doesn’t believe in Brennan’s claims but still seems curious to learn about Carlita’s birth history, and she asks the only person in the orphanage she somewhat trusts, Father Gabriel. Failing to find any information from him, Margaret questions Carlita, who momentarily gets dejected after Margaret implies her experiences of ominous visions as tricks of the mind. Margaret’s attempts to learn more about Carlita are frowned upon by Silva and the other sisters of the orphanage. During a riot, when Margaret gets caught up in the crowd, she experiences vivid hallucinations of getting assaulted by demonic entities, which are witnessed by Sister Silva, and she starts questioning Margaret’s state of mind. Silva later summons Margaret to let her know that the authorities have decided to delay her pledging ceremony as she hasn’t recovered mentally and asks her to keep her distance from Carlita. An anguished Margaret lashes out and blames the authorities for Carlita’s predicament as a troubled child. Later, Margaret spots Paolo on the streets and finds it offensive to see him avoiding her, getting scared at her sight. Margaret pursues him, and Paolo cryptically asks her to seek the mark, before getting involved in a gnarly car accident. In an effort to save him, Margaret accidentally severs his body in two and gets horrified at the sight as Paolo breathes his last.
During Luz’s pledge ceremony, Margaret sneaks off and finds an entry to the orphanage basement through a secret door in Silva’s office. Margaret finds out about fourteen files on girls named Scianna, each of whom was bred as Satan’s offspring, and almost all of them perished as grotesque, disfigured abominations. One of them survived, whom the orphanage reared up, and a terrified Margaret decides to take the information back to Brennan. However, she gets caught by Silva and the rest of the veteran sisters, who drag her away to solitary confinement. Before getting locked up, Margaret notices the ‘666’ mark inside Carlita’s mouth, which confirms Brennan’s suspicion.
Did Margaret Stop The Antichrist’s Birth?
In captivity, Margaret sees horrifying visions of a burned-up Sister Angelica, and later, Father Gabriel rescues her from confinement. As Gabriel takes the files along with him and takes Margaret to Brennan, he reveals that he was formerly informed by Brennan about the situation, but like Margaret herself, he too disbelieved his words.
Upon reaching Brennan’s quarters, the trio starts looking into the files, and Margaret pleads with Brennan to help Carlita. He states that their only way forward has to be to expose the sect and bring their crimes to light, as any attempt to rescue Carlita will inevitably result in their capture. A disappointed Margaret continues to look into the files for a possible means to help Carlita and notices that Brennan’s picture of the baby shows the ominous mark of evil on the head, which is not where Carlita’s mark appeared. The surviving child’s picture in the files doesn’t match Brennan’s picture as well, which signifies that there was another surviving child of Satan. Margaret’s suspicion is confirmed as Scianna 5 turns out to be another survivor, and it turns out Brennan’s picture was taken from her file. A terrible revelation hits Margaret as Paolo’s last words come to her mind, and she realizes that it is she who is another survivor. In a flash, Margaret sees a hidden memory where she was forced into getting impregnated by the demonic beast, and the incident was witnessed by Paolo, who was a member of the sect as well. Carlita was a failsafe for the orphanage, while the true victim was Margaret herself all along, who was groomed to become the mother of the Antichrist.
Brennan confirms Margaret’s suspicion by identifying the mark on her head, and upon her request, he offers to abort whatever might be still inside her womb. As Brennan, Gabriel, and Margaret are driven to a doctor, their car meets a ghastly accident, and Margaret comes out unscathed. Like a possessed woman, she starts viciously convulsing like an animal; within a moment’s notice, Margaret’s womb inflates, and her water breaks. The physical and mental stress causes Margaret to lose her consciousness, and upon waking up, she finds all the members of the orphanage, including Silva, Cardinal Lawrence, and Luz, surrounding her in a subterranean catacomb. Lawrence reassures Margaret, stating that she is doing the Lord’s work and that he has protected her all through her life for this moment. A hapless Margaret pleads for help, but her cries go unnoticed as she is operated on while being strapped to a pedestal. The sect members wait in anticipation as Margaret gives birth to a girl and the prophesied Antichrist, a boy child. As the birth of evil is celebrated, Margaret prepares for a last-ditch attempt to undo their vile machination as she stabs Lawrence to death and nearly stabs her son as well. However, Margaret fails to do so, prompting Silva to snatch the boy off of her and Luz to stab Margaret. The orphanage members leave the catacombs, leaving Margaret and her girl child behind, and set the place on fire to destroy all the evidence. However, Carlita, who witnessed the events unfold secretly, arrives at the last moment to rescue Margaret and the girl child and take them outside to safety. Luz and Silva are entrusted to carry the child to the United States ambassador in Rome, Robert Thorne, and orchestrate the death of his newborn to ensure the adoption of the Antichrist by his family. The boy is destined to use the power and privilege of the family to spread darkness all over the world—as we know, this begins to take place during the events of The Omen (1976).
During The First Omen‘s ending, Margaret, her daughter, and Carlita are revealed to be living in a secluded establishment in the wilderness, and they have moved on from the horrors of the past. Father Brennan makes a visit to inform Margaret that the sect has learned about their survival, and they will try to hunt them down as Margaret’s daughter might play an integral role in stopping the havoc the Antichrist will wreak in the near future. Brennan mentions that the Antichrist, Margaret’s son, is known as Damien, establishing the connection to the events of the Omen movie franchise. However, the survival of Margaret and her daughter turned out to be a retcon in the original series, where no mention of their existence was made. This opens up the possibility of a continuation of the franchise in a different direction, as we might find the duo in a conflict with Damien, creating an alternate future from what the main series showcased.
