This 1976 big-budget classic horror film has shades of 1973's The Exorcist, but doesn't quite match it for all-out shock value. Nevertheless, it's a fine effort from director Richard Donner, with a stand-out, distinguished cast, an increasingly ghastly, haunting and unsettling atmosphere, a good plot and some truly scary moments.
Gregory Peckturns in a strong performance as Robert Thorn, the American ambassador to Britain whose wife Lee Remick) has a stillborn child in Rome. Without her knowledge, Thorn substitutes another baby as theirs. Five years later, a series of grisly deaths occur. The child's nanny hangs herself, while a priest is speared to death in a freak accident. Could the Thorn's son Damien (a tremendous, disturbing performance by Harvey Stephens) have something to do with it all? Seemingly so. The child is actually the son of Satan and can only be killed with the seven daggers of Meggado. Nasty.
Definitely the best of The Omen films, and superior to the 2006 remake, Peck and Remick are on great form, there's strong support from Billie Whitelaw, David Warner, and Patrick Troughton, and Jerry Goldsmith's score won him an Oscar.
Highly recommended.