This past Sunday was lovingly dubbed “Nunday Sunday” after a brief workshop between Adriana, Sam, Ty, and myself. Why? Well, because last Sunday we went to the theatre for a double-feature of The First Omen and Immaculate! I figured since I saw them on the same day and they’re far more similar than I expected, I might as well review them together too.
So, were either of these movies a Revelation or did they cause a mass Exodus from the theatre?
The First Omen
The first movie on Nunday Sunday was fittingly titled The First Omen. This is a prequel to The Omen (1976). Trying to think back, I don’t think I’ve ever actually seen the original movie, but I did see the remake when I was a kid (thanks Gram). It was so long ago, though that, save for the name of the kid in the original, I didn’t remember anything about it.
Thankfully, though, none of that matters. As a prequel, it doesn’t rely on you having seen the first movie for it to work. How well does it work though? Just well enough to get a positive rating from me! There were at least a couple good scares and tense moments and a little twist that added a nice wrinkle to the story.
The real standout to me though was the director, Arkasha Stevenson, and actress Nell Tiger Free, who played the main character Margaret. This was the first feature film for Stevenson, whose capable direction was good enough to take a familiar story and still make it an enjoyable experience. This movie had some style to it that I wouldn’t have expected to see from someone making their first feature film.
Free was also great, playing the various sides of Margaret perfectly. She’s asked to do some tough things in this movie, including a oner towards the end that wouldn’t have worked at all in lesser hands. Free so far in her career has mostly been in TV, but that includes projects with Nicolas Winding Refn (Drive) and M. Night Shyamalan (Unbreakable, The Sixth Sense). I hope to see more of her in the future!
If I had to fault the movie for anything, it’s that it was a tad longer than it needed to be and it covered very familiar territory. There was a clear gap between the end of the movie and the rest of it too, as they did a lot of work to tie things into the first movie. One particular line actually made me laugh out loud because it felt like it belonged in a superhero movie, not this horror movie. Anyway, it wasn’t a bad ending or anything, you could just tell this was all part of the obligatory aspects of the movie being a prequel.
Verdict
Overall, if you’re looking for some chills and scares at the movies, you can do worse than The First Omen!
Immaculate
Speaking of things worse than The First Omen, next up we’re talking about Immaculate. The first thing I want to mention was how many beats were the same in both of these movies. It was so absurd that Adriana, Sam, and I were laughing throughout this movie. I’m not really faulting either movie for this, but it was incredibly bizarre and noticeable, especially when watching them back to back.
Unfortunately, this movie suffered from the same issue as The First Omen, in that it was covering very familiar territory, but it lacked any of the redeeming qualities that The First Omen had. The movie just fell flat at nearly every point. The scenes designed to build tension were so poorly put together and all ended very predictably. Narratively, the movie was pretty boring and uninteresting too.
Funnily enough, where I think The First Omen could’ve shaved a few minutes off, I think this movie might have benefitted from a bit more of a build. I won’t spoil what happens (though you can glean part of it from the title of the movie), but I actually felt like this revelation happened much too early in the movie. It could have done a better job of creating a more sinister vibe or even adding a few more horror elements. Once this reveal happens, the movie shifts focus a bit and doesn’t do much in the scare or tension departments. With that said, though, nothing I saw really suggested that they would’ve done much good with more sequences, so I’m happy they stuck with the 89 minute runtime.
If you didn’t know, Sydney Sweeney stars as Sister Cecilia (she also produced the movie) and nothing I saw here really changed me feelings on Sweeney as an actress. I haven’t seen all of her work, but in the things I have seen, I’ve always felt she was fine. Both the movie and her performance take a sharp turn in the third act of the movie. It was definitely weird and kind of funny, in a morbid horror movie sort of way, but I thought everything near the end was done much better at the end of The First Omen, including the performances from our main nuns.
Verdict
I think you can skip this one. It might be more enjoyable if you don’t watch many horror movies, and the ending was enough to shock some of the younger viewers in my theatre, but it didn’t do anything to excite this seasoned horror veteran.
Adriana Wiszniewska